5th Grade

Sign of the Beaver

Week in the Woods

Bridge to Terabithia

Hatchet

Sign of the Beaver

By Elizabeth George Speare

Before Reading:

• How do you spend time when you are alone? Make a list of things you might do if you had to spend the day alone.
• Research the state of Maine. Find out as much information as you can on the climate, natural resources and natural environment of Maine. Make a list or write a paragraph about Maine.

During Reading:

• What two items is Matt left with when his father goes on a journey? How do you think those items will help him?
• Write a summary of chapter 3. How would you feel if you were Matt at the end of chapter 3? Create a bookmark that goes with your summary.
• Create a Venn diagram that compares and contrasts Attean and Matt.
• Which boy, Attean or Matt needs the friendship the most? Write a journal entry that Matt might have written on the day that Attean leaves with his tribe to go to the winter hunting ground.
• Matt and Attean accomplish tasks that make their families proud of them. Give two examples of tasks that each boy accomplished. Give an example of a task that you have accomplished that has made your family proud.
• Storytelling is important to both boys. How would you retell the version of the bear story in the book?

After Reading:

• Write a book review for this book. Be sure to include a summary, your opinion and an illustration of your favorite part.
• What lesson or thought do you walk away from this story having? How might reading this story before fifth grade, help you have a better fifth grade year?

A Week in the Woods

By Andrew Clements

Before Reading:

• You're getting ready to go on a camping trip in July. Make a list of ten items that are a 'must have' for any camping trip.
• Look over the front and back cover of the book, make a prediction of what you think the book will be about. Write down your prediction and add an illustration. List three questions that you would like to have answered by the time you finish reading this story.

During Reading:

• Why do you think Mr. Maxwell enjoys preparing for “the week in the woods”? Why are most Whitson students looking forward to the trip? Is Mark looking forward to the trip? Do you think you would enjoy such a trip? Explain your answers.
• What do the teachers and students at the elementary school in Whitson think of Mark at the beginning of the story? List some reasons for the impressions they have of him. Are their impressions correct?
• Why does Mark really head out into the woods? What does he think he will prove? Is he making a good decision?
• How does Mr. Maxwell feel about Mark’s disappearance? What does he do? What mistakes does he make?

After Reading:

• Mark seems to do everything wrong when he arrives at the public elementary school in Whitson. Imagine that you are a student at Whitson. You have decided to befriend Mark. Write a few paragraphs in which you try to help Mark adjust to his new school and give him some pointers on making friends.
• Create a welcome packet for new students coming to your school. Include such items as a school map, daily schedule, cafeteria menu and a list of available teams, clubs and activities. Write a welcome letter. Decorate a folder with drawings, photographs, and stickers in your school colors, and then put your welcome letter and the other information inside.
• Make a top ten list for your classmates of things that need to be done to have a successful time at camp and things that need to be avoided at a school camping trip.

10. Make a list of things you need to get together for your camp in November.

Bridge to Terabithia

By Katherine Patterson

Before Reading:

• This story is about two friends. Brainstorm a list of qualities that make someone a good friend. Are having friends important? Explain.
• Look at the cover. What do you think it tells you about the story? What emotions does the cover make you feel? What questions do you have about the cover?

During Reading:

• Jess was determined to be the fastest runner in his grade, but in the end he wasn’t. Think of a time you set your heart on something. What was it? Were you able to accomplish it? How did it feel?
• How do you spend your recess? What is your favorite activity to do? If you could create the perfect recess time, what would it look like?
• Create a Venn diagram that shows how Jesse and Leslie are alike and different.
• Draw a picture that you think Jesse might draw. Explain why you chose that picture and why Jesse would like it.
• Write a paragraph, telling about a time you became friends with a classmate. Explain how that made you feel and how you decided to become friends.

After Reading:

• Draw a map of Terabithia. Be sure to label the parts of Terabithia. Write a brief explanation of your map and what Terabithia stood for.
• Create a perfect place for you and a friend to spend time in after school. Include a map of your favorite place. In a one page paper, describe this perfect place. Be sure to include as many details as you can.

Hatchet

By Gary Paulsen

Before Reading:

Read the list of words below. Write a prediction of what might happen in this story.

crashes, wilderness, divorce, survive, wreckage, hatchet, growl, hungry, unbelievable, riches,

Describe a time when you were frozen in fear, when you were afraid and didn’t know what to do. Tell what, where, when, why and how.

Imagine you had to put together a survival kit. On a blank sheet of paper, either illustrate or list 10 things you would include and tell why.

