The Family Under The Bridge Literature Kit Gr 3 4

Expose your students to the hardships of poverty and the power that comes with family. Multi-leveled questions and prompts will have students digging deeper while making connections. Investigate the setting to determine what is already known about the historic country of France. Explain what is ironic about Armand's words to the pigeons. Recall what was read by completing a paragraph from the novel with its missing words. Predict what will happen with the children's request to Father Christmas after a cliffhanger. Research information on Provence, Saint Sara or the Tournelle Bridge and create a report with interesting facts on these places mentioned in the novel. Complete an analysis of the novel, detailing the conflict, setting, point of view and theme, among others. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: The Family Under the Bridge is a Newbery Honor winning story about the Calcet family—a mother and her three children—who end up living under a bridge on the Seine River. Here, they befriend the carefree Parisian hobo, Armand. When two nosy women appear at their makeshift home, and it appears that the authorities have been summoned, Armand takes the family to live with a community of gypsies. Here, they are befriended and their relationship with the old hobo deepens. After promising the children a new home for Christmas, Armand decides his only option is to seek employment, and he manages to get a job as the caretaker of an apartment building, which offers the family a place to stay. Here, they determine to live as one big family, with Armand serving as the grandfather the children never had.

Your students will get a hoot out of this story about a boy and his adventures with two owls. Target your students' need for independent reading skills. Demonstrate any prior knowledge on the subject of owls before reading the book. Find the word that best matches the vocabulary word from the novel. Show comprehension with multiple choice and true or false questions. Explain why the owls didn't know how to fly, and why Billy didn't show them. Convert inches to centimeters to find out how tall Wol is and how wide his wingspread is. Rewrite a passage from the book in Weeps the owl's point of view. Complete a web to show Wol's encounters with each character from the story. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: This is one of Farley Mowat’s funniest books about a boy and two rescued owls named Wol and Weeps. Billy loves all animals. He has rats, mice, over thirty gophers and two dogs. It only seems natural that Billy and his friends search the sloughs and bluffs to find owlets. The boys rescue a pair of owlets from an untimely death, and end up keeping them for over three years. The adventures Billy, his friends and the owls have together are not typical. Participating in the local Pet Parade, owls following him to school, and having an owl arrive for dinner with a skunk are only a few funny incidents in Owls in the Family.

This is the delightfully warm and enjoyable story of an old Parisian named Armand, who relished his solitary life. Children, he said, were like starlings, and one was better off without them. But the children who lived under the bridge recognized a true friend when they met one, even if the friend seemed a trifle unwilling at the start. And it did not take Armand very long to realize that he had gotten himself ready-made family; one that he loved with all his heart, and one for whom he would have to find a better home than the bridge. Armand and the children's adventures around Paris -- complete with gypsies and a Santa Claus -- make a story which children will treasure.

An old tramp, adopted by three fatherless children when their mother hides them under a bridge on the Seine, finds a home for mother and children and a job for himself.

Anyone can overcome their destiny in this story of a pig who saves himself from the table. Great discussion questions engage students to think deeper about the text. Students explore the concept of prejudice and give an example of this from their own experiences. Write sentences using the vocabulary words from the story. Identify statements about Babe herding ducks as true or false. Brainstorm reasons why Farmer Hogget never named his pig. Conduct an interview with Babe for the London Times. Create a trading card for one of the characters in the book. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Everyone is astonished when sheep farmer Hogget brings home a pig from the county fair. Shortly after his arrival, the piglet is adopted by the sheepdog. Destined for the oven, Babe changes that destiny by becoming skilled at the process of sheep-herding. Babe is taken to the Sheepdog Trials, where he astonishes the judges and spectators by excelling at herding the sheep. Babe: The Gallant Pig is a charming story with an unforgettable cast of characters. A number of positive themes run throughout the novel including the dangers of prejudice and stereotyping, leadership styles, and the positive results that can come through hard work, perseverance and courage. Set in rural America, other themes are those of farm life, sheep, sheepdogs, pigs and sheepdog trials.

Explore the power of the mind and how anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Challenge students by expanding their vocabulary and testing their comprehension with writing prompts and assessment questions. Test comprehension with multiple choice questions that explores the character of Matilda. Expand your character study by reflecting on Matilda's view of C.S. Lewis' novels, and what she considers to be a drawback in them. Show understanding of tricky words from the book by matching them to sentences where they make the most sense. Conduct an interview with a partner to find out what they think of the novel. Compare physical and character attributes of two people from the story in a Compare/Contrast chart. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Matilda is the charming story of a very unusual little girl who, despite having two very horrible parents, learns how to read by the age of three. There are many other things about Matilda that are very special. She can solve arithmetic problems very quickly in her head, and she can move things about with the power of thought. Despite all of this she is a most pleasant little girl who is well liked by her classmates and by her wonderful teacher, Miss Honey. Matilda discovers the headmistress of the school, Miss Trunchbull, is actually Miss Honey‘s aunt and has cheated her out of her inheritance. Matilda sets her mind to work, and in the end Miss Honey recovers her stolen inheritance and adopts Matilda.

Students are introduced to the concept of sacrifice and how it's necessary to protect one's livelihood. The activities within this resource engage the reader and provide clarity of the subject matter. Identify statements about Grandfather's farm as true or false. Reflect on events that happen in a chapter, like what time do Searchlight and Willy race down main street. Make predictions on events that will happen in the story. Complete some online research to explain why Stone Fox might react to people in Willy's town a certain way. Explore the concept of selfless acts and find an example of it in the novel. Discuss how the supporting characters in the story impact the major characters. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Stone Fox follows the sacrifices Willy must make in order to save his Grandfather's farm. Willy lives with his Grandfather and dog, Searchlight, on a potato farm. Grandfather likes to play jokes on Willy. One day, Grandfather doesn't get out of bed. Willy calls for the doctor, who examines Grandfather and concludes that nothing is wrong with him, other than losing the will to live. When a tax collector comes to the farm, Willy learns that Grandfather will lose his home if they don't come up with the $500 he owes. Unable to get a bank loan, Willy decides to use his college fund to enter the National Dogsled Race, who's prize is exactly $500. All he needs to do is beat the legendary dog sledder Stone Fox, who's never lost a race. Willy and Searchlight have a hard road ahead of them if they want to compete. One last sacrifice may be what it takes in order to win.

Follow one boy's struggle as he faces many challenges that threaten the safety and livelihood of his family. Students fully comprehend the language of the novel with vocabulary practice. Explore the idea of phobias while relating it back to the character, M.C. Describe the tragic event that was narrowly averted due to the carelessness of the mining company. Predict how M.C. and the girl will make it to the end of the tunnel. Do some research and write a report on yodeling. Identify what is a fact and what is an opinion in the novel. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: M.C. Higgins, the Great is a Newbery Medal-winning story about a young boy who is overcome with many challenges while living with his poor, African-American family on Sarah’s Mountain. M.C. Higgins must overcome the prejudice that surrounds his best friend with the help of a mysterious girl who appears on the mountain. Also, M.C. tries to get his mother’s singing voice recorded so he and his family can leave the mountain. The greatest challenge M.C. must face is a coal mining company that have been strip-mining the area above their house, leaving a huge pile of slag (spoil heap) piled dangerously on the mountain above their house. M.C. is convinced that the pile will one day give way and bury their house and everyone in it; therefore he stands guard by sitting on a high pole.