Students get insight into themselves while reading about this group of teenagers' journey to self-discovery. Incorporate a variety of challenging questions dealing with opinions of the reader as well as asking for evidence from the text to support those opinions. Come up with reasons why most people tend to be reluctant to speak their mind. Identify what motivated Pastor Don to give free guitar lessons. Students find quotations that may appear next to their picture in a yearbook and reflect on how it applies to them. Write complete sentences using vocabulary words found in the text. Design an information card for the Rhododendron plant. List the main events from the novel in the order in which they happened on a Sequence Chart. Aligned to your State Standards, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Criss Cross is a Newbery Medal-winning story about several teenage characters living in the small town of Seldem in the 1970s. The story intersects between several characters, each with their own issues and each one trying to discover who they are as individuals. There is the shy, introspective Debbie; the multitalented Lenny; the nerdy, guitar-playing Hector; and the brainy, all-together sister of Hector, Rowanne. Criss Cross is a story that deals with first love, the importance of communication among friends and family, self-identity, and coming-of-age. Each character is portrayed in a refreshingly unique and poignant manner, creating a novel that is both humorous and thought-provoking throughout.

Be encouraged to rise above failure and show just what you're made of. The provided Before and After reading activities really help to build student's reading comprehension. Make connections between the novel and well-known Greek myths by identifying the significance of the three old ladies Percy sees knitting. Make predictions about the plot by deciding whether Percy will find out about his parentage. Go back through the novel and make a list of clues that show the author's use of foreshadowing. Put key events from the novel in the order they occurred as Percy learns about his quest. Compare the Greek gods from the novel with their Roman counterparts. Detail some of the ways the gods of Olympus influenced events in the story, and how these influences impacted plot development. Aligned to your State Standards, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: The Lightning Thief follows the mythical adventures of a young boy with a legendary destiny. Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is close to being kicked out of another boarding school. But his real concern is the figures from Greek mythology who seem intent on killing him. On a school trip, Percy is attacked by one of his chaperones. He learns this person is really a Fury—a Greek deity of vengeance. With a magic sword tossed to him by his Latin teacher, Percy successfully kills the creature. He soon learns that he is, in fact, a demigod—half human and half Greek god. He makes his way to a summer camp for other demigods. Here he learns of his true parentage and why he struggles so much in school. Things get even stranger for Percy when he is thrust into a quest that can either save the world, or doom him forever.

Unravel the secrets at the center of an intriguing murder mystery game. Activities are meant to excite students throughout the reading. Using the chapter titles as clues, predict what might happen in each one. Identify elements of foreshadowing from the novel, and imagine what will take place. Follow the clues in the story to solve the game before any of the characters. Identify cause and effect by explaining why each event happened. Keep track of the variety of characters with comprehension questions. Students will write their own prologue and epilogue at the completion of the reading. Compare two different character's perspectives of the same event from 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: The Westing Game is a Newbery Medal winning story about a group of people playing the game of who killed the millionaire. Samuel W. Westing, owner of Westing Paper Products, has died. Sixteen heirs are invited to live in the Sunset Towers apartment building. These heirs come together to read the will of the late self-made millionaire. The will challenges them to solve the murder of Sam Westing by splitting up into eight pairs. Each pair is given a set of clues and $10,000 dollars to play the game. The winner will inherit the $200,000,000 fortune and unravel the secret behind the old man's death.

Demonstrate the power of determination with this tale about a clever Fox who outsmarts the surrounding farmers to feed his family. Our consistent vocabulary, comprehension and short-answer format makes this resource easy to use. Written in such a way so educators can choose to use a small part as supplemental material with their existing unit. Introduce students to grade-level words they will come across during their reading. Test comprehension by answering true or false questions about the farmers. Find a quote in the novel that demonstrates foreshadowing. Become a news reporter and come up with 10 questions to ask the farmers about why they dig up the ground. Complete a character sketch of Mr Fox by identifying what he thinks, hears and loves. 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: Fantastic Mr Fox is the classic story by Roald Dahl of a fox who outsmarts a few farmers to steal food from them. Mr Fox lives underground with his wife and children. At night, Mr Fox visits his neighboring farmers and robs them of their livestock. The farmers retaliate by waiting for Mr Fox by his hole, ready to ambush him when he leaves. When that fails, the farmers then try to dig up Mr Fox's home. When that fails, they decide to starve out the Fox family. Mr Fox then comes up with a plan to get food. He gets the help of his friend Badger, and the pair dig their way to the farmers' food. Their success leads to Mr Fox creating an underground neighborhood where all the animals can all live together in safety.

Experience what it's like to rise up and fill a hole left by the loss of a family member. Help guide students through the novel with vocabulary prompts and comprehension activities. Imagine the challenges faced by a Japanese-American family moving from Iowa to Georgia in the 1950s. Explore the concept of prejudice and identify different groups who might experience this. Complete passages from the text with their missing vocabulary words. Reflect on the incident where Katie decides to shoplift and describe the worst thing about the experience. Find examples from the novel of foreshadowing and imagine to what it could be predicting. List the events comprising an incident in the novel in the order that it happened in a Flow Chart. Aligned to your State Standards, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Kira-Kira (kee ra kee ra) is a Japanese word for glittering; shining. This unforgettable story is a coming-of-age tale of one family’s difficulties in adapting to a post-World War II society that is reluctant to welcome a Japanese family that is laboring in Georgia’s poultry plants. The story features Katie, her older sister Lynn and their younger brother, Sammy. When Lynn grows ill and eventually dies, it makes Katie realize that she must assume even more responsibility. Removed from the shadow of her high-achieving older sister, she even begins to improve in her schoolwork. This Newbery Medal winning-story deals with family relationships and the illness and death of a close family member in a sensitive, realistic manner.

Students gain a new sense of respect for age and the treasures that accumulate with it. Helpful outlines of activities makes this resource easy to implement into any classroom. Find facts about the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Draw and color a picture of what the penny box may look like. Students explain the sentence "you worry me to death to play" in their own words. Complete a chart by matching vocabulary words to their meanings. Predict what like will be like for Michael with Aunt Dew for the next few months. Write a story describing Aunt Dew's move to Michael's home in her own point of view. 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 Hundred Penny Box is the Newbery Honor-winning story of a boy and his great-great aunt. Michael has a 100-year-old great-great aunt who keeps an old wooden box full of 100 pennies, one for each year she's been alive. Attached to each penny is a memory of what happened in Michael's aunt's life the year each coin was minted. Born in 1874, her first coin represents the Reconstruction. The 1930 penny represents the death of her husband. Michael enjoys to hear the stories attached to each penny, but soon finds that his great-great aunt is as old and feeble as the box that carries them.

Explore the ultimate first-person narrative through the eyes of a young boy and his tale of self-discovery. Our resource is developmentally appropriate for students with special needs who read at a lower grade level. Students predict who Mr. Henshaw might be, and why he would be receiving a letter. Find antonyms to the vocabulary words found in the novel. Answer multiple choice questions about Leigh. Students become Leigh and write their own list of questions for Mr. Henshaw. Solve the mystery of the lunch thief. Create a to-do list for writing based on what Mrs. Badger suggests to Leigh. Imagine how Leigh and Mr. Henshaw's relationship would progress through the years and write a new letter from Leigh as an adult. Aligned to your State Standards, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: This Newbery Medal-winning classic story is about Leigh Botts, a young boy who lives with his divorced mother and misses his father. The book is a collection of letters written from Leigh to Mr. Henshaw, his favorite author. The letters show increasing emotional and literary complexity as Leigh grows. They also reflect his desire to become a writer. Through his journal, Leigh learns a great deal about writing and about himself. The diary reveals Leigh's loneliness at school and details his troubles with an unknown schoolmate. When Leigh is in sixth grade, Mr. Henshaw writes back to answer the ten questions Leigh sent to him for the Author Report assignment. Through his journal, Leigh learns a great deal about writing and about himself.