During Reading:

Twenty Questions: Read chapter 1 of the novel. What questions do you have? What are you wondering? What do you hope to find out? What is confusing? On the back of this paper, make a list of your 20 questions. If you can’t think of 20, read chapter 2 and go back to your list and add any new questions you have. Look back at your list as you read, see how many of your questions are answered by the end of the story.

Tell about a time positive thinking affected a way that something happened to you. What would have happened if you had not done some positive thinking?

Brian invents names for things that are unfamiliar to him: “gut cherries,” “foolbirds.” How does he form these names? What are nicknames you have had for someone or something.

Gary Paulsen uses personification when he refers to fire as “a friend and a guard”? Explain why he chose these words.

A snow globe holds a miniaturized scene or model of a landscape. Design a snow globe to show the setting of the story. Things you might include: the L-shaped lake, the rock ridge, the dense forest, Brian’s shelter…what else?

After Reading:

What do you think would have happened if Brian had found the survival pack much earlier? Would he be the same person he became under the book’s circumstances? Compare/contrast Brian’s survival kit with the one you created before you read the story.

Create a Venn diagram that shows how the “old Brian” and the “new Brian” are alike and different.

The epilogue reports that journalists were intensely interested in Brian’s experience after he returned. Write a feature article about Brian for your local newspaper or a teen magazine like U.S. Kids.

4th Grade

Project Mulberry

Frindle

Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe

Project Mulberry

By Linda Sue Park

Before Reading:

Write a prediction for Project Mulberry.

What information does the front and back cover tell you?

Make a list of four questions that you have.

Describe your best friend.  Make a Venn diagram that shows how your best friend and you are alike and different.

During Reading:

Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Julia and Kenny. 

Fill out the diagram as you are reading the story.

What life lessons does the life cycle of the silkworm teach Julia?

Why does Julia not want to do the silkworm project?

How does Julia change during the story? 

Write a brief summary supporting your ideas with details from the story.

After Reading:

Design a bookmark for this book. 

Explain how your bookmark would help build excitement and make students want to read this book.

The author has a very unique writing style, explain what makes this story different from other books you have read. 

Did you like this style?  Would you recommend this book to a friend?

Frindle

By Andrew Clements

 

Before Reading:

Write a prediction for the story you are about to read. List four questions you have about the novel you are about to read.

Have you ever thought about how words are created? Make a list of words that you would like to know how they were created.

Write a character trait web, listing the traits of a good teacher.

During Reading:

What question does Nick ask Mrs. Granger on the first day of class to stall the lesson? How does Mrs. Granger outsmart him?

List the three main events that lead to Nick renaming a pen a frindle?

How do you feel about Mrs. Granger at the beginning of the story? Does your opinion of her change at the end of the story? Write a short summary of your opinion supporting it with details from the story.

After Reading:

Create and define your own new word. Do you think you would have the same results Nick did, if you started using your new word?

Pretend you are a newspaper reporter; write an article that describes what is going on in Nick's home town.

Write a book review for the library. Please be sure to create an illustration that goes along with your review.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

By C.S. Lewis

Before Reading:

Tell about a time that someone didn’t believe you when you were telling the truth. How did it make you feel? What did you do? Why do you think they didn’t believe you?

Have you ever seen snow? Have you ever been outside as it was snowing? Close your eyes and imagine that you are in a very snowy place. Use all of your senses and make a web. What would you see, feel, hear, smell and/or taste? Draw a picture of your snowy spot!

During Reading:

Write a 3-5 sentence summary of chapter 3: “Edmund and the Wardrobe”. Be sure to include the main events.

In the beginning of chapter 5, the narrator says, “And now we come to one of the nastiest things in this story.” What is the narrator referring to? Why do you think the narrator says this part is so nasty? Do you agree or disagree?

What would you have done if you climbed into a wardrobe and didn’t find the back of it like you expected? How would you have felt if you were one of the children traveling through the wardrobe into the land of Narnia.

Illustrate a scene from chapter 9, “In the Witch’s House”. Describe and label your illustration with key words and phrases from the chapter.

Aslan makes a great sacrifice for Edmund and for Narnia. Edmund is unaware of Aslan’s sacrifice. Lucy believes that he should be told about it, but Susan says that he shouldn’t be. Who do you agree with and why? Would you have told Edmund what Aslan did to save him?

After Reading:

Father Christmas gave the children some special presents. Write about a special present that has been given to you. Explain why it is important to you and how you came to receive it.

