Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Wish Tree will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book.
With themes of perseverance and kindness, this The Wish Tree picture book by Kyo Maclear is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will quickly become one of your favorite children’s books about winter too!
Engage Your Students with The Wish Tree Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Wish Tree.
- 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 The Wish Tree reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE WISH TREE SUMMARY
Charles desperately wants to find himself a wish tree. Although his sister and brother doubt him, he takes off on his quest with his trusted sled, Boggan.
Together, Charles and Boggan meet a variety of critters, explore new surroundings, and eventually learn that wishes can come true in special ways.
Together with illustrations, the text has a poetic feel that will instantly hook children.
THE WISH TREE 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 The Wish Tree, 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 Wish Tree reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- sequencing
- author’s purpose
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- perseverance
- kindness
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- multiple meaning words
- ellipses
- past tense verbs
THE WISH TREE 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 The Wish Tree?
- Lexile® Measure: AD480L
- Guided Reading Level: M – N
- DRA Level: 20 – 24
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.6 – 2.7
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Kyo Maclear. It was illustrated by Chris Turnham.
What genre is The Wish Tree?
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 40 pages long.
