Most activities could be completed in 30 minutes, but 45 minutes would leave more time for discussion and more quality work time for students. The recommended time does not include the time it takes to read the book aloud before doing the activity, so that would add an extra 10-15 minutes. You could read the book directly before the activity or even a day or more in advance. It is handy to have a copy of the book to use for discussion questions included in the activity plan, but not required. Although many of the discussion questions refer to the books, the activities could still be completed by students who did not hear the story.

If you can not find a copy of the book to read aloud (which is always ideal to do, and most are available through your local public or school library with a little advance notice), you can usually find a video of the book being read aloud on YouTube or elsewhere on the internet. When there are several video options for that book, if you have time, always try to preview at least 30-60 seconds of the read-aloud video - some are better quality than others (and the quality will affect students’ enjoyment and understanding of the story). Reading the book out loud is always preferable if possible because you can interact with your students before, during and after the reading and it’s always good to give youth more positive interactions with books during read-alouds. 

If you have time before reading the book aloud to your student(s), try to pre-read or at least skim the book yourself and be prepared to explain any vocabulary or concepts you think your student(s) might need help with before or during the read-aloud.

Before doing the activity, read through the whole activity plan, gather the necessary materials, and make copies of the worksheets, as needed (though not all activity plans have worksheets). Again, the time it takes to actually read the book aloud (usually 5-15 minutes) is not included in the recommended activity time

Each book activity plan has a link to the TeachingBooks.Com page for that book. You may need to create a (free) account to access those resources. Those webpages have extension activities and resources related to each book and author, including things like games, lesson plans, literacy activities, videos, author interviews, and sometimes more. 

Don’t forget to ask a public or school librarian for more books, kits or resources related to each core trait, or connected to the person or event featured in each book, or for more books by the same author - librarians can help you find more of whatever you need. 

Although we have tried hard to make activities developmentally appropriate for the target age groups, you may need to differentiate the activities based on abilities or preferences. If a student can’t read some instructions, complete a worksheet, or write letters or words, they may need help from an adult, or they may be able to do something similar through drawing or a maker activity. You could have youth work with a partner, or create a game, tell a personal or fictional story, write a poem, song or rhyme, create a model or do a skit, coding or building activity in order to practice and understand the skill or trait. 

If you are doing these activities in school, after school or summer activities, don’t forget to include families and caregivers! Make sure to have students bring home and share what they wrote, drew or created, tell their parents or guardians about the activities you did with them, explain the importance of the skill or trait being reinforced and recount the story. If possible, lend the book out to each child in turn and have them bring the book home for a couple of days to read or share with their family. You may want to remind families that they can also access the book activities and all the other Oregon Employability Skills lessons at home, to help their children develop those important skills.