How does the reader know the White Witch is weakening? How is the strength of her power reflected in the seasons? What changes took place in Narnia as winter turned into spring?

A pencil has two ends, one for writing and the other for erasing. On the back of this paper draw a large pencil and write Edmund’s name on it. Near the writing end (the point) of the pencil, write/illustrate actions Edmund wishes he would have done (as if he could go back and rewrite history). Near the eraser end, write/illustrate any actions Edmund wishes he could go back and erase (or take away).

3rd Grade

Charlotte's Web

Sarah Plain and Tall

Because of Winn Dixie

Charlotte’s Web

By E.B. White

Before Reading:

• List the characteristics of a good friend. Write about a time that you were a good friend or someone was a good friend to you.
• Make a list of what you know about spiders. If you have time research a specific type of spider and list your facts.
• Make a prediction for Charlotte’s Web. Write down 3 questions you hope to have answered by the end of the story.

During Reading:

• After reading the first few chapters, identify the main characters in Charlotte’s Web.
• Explain why Charlotte is helping Wilbur.
• Give examples of how the other animals felt about Wilbur.
• Compose your own message that Charlotte could use to help Wilbur.
• Design a web with a message for the farmer.

After Reading:

• Write a book review for the library. Be sure to include your favorite part, your opinion and an illustration to go along with your review.
• Think about a message or a thought that you have after you have read the book. How might reading this book help you in third grade?
• Watch the movie and compare the book to the movie.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

By Patricia MacLachlan

Before you read:

• If you had to move away from Texas to another state, what would you miss most about leaving Texas? Make a list of reminders of home that you would take with you. Example- a chili recipe or a pair of cowboy boots.
• If someone you’ve never met before asked you to describe yourself, what would you say?

During reading:

• Why had Papa placed an advertisement in the newspaper?
• What has happened to Anna and Caleb’s mother?
• How do you know that Sarah was a kind and caring person? Give some examples from the story that support Sarah being kind and caring.
• Pretend that you are Sarah. Write a letter home to your brother, William, describing your new family, home and how you feel about Jacob, Anna and Caleb.
• “There are things to miss no matter where you are.” What does that mean.
• Why does Caleb think Sarah wants to go to town? What reason do you think Sarah has gone to town?

After reading:

• Write a book review for the library. Be sure to include what you liked most about the story.
• Write a summary for the novel. Be sure to include something from the beginning, something from the middle and something from the end. Draw an illustration that goes with your summary.

Because of Winn Dixie

By Kate DiCamillo

Before Reading:

Do you or have you ever had a pet? Tell how you got the pet. How did it look the first time you remember seeing it? What special traits did it have? What did you do with it? Did you talk to it? Could it understand you?

Read aloud the first page of the novel. Who is telling this story? What can you tell about Opal by the way she speaks? What do you think of the opening sentence, read it again. Does it make you want to read more?

During Reading:

Does Opal remind you of anyone in your life? Who? Describe him or her.

As Opal gives her new dog a bath, she tells him they are a lot alike. In what ways are Opal and her dog alike? In what ways are they different?

In Chapter 4, Opal’s father tells her 10 things about her mother. Do these ten things paint a whole picture of Opal’s mother? What else might Opal want to know about her mother? What else would you like to know?

Winn-Dixie brings comfort and joy to a lot of characters in this story. Make a character web. Write the name Winn-Dixie in the center. Draw lines out from the center, like spokes in a wagon wheel.

At the end of each line write the name of a character whose life Winn-Dixie touched. What do these characters have in common?

After the party, Opal goes to Gloria’s mistake tree and tells her mother she won’t miss her as much because her heart feels full. How has Opal’s life changed to make her feel this way?

A simile is a direct comparison of 2 things that are not usually alike. Similes use words such as like or as. Kate DiCamillo writes that Winn-Dixie “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain”. Fold a piece of paper in half then draw the objects being compared (Winn-Dixie and an old carpet) on either side of the fold. Try this with other similes you find in the book or make up some of your own!

After Reading:

Opal memorized the ten things her father told her about her mother so she would recognize her if she ever came back. On the back of this paper, make a list that would help someone recognize Winn Dixie. Title it: Ten Things I Know About Winn-Dixie.

Point of View is the perspective from which a story is told. Winn-Dixie is narrated in the first person by Opal, everything the reader learns is through her perspective. Rewrite the opening scene in which Opal meets Winn-Dixie in the grocery store from Winn-Dixie’s point of view. How does the scene change from this new point of view?

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