Explore poetry, rhyme, and rhythm with this engaging Rooted in Reading companion for The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt! This week-long resource helps students look closely at how poets use rhyme and rhythm to create structure and meaning while building strong comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar skills.

Over the course of 5 days, students will dive into meaningful comprehension lessons focused on identifying rhyme in a text, understanding the importance of rhythm, and recognizing rhyming schemes, lines, and stanzas. Through interactive discussions, anchor charts, response activities, and printables, students will develop a deeper understanding of how poetry is organized and how authors use sound to impact a text.

Students will also explore the paired nonfiction topic Villains or Heroes, providing opportunities to build background knowledge and make connections beyond the mentor text.

Vocabulary instruction is woven throughout the week with activities focused on the words parlor, curious, weary, cunning, and fierce.

Each day includes a Daily Deep Dive where students interact with a mentor sentence from the text—building skills in close reading, editing, grammar, noticing language, and thinking about meaning.

The week also includes a grammar focus on past tense verbs, including adding -d, -ed, and -ied, with targeted instruction and practice activities to reinforce learning.

This resource includes:

• 5 days of detailed lesson plans for comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar
• Comprehension lessons focused on rhyme, rhythm, rhyme schemes, lines, and stanzas
• Comprehension focus posters, anchor chart templates, and discussion questions
• Reading response activities, printables, and assessments
• Paired nonfiction learning with Villains or Heroes
• Vocabulary activities featuring the week's targeted words
• Daily Deep Dive mentor sentence activities
• Grammar lessons and activities focused on past tense verbs
• Engaging text-based response activities