When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie L. B. Deenihan is the perfect read aloud for May! Nothing screams summer quite like lemons and lemonade, am I right?
As we’re winding down the school year, these When Grandma Gives you a Lemon Tree activities are the perfect way to keep your kindergarten kiddos engaged… even when things starts going end of the year crazy!
And no worries, Teacher friends! I’ve got some pretty great FREEBIES for you as well!
When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree Activities
I chose this book for Little Readers Kindergarten May because it covers so many comprehension skills that require higher-order thinking.
You can use these When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree activities to work on identifying character feelings and how they change.
I absolutely love this book for this skill because students really have to look at the pictures to understand how the main character is feeling.
In fact, the words often contradict the feelings we see! Students will have to be detectives and remember that the illustrator often works closely with the author to help us better understand the story.
These free feelings and emotions cards would be a great companion to this lesson!
Inferring
When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree was made for inferring activities! There is SO much detail jam-packed into the pictures of this book that it makes it the perfect story for this skill.
There are a few different scenes that would work for this skill, but the best one is the last third of the book.
After they make lemonade, the girl adds something to her wishlist. The author never tells us what that item was. In fact, we don’t even see it written on the list.
BUT, students can infer what the girl added to her wishlist based on what she buys with her lemonade stand money! [No spoilers here!]
How To Make Lemonade Activities
Of course, can you read When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree without talking about making lemonade? I think not!
In the May Kindergarten reading unit, I’ve included an original nonfiction book all about how to make lemonade.
After you read, students will sequence the steps for making lemonade. This would also be a great opportunity for interactive writing in Kindergarten!
Then, students will write their own steps for how to make lemonade. This is a great procedural writing opportunity!
I’ve also included an option for students to have to sequence the steps for how to make lemonade before writing.
Of course, when writing about how to make lemonade, you have to make a lemonade craft to go with it, right?
I mean, it doesn’t get much cuter than that! Of course, if crafts aren’t really you’re jam, I’ve also included directions for a lemon tree directed drawing.
Personally, I do both with my class! I love art projects like this to work on listening, following directions, and fine motor skills.
Lemonade Poem for Shared Reading
You can have a week full of When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree activities without a lemonade poem for shared reading!
Reading this poem every day is a great way to promote rhyme and rhythm while building fluency.
We will read it every day as a class. Students will also get their own copy to keep in their poetry folders.
The emergent reader version of the poem will go in students’ book boxes. They can read them during independent or partner reading time.
FREE Lemonade Emergent Readers for Kindergarten
These free How to Make Lemonade emergent readers go right along with the When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree activities.
There are two different options included. First, there is just a regular emergent reader.
If you are do a How To writing unit in Kindergarten, this would be a great example for students to keep in their book boxes.
I have included a color and black and white version for easy printing. There is also a digital version included for distance learning!
The second version is a vocabulary reader:
This book focuses on the vocabulary words from Little Readers Kindergarten May.
Students will use context clues to fill in the missing vocabulary words in the sentences.
This would be perfect for the end of the week!
You can grab both of these How To Make Lemonade emergent readers at the bottom of this blog post.
If you are looking for an entire unit to engage your students in the book When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree, look no further than Little Readers Kindergarten May! This curriculum can be used alone or as a supplement to your current reading curriculum.
It’s teacher-developed, developmentally appropriate, and kid-approved so you know that your students are getting what they need!
Find the May reading unit here.
