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Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for The Memory String

The cover for The Memory String Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources

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Use The Memory String by Eve Bunting to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.

The Memory String is an emotional story about a girl named Laura who keeps a string of heirloom buttons that represent her family's history. Her favorite buttons are from outfits her mother wore before she died. Laura is devastated when the string breaks, and her stepmother is there to help and comfort her. In addition to strong author messages, The Memory String also supports lessons on retelling and summarizing, making inferences, making predictions and visualizing.

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Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with The Memory String in the drop down below.

Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Memory String

The emotional story in The Memory String presents several broad messages. With a main character struggling with acceptance and letting go, readers will recognize clear messages about loss, love and the important memories we carry.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8L.3.6RL.3.2RL.3.4RL.3.6RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4

TEKS Alignment

3.6I3.10C3.7A3.10D3.7B3.10F3.7C3.13C3.7D3.13E3.1A3.7E3.13H3.1C3.7F3.1D3.7G3.1E3.8C3.6A3.10A3.6B3.10B

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Making Inferences with The Memory String

This is an ideal book for supporting readers who are working to make inferences. Most students haven't experienced the loss of a parent; therefore, they will have to use cues from the text and illustrations to infer the emotions of the characters in this book.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.4RL.3.7RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8L.3.6RL.3.1

TEKS Alignment

3.1D3.7F3.1E3.7G3.6A3.8C3.6B3.13C3.6F3.13E3.6I3.13H3.7A3.7B3.7C3.1A3.7D3.1C3.7E

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Making Predictions with The Memory String

This book works well with a lesson on making predictions because the main character has a big problem to solve. This problem appeals to the reader's sense of sympathy, and your students will begin making logical predictions about how she might solve her problem.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.2RL.3.3RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8L.3.6RL.3.1

TEKS Alignment

3.1C3.7E3.1D3.7F3.1E3.7G3.6A3.8C3.6B3.13C3.6C3.13E3.6I3.13H3.7A3.7B3.7C3.1A3.7D

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Retelling & Summarizing with The Memory String

The Memory String pairs well with a lesson on retelling and summarizing. Students will easily be able to identify the conflict and resolution. They'll also identify time order words to retell the clear sequence of events in this story.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.1L.3.6RL.3.2RL.3.4RL.3.7RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8

TEKS Alignment

3.7E3.1A3.7F3.1C3.7G3.1D3.8B3.1E3.8C3.6A3.8D3.6G3.13C3.6I3.13E3.7B3.13H3.7C3.7D

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Visualizing with The Memory String

The descriptive language used in this story along with its beautiful illustrations make it an excellent resource for a lesson on visualizing. Students will easily create mental images of the family searching for the lost buttons. They can also make connections to a time when they lost something they valued and what actions they took to look for their item.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.7RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8L.3.6

TEKS Alignment

3.1A3.7E3.1C3.7F3.1D3.10C3.1E3.13C3.6A3.13E3.6D3.13H3.6E3.6I3.7A3.7B3.7C

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Comprehension Assessment with The Memory String

Use this Common Core aligned comprehension assessment to evaluate students' comprehension of The Memory String.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

TEKS Alignment

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Running Record with The Memory String

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with The Memory String. 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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Cause and Effect Matching with The Memory String

Read The Memory String 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 The Memory String. 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 The Memory String

Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of The Memory String 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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Writing with The Memory String

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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Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Memory String (Spanish)

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

Making Inferences with The Memory String (Spanish)

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

Making Predictions with The Memory String (Spanish)

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

Retelling & Summarizing with The Memory String (Spanish)

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

Visualizing with The Memory String (Spanish)

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

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About the Book

The cover for the book The Memory String

Title: The Memory String

Author: Eve Bunting

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Themes: Family

ISBN: 9780547350066

Publisher's Summary:

Each button on Laura’s memory string represents a piece of her family history. The buttons Laura cherishes the most belonged to her mother—a button from her prom dress, a white one off her wedding dress, and a single small button from the nightgown she was wearing on the day she died. When the string breaks, Laura’s new stepmother, Jane, is there to comfort Laura and search for a missing button, just as Laura’s mother would have done. But it’s not the same—Jane isn’t Mom. In Eve Bunting’s moving story, beautifully illustrated by Ted Rand, Laura discovers that a memory string is not just for remembering the past: it’s also for recording new memories.

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Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for The Memory String