Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Use How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.

Students will feel like they stepped inside their own cowboy gear as they travel out west with Wallace. Wallace, while on his way to visit his Aunt Fern, is captured by cowboys! Students will engage in activities that provide experiences with asking questions, visualizing, and determining importance. Wallace and his wild imagination make understanding text structure and synthesizing as fun as the cowboy tricks he learns on his adventure.

Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with How I Spent My Summer Vacation in the drop down below.

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Asking Questions with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Because of Wallace's wild imagination, students will naturally have plenty of questions about his cowboy summer vacation. Readers will use both the text and illustrations to ask and answer questions in order to gain a deeper understanding of this tall tale.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
RL.1.1,RL.1.10,RF.1.1,RF.1.2,SL.1.1b,SL.1.2,SL.1.3,W.1.5,W.1.8,L.1.6
TEKS Alignment
1.7D,1.13E,1.13D,1.13A,1.10E,1.8C,1.8B,1.7F,1.7E,1.1A,1.7C,1.7B,1.6I,1.6E,1.6B,1.6A,1.1D,1.1C
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Determining Importance with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Mark Teague's simple story is an ideal anchor text for a mini lesson focused on determining importance. Use this lesson plan and set of student resources to help readers identify the most important characters, settings, and events in the story.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
RL.1.1,RL.1.2,RL.1.10,RF.1.1,RF.1.2,SL.1.1b,SL.1.2,SL.1.3,W.1.5,W.1.8,L.1.6
TEKS Alignment
1.7E,1.13E,1.13D,1.10E,1.10A,1.9C,1.8C,1.8B,1.8A,1.7F,1.1A,1.7D,1.7C,1.7B,1.6I,1.6G,1.6E,1.6A,1.1D,1.1C
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Synthesizing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Synthesizing is an important higher level thinking skill that takes lots of practice. Use this mini lesson to model how readers can track the way a character changes over the course of a story. Students will determine whether Wallace's character changes as a result of the events he encounters on his wrangling journey.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
RL.1.1,RL.1.2,RL.1.3,RL.1.4,RL.1.6,RL.1.7,RL.1.9,RL.1.10,RF.1.1,RF.1.2,SL.1.1b,SL.1.2,SL.1.3,W.1.5,W.1.8,L.1.6
TEKS Alignment
1.7B,1.13E,1.13D,1.9C,1.8C,1.8B,1.8A,1.7F,1.7E,1.7D,1.7C,1.1A,1.7A,1.6I,1.6H,1.6G,1.6F,1.6E,1.6B,1.6A,1.1D,1.1C
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Understanding Text Structure with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This understanding text structure mini lesson and resource set introduces students to a variety of different text structures including description, sequencing, cause and effect, and problem and solution.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
RL.1.1,RL.1.6,RL.1.7,RL.1.10,RF.1.1,RF.1.2,SL.1.1b,SL.1.2,SL.1.3,SL.1.5,W.1.5,W.1.8,L.1.6
TEKS Alignment
1.7E,1.13E,1.13D,1.10E,1.10D,1.10C,1.10B,1.9C,1.8C,1.8B,1.8A,1.7F,1.1A,1.7D,1.7C,1.7B,1.6I,1.6G,1.6E,1.6D,1.6A,1.1D,1.1C
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Visualizing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Author and Illustrator, Mark Teague makes teaching the strategy of visualizing fun and exciting. Through his well thought out word choices and colorful, detailed pictures, students will enjoy making mental pictures in their mind, while extending their knowledge of both the strategy and story!
Common Core State Standards Alignment
RL.1.3,RL.1.4,RL.1.7,RL.1.10,RF.1.1,RF.1.2,SL.1.1b,SL.1.2,SL.1.3,SL.1.5,W.1.5,W.1.8,L.1.6
TEKS Alignment
1.7E,1.13E,1.13D,1.10E,1.10D,1.10C,1.9C,1.8D,1.8B,1.7F,1.1A,1.7D,1.7C,1.7B,1.6I,1.6E,1.6D,1.6A,1.1C
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Suffixes with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This word work lesson plan and set of teaching resources use How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague as a springboard for instruction focused on suffixes.

By anchoring word study to the text, students will benefit from seeing how words ending in -ly are used inside of the text before engaging in both guided and independent practice with suffixes.

Common Core State Standards Alignment
RF.1.3,RF.1.4
TEKS Alignment
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Vocabulary Connections with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This set of vocabulary development resources for How I Spent My Summer Vacation highlights the words that are most important for students to know and understand while reading the book. Through engaging in fun word games, matching words to definitions and pictures, and practicing how to categorize words, students will develop the vocabulary necessary to comprehend this story and many others.

Common Core State Standards Alignment
L.1.4a,L.1.5c,L.1.6
TEKS Alignment
1.7F,1.3A,1.3B,1.3C,1.3D
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Comprehension Assessment with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Use this Common Core aligned comprehension assessment to evaluate students' comprehension of How I Spent My Summer Vacation.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment
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Running Record with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Track meaning, structure, and visual accuracy using the first 100 words of the text to determine whether or not this book is a good fit for the readers in your classroom.

Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment
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Writing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

The BookPagez extension activities are a great way to push student engagement beyond the pages of the text. Try using this activity with early finishers, with students who show a deeper connection with the text, or as a center activity.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment
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Cause and Effect Matching with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Read How I Spent My Summer Vacation then have some fun matching cause and effect sentences from the book. By using these cause and effect cards, students will demonstrate both their comprehension of the text and their understanding of cause and effect relationships in hands-on and interactive way.

This resource includes matching/sorting cards and a sorting mat for four cause and effect sentences in How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Each cause card is marked with a square and each effect card is marked with a circle, making it easy to support students who struggle with matching cause and effect relationships.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment
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Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of How I Spent My Summer Vacation includes several examples of cause and effect relationships, making it easy to use as a springboard for modeling or independent practice.

This simple resource includes four sentence stems. Each sentence stem presents an effect. Students will use what they know about the book to fill in the cause of the effect.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment
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Tall Tale Creative Writing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Unleash your students' imaginations with this fun and engaging writing activity, perfect for pairing with Mark Teague's beloved book, How I Spent My Summer Vacation. With a focus on creativity and humor, this activity encourages kids to think outside the box and invent the most outrageous stories possible. Includes clear directions and a ready-to-use worksheet, making it easy to bring some imaginative storytelling into your classroom.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Asking Questions with How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Determining Importance with How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Synthesizing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Understanding Text Structure with How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Visualizing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Writing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Spanish)

Worksheet

Tall Tale Creative Writing with How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Spanish)

Worksheet

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About the Book

The cover for the book How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Title: How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Author: Mark Teague
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: Summer, Adventure, Back to School
ISBN: 9780307792488
Publisher's Summary:
Most kids go to camp over the summer, or to Grandma's house, or maybe they're stuck at home. Not Wallace Bleff. He was supposed to visit his Aunt Fern. Instead, Wallace insists, he was carried off by cowboys and taught the ways of the West--from riding buckin' broncos to roping cattle. Lucky for Aunt Fern, he showed up at her house just in time to divert a stampede from her barbecue party! Perfect for back-to-school read-alouds, here's a western fantasy with sparkling illustrations and enough action to knock kids' boots off!
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