Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Wild Christmas Reindeer will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have what you need to deliver a highly engaging, standards-based interactive read aloud lesson.
With a theme of patience, this The Wild Christmas Reindeer picture book by Jan Brett is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will quickly become one of your and your students’ favorite Christmas read alouds.
Engage Your Students with The Wild Christmas Reindeer Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Wild Christmas Reindeer.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download The Wild Christmas Reindeer book companion to make lesson planning simple with The Wild Christmas Reindeer reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
The Wild Christmas Reindeer Summary
Christmas Eve is approaching and Santa has asked Teeka to help prepare the reindeer. It is an important job and Teeka has never done it before, she wants everything to be perfect. Teeka decides she must be strong and firm when working with the reindeer.
When Teeka found the reindeer, she began shouting at them to guide them back to the barn. The reindeer were startled by her loud voice. In the barn, Teeka put the reindeer in different stalls than they were used to, causing many of them to feel stressed. She brushed them for too long and pushed too hard.
The next day, Teeka struggled to get the reindeer in their harness. She scolded the reindeer causing them to run off. When she first tried to have them pull the sleigh, the reindeer got tangled up and crashed into one another. The ended up in a pile all locked together. It was in this moment Teeka realized she had been doing everything wrong. She promised them tomorrow would be different, there would be no more yelling.
The next day, Teeka directly the reindeer softly. She was able to get them harnessed and lined up without problems. They practiced pulling the sleigh for a long time and were successful.
This heartwarming Christmas story teaches students the importance of teamwork and patience.
Book Information for Elementary Teachers
What are the reading levels for The Wild Christmas Reindeer?
- Lexile® Measure: AD740L
- Guided Reading Level: Q – R
- DRA Level: 38 – 40
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 4.3 – 4.5
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written and illustrated by Jan Brett.
What genre is The Wild Christmas Reindeer?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 32 pages long.
The Wild Christmas Reindeer Lesson Plan Ideas
Each of our 600+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for The Wild Christmas Reindeer, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
Reading Comprehension Questions
The text-based The Wild Christmas Reindeer reading comprehension questions focus on:
- visualizing
- analyzing character
- plot | problem – solution
- cause and effect
- identifying theme | message | moral
Literature-Based Social Emotional Learning Lessons
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- patience
Grammar, Vocabulary & Word Study
- proper nouns
- plural nouns
- base words
- compound words
Get The Wild Christmas Reindeer Activities
The Wild Christmas Reindeer Book Companion includes all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
One Last Thing Before You Go… Grab this Free Reading Resource!
If you want to get more book ideas to read aloud to your elementary students, then grab this reading freebie for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom teachers. It includes:
- seasonal read aloud books lists for teachers
- printable reading logs to track students’ reading
- monthly reading challenges to motivate students to read more
It will have you covered for the entire school year, as well as the summer months! Grab this free elementary reading packet now!
