Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for The Van Gogh Café

Use The Van Gogh Café by Cynthia Rylant to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.

Clara's dad owns a café in Flowers, Kansas, that is housed in a renovated theater. Each chapter of this story is a vignette about the different magical and mysterious events Clara witnesses while spending time at the café. This enchanting story will entertain readers as they practice and apply nearly every comprehension strategy.

Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with The Van Gogh Café in the drop down below.

Asking Questions with The Van Gogh Café

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Asking Questions with The Van Gogh Café

The Van Gogh Café works well with a lesson on asking questions. Each chapter is a new installment of mysterious happenings that add to the cafes magic. Engaged readers will naturally ask questions to dig deeper and clarify their understanding about what could be going on in the café.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Determining Importance with The Van Gogh Café

The first page of Determining Importance with The Van Gogh Café

Determining Importance with The Van Gogh Café

Because each chapter represents a new "mini-story" that describes a different mystery occurring within the Van Gogh Café, readers will have several opportunities to practice identifying which characters and events are most important to the overall message of this book.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Van Gogh Café

The first page of Identifying the Author's Purpose with The Van Gogh Café

Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Van Gogh Café

The Van Gogh Café is a smart book to use with readers who are learning to identify the author's message across longer texts. This lesson plan will help readers recognize the message within each chapter so they can inform their understanding of the overall purpose presented by this text.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Making Inferences with The Van Gogh Café

The first page of Making Inferences with The Van Gogh Café

Making Inferences with The Van Gogh Café

This lesson plan is a great way to support readers who are working to make inferences to improve reading comprehension. As they work through this lesson, students will be asked to make inferences about the setting, the characters and the mysteries that take place inside the café.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Synthesizing with The Van Gogh Café

The first page of Synthesizing with The Van Gogh Café

Synthesizing with The Van Gogh Café

For readers who are ready to practice synthesizing, The Van Gogh Café is an excellent anchor text. The mysterious activity detailed throughout the story will keep readers engaged through this longer chapter book. Students will also be able to apply all of the comprehension strategies and analyze how their thoughts and understanding evolve from beginning to end.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Understanding Text Structure with The Van Gogh Café

The first page of Understanding Text Structure with The Van Gogh Café

Understanding Text Structure with The Van Gogh Café

Each chapter of this book presents the reader with a new "mini-story," and the author uses different text structures within each mini-story. This makes The Van Gogh Café a perfect supporting text for a lesson on understanding text structures across a chapter book.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Suffixes with The Van Gogh Café

The first page of Suffixes with The Van Gogh Café

Suffixes with The Van Gogh Café

This word work lesson plan and set of teaching resources use The Van Gogh Café by Cynthia Rylant as a springboard for instruction focused on suffixes.

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

Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Vocabulary Connections with The Van Gogh Café

The first page of Vocabulary Connections with The Van Gogh Café

Vocabulary Connections with The Van Gogh Café

This set of vocabulary development resources for The Van Gogh Café  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
TEKS Alignment

Running Record with The Van Gogh Café

Thumbnail for Running Record with The Van Gogh Café

Running Record with The Van Gogh Café

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with The Van Gogh Café. 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.

Writing with The Van Gogh Café

Thumbnail for Writing with The Van Gogh Café

Writing with The Van Gogh Café

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.

Asking Questions with The Van Gogh Café (Spanish)

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

Determining Importance with The Van Gogh Café (Spanish)

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

Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Van Gogh Café (Spanish)

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

Making Inferences with The Van Gogh Café (Spanish)

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

Synthesizing with The Van Gogh Café (Spanish)

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

Understanding Text Structure with The Van Gogh Café (Spanish)

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

Writing with The Van Gogh Café (Spanish)

Worksheet

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About the Book

The cover for the book The Van Gogh Café
Title: The Van Gogh Café
Author: Cynthia Rylant
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: Family, Friendship
ISBN: 9780756966874
Publisher's Summary:
At the Van Gogh Cafe, "anything" can happen. Clara's dad owns the cafe, and she's seen it all--from food that cooks by itself to poems that foretell the future. This award-winning collection of vignettes by Newbery medalist Cynthia Rylant is a treat to be relished. So bring your appetite for the unexpected, because at the Van Gogh Cafe, your order of tea and toast comes with a side of magic!
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