Johnny Appleseed by Alyse Sweeney - Teaching Ideas


This is a great beginning biography book on one of our beloved American Heroes. The book tells Johnny Appleseed's story in a simple sequential way using pictures, captions, maps and a glossary to help guide young readers as they learn about Johnny Appleseed.

Below is a list of skills and strategies that work great with this book. You can use these to help create a wonderful lesson, not only about Johnny Appleseed but on using the text to find that information.

Reading level: 3.1
Theme: American History
Genre: Biography

Suggested Vocabulary: herb, medicine, orchard, settler, snowshoe, trudged, wilderness

Reading skills and strategies:
  • purpose for reading – to learn more about Johnny Appleseed and how he made a difference.
  • author's purpose – inform {evidence} The author gives facts about Johnny Appleseed’s life. There is a diagram showing all the things apples can make. The author includes a glossary to help explain difficult words. All of these things make this book very informative.
  • organization
    • sequence – the author uses the sequence of Johnny Appleseed’s life to tell his story. The book starts when he was born and ends by telling the reader that he traveled for 50 years.
  • classify & categorize – Classify Johnny Appleseed: categorize things he did for others and things others did for him.
  • compare & contrast – compare and contrast 2 different Johnny Appleseed books.
  • fact & opinion{facts} Johnny Appleseed was born in Massachusetts on September 26, 1774. Johnny Appleseed took his bag of apple seeds and went to Pennsylvania. Johnny Appleseed made snowshoes so he could walk in the snow. Johnny Appleseed made friends with Native Americans. Johnny Appleseed left Pennsylvania and headed for Ohio. {opinions} People say that Johnny Appleseed always wore a pot on his head. Johnny Appleseed was crazy for wanting to plant so many apple trees. Snowshoes are the best way to travel in snow. Johnny Appleseed probably thought hunting for food was a horrible thing to do. Johnny Appleseed didn’t like to be lonely.
  • main idea & details - {main idea} Johnny Appleseed wanted to plant apple orchards for those traveling west so that the settlers could make different foods. {details} Johnny Appleseed headed to Pennsylvania. Johnny Appleseed planted an apple orchard in Pennsylvania when he got there. Johnny Appleseed would give apple trees to those settlers that could not afford to buy them.
  • predict – What do you think the story is going to be about? How do you think Johnny Appleseed made a difference? Do you think the settlers were thankful for Johnny Appleseed planting apple trees? Why do you think JA traveled with a pot on his head? It doesn’t look like JA ever wore shoes, what do you think will happen during the winter? JA ran into Native Americans during his travels, do you think they became friends? How long do you think JA planted trees?
  • story elements - list title, author, topic, organization, KWL
  • summarize main idea – {author}Alyse Sweeney wrote the book {book title} Johnny Appleseed An American Who Made a Difference {author’s purpose} to tell people about why Johnny Appleseed planted so many apple trees. {statement about topic} Johnny Appleseed knew that people were going to be moving west and he wanted to make sure they had apples along their journey. {at least 2 detail} Johnny Appleseed planted trees in Pennsylvania and finally made it all the way to Indiana.
Below is a nonfiction packet I created to use with just about any Johnny Appleseed book. It not only focuses in on the life of Johnny Appleseed but also how the book and using the book will help find such things as main idea of book, chapter or paragraph, what the author is trying to tell you versus what the illustrator is trying to tell you, what kind of person Johnny Appleseed was, finding facts and writing opinions about him as well as classifying Johnny Appleseed and then categorizing things about him.

Each section is differentiated for K-2 so students will be drawing and or writing their findings.

You can print and use pages as you need them or print them on a smaller scale and paste them into your reader response journal.








You can pick this packet up from either one of my stores.


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Learning-about-Johnny-Appleseed-Reading-Skills-Strategies-889019

Happy planning!



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