Explore a Mexican retelling of a classic folktale with this engaging Rooted in Reading companion for Cactus Soup by Eric A. Kimmel! This week-long resource helps students recognize the features of folktales and compare two versions of a story, while strengthening comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar skills.

Over the course of 5 days, students will learn about folktales and then compare and contrast Cactus Soup with Stone Soup, recording similarities and differences on a Venn diagram. Students will also review summarizing.

Students will also explore the paired nonfiction reader The Cactus, extending the learning from the mentor text while building background knowledge through informational reading.

Vocabulary instruction focuses on the words troop, grumbled, spare, nudged, fetch, herded, prancing, saluted, ladled, kettle, declared, and sacristan, giving students opportunities to develop word knowledge through synonym and antonym games, sentence writing, and vocabulary prompts.

Each day includes a Daily Deep Dive featuring a mentor sentence from the text. Students closely examine the sentence to practice reading, editing, grammar, noticing language choices, and thinking deeply about meaning.

The week's grammar focus is simple and compound sentences, with practice combining two independent clauses using the conjunctions and, but, and so.

This resource includes:

• 5 days of detailed lesson plans for comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar
• Comprehension lessons focused on folktales and comparing stories
• Question cards, Thinking about Reading journal prompts, and digital comprehension posters
• Comprehension focus posters, anchor chart templates, and discussion questions
• Paired reading passages, reading response activities, printables, and assessments
• Paired nonfiction learning with The Cactus and a cactus facts craft
• Vocabulary activities and games featuring the week's targeted words
• Daily Deep Dive mentor sentence activities
• Grammar lessons and activities focused on simple and compound sentences
• Crafts, writing activities, and engaging text-based response activities