Get a sense of the remarkable injustices experienced by both horses and the people of the day. Incorporate well-thought-out questions that encourage students to really think about their answers. Determine the setting of the novel based only on a few details from the story. Prepare for the reading by investigating the purpose of the spur in horseback riding. Finish sentences from the book with their missing vocabulary words. Identify Joe's error in judgment when tending to Black Beauty. Explore ways some of the cruelties experienced by the horses in this novel could have been prevented. Write a short book review of the novel, and post it online. Choose a major event from the book and complete a concept wheel with details on who, what, when, where, and why. Aligned to your State Standards, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Nothing could defeat the spirit of this gentle and courageous horse, Black Beauty! One of the most endearing stories of all time is set in England during the mid-1800s, and is told from the perspective of its main character. Black Beauty shares his adventures from his days as a young colt in the pastures of Farmer Grey, through different owners and into his twilight years. Tragedy seems to shape the course of Black Beauty’s life as he learns much of the world through the friendships with different horses: the tragic life of Ginger, the brave and noble Captain, and the fun-loving Merrylegs.

Suspenseful, moving account of a horse's experiences at the hands of many different owners, retold in large type, and illustrated with 35 ready-to-color scenes.

Students are taken out of their comfort zone to experience a year in the country. Additional writing tasks offer great options for extra work. List things that are different between Mary Alice's world and the present. Translate two different expressions Mary Alice uses to describe her grandmother. Put events from the story in order as they happened with Mary Alice and Grandma on Halloween. Write a letter to Mary Alice's mother in her own words in an attempt to change her opinion of the grandmother. Students identify who the antagonist of the story is and defend their opinion. Create a travel brochure for Chicago, Illinois. Aligned to your State Standards, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: A Year Down Yonder is a Newbery Medal-winning story about a young girl who must spend a year living with her grandmother in the country. Mary Alice spent her childhood summers staying with her grandmother in a small country-town in Illinois. These summers were packed with enough surprises and drama to fill the double bill of any picture show. Now, Mary Alice is fifteen and must spend a whole year with her grandmother, away from her Chicago home. Over the course of the year, Mary Alice experiences a hurricane, fox-hunting by night, a late-night raid of a pecan tree and pumpkin patch, a huge snake in the attic, and a community rife with hardship and social pretenses. A Year Down Yonder is a hilariously funny and heart-warming novel.

Follow the adventures of a young horse in Victorian England, beginning with his idyllic upbringing with his mother on a farm, to his short career as a carriage horse for a wealthy family, to his tough and often abusive work as a cab horse. From the kindest to the cruelest of owners, Black Beauty always tries to listen to his mother's advice and do his work with a good will. This book was hugely influential in cultivating public interest in making sure horses were treated without cruelty. An ardent advocate for animal welfare, English author Anna Sewell published her first and only novel in 1877, five months before her death. This unabridged version was taken from the 1911 American copyright edition.

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.

Learn the importance of having skills for wilderness survival. Offer students a variety of objective and subjective questions. Get a clear understanding of the setting by comparing 1768 with today. Explore the concept of stereotyping with Matt's interaction with Attean. Students write an alternate ending to the incident with the bear that reflects how they would have reacted in that situation. Match vocabulary words found in the novel with their meanings. Write an editorial for the local newspaper for or against the use of leg traps. Compare Attean's, Matt's and today's society and culture by finding similarities and differences between food, housing and clothing. Aligned to your State Standards, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: A story of wilderness survival in 18th Century Maine, about a young boy who is caught between two worlds. Shortly after Matt and his father finish building a cabin on their new settlement, Matt finds himself alone in the Maine wilderness with his nearest neighbor several miles away. With his father returning to civilization to get their family, Matt’s adventures begin. Matt is stung nearly to death by a swarm of bees, but manages to survive with the help of two local Natives—Attean and his grandfather, Saknis. As the summer progresses, the two boys have a number of adventures together, including killing an angry bear. In autumn, Matt is rejoined with his parents just after the snow flies.

A dystopian future set underground brings to light the struggles that humanity will endure in order to survive. The variety of engaging activities can be easily broken up over several weeks to coordinate with assigned reading. Describe in detail the city of Ember, from how it looks to how it operates. Analyze the chapter titles and dissect what they could allude to. Explain what we as readers discover about Ember when Doon visits the library. Answer comprehension questions about events in the book surrounding Doon’s investigation in the tunnels. Create your own list of instructions that have been damaged and have a partner decipher what they are for. Plot the important moments or points of action from the story in a Pipeline Timeline graphic organizer. 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 City of Ember tells the tale of a society living underground for hundreds of years and the two kids who must bring them into the light. Hundreds of years earlier, a group of people descended underground in hopes to save the human race from extinction. They had enough supplies and power to last them for over 200 years, at which point, instructions on how to return to the surface would be revealed. The only problem is, no one knows these instructions exist, and when they are revealed, they are destroyed. It’s up to Lina and Doon to decipher the few clues they have, locate the way out, and get this news back to their people. But it’s not that easy. In their attempts to find the way out, Lina and Doon stumble on a conspiracy that involves the Mayor and city guards. As such