Happy Fall Ya’ll! What are you doing this fall to be ready for winter? In Kristen Hall’s book, “Busy Chipmunk”, she uses delightful rhymes to tell of a very busy chipmunk’s preparations. Cary Phillips’ illustrations are in wonderful warm tones to get you in the fall mood. Since it’s one of my favorite fall books, I will reintroduce the activities that I created to accompany this fun book from the “My First Hello Reader” series.

Lesson Idea

Additionally, the “Busy Chipmunk” text is so inviting, you and you’re kiddos will have the book memorized in no time at all. Due to the text being repetitive and predictive, it will be a great entry for a Poems/Songs Folder/Book.

Here’s an idea for a Literacy Station or it could be completed in a whole group. I usually made this activity one of my Literacy Stations.

Poems/Songs Folder for the “Busy Chipmunk”
Supplies: Folder with 3 brads, Composition Book, or Regular side 70 page notebook
Prep: type poem/song, if possible, 4 to a page.
Kiddos Task: glue poem/song in folder/book and illustrate to describe the poem/song.
Benefit: Great source for reading practice without kiddos realizing they’re practicing! 🙂 Part of the fun for me was watching the kiddos, as poems/songs are added, the kiddos enjoy reread previous entries with confidence.

“Busy Chipmunk” Text in Poem Format

Other Activities in the Product

First in the product, you’ll find Vocabulary Words and Story Cards to retell the story. Secondly, 6 or 12 themed words for ABC Order in various styles. Next, 6 or 12 themed words in Word Search puzzles in various styles. The activities have either color or gray scale clipart. There are “Self-Check” cards for when you can’t think of grading another thing. Then, you will discover Sentence Completion with Rhyming Words to retell the story.

Lastly, you’ll find the Writing Prompt choices. There are two main designs in color and gray scale. Also, there are choices of blank areas for drawing (then the kiddos can dictate to you what they would store away in their mouth) or a variety of writing lines options.

Which bring you to the promised FREE BUSY CHIPMUNK item. Just “Right Click” on the pics and “Copy or Save”. It makes a great ELA Bulletin Board/Writing Workshop Product Board, so I included a title page for you.

It would be great… no I would be over the moon, if you would return and share your Busy Chipmunk writings or drawings in the comments or email me. I would love to see them. My kiddos got a kick out of calling each other, “Busy Derrick”, Busy Sarah”, “Busy Emily”, etc…

For the complete product, check out Etsy or TeachersPayTeachers.

Until next time, happy storing,

Busy Sheryl,