Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Twenty-One Steps will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of respect and empathy, this Twenty-One Steps picture book by Jeff Gottesfeld is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Twenty-One Steps Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Twenty-One Steps. You can find it in the section below.
- 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 book companion to make lesson planning simple with Twenty-One Steps reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
TWENTY-ONE STEPS SUMMARY
This story pays homage to the unknown soldiers and the important duty of the Tomb Guards. In this book, students will learn about the history of unknown soldiers through the perspective of one narrating. We learn that the unknown soldiers travel to the Capitol, where mourners gather to honor and respect the fallen.
Students will learn the history of The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was made in 1921. From there, people were not showing respect to the location. Tomb Guards began to protect the tomb, in which protection is around the clock, no matter the weather. These guards are of various genders, race, and religions, but what unites them is that they are Americans whose standard is perfection.
TWENTY-ONE STEPS LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ 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 Twenty-One Steps, 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 Twenty-One Steps reading comprehension questions focus on:
- summarizing/retelling
- analyzing character
- authors purpose
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- respect
- empathy
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- action verbs
- proper nouns
- pronouns
TWENTY-ONE STEPS ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive 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
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Twenty-One Steps?
- Lexile® Measure: N/A
- Guided Reading Level: N/A
- DRA Level: N/A
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): N/A
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Jeff Gottesfeld. It was illustrated by Matt Tavares.
What genre is Twenty-One Steps?
It is a nonfiction 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.
