Anne Mazer's the Salamander Room is lovely practice in future possibility. On the first page, young Brian brings home a salamander he found in the forest. The rest of the story is a conversation between Brian and his mother about how Brian will care for his new pet, there are many examples of the future tense will + verb. "I will carpet my room with shiny wet leaves and water them so he can slide around and play. I will bring tree stumps into my room so he can climb up the bark and sun himself on top. And I will bring boulders that he can creep over."
Children are expected to feel comfortable using past, present, and future verb tenses by third grade. (Durden, p. 234) TeachFirst has a basic sorting game: Present and Future Verb Tense which would be simple to expand by adding more cards. Fancy Pants Teacher has an activity specifically for this book: Visualizing with the Salamander Room. My Picture Book Talk and Study English Lessons also complement this story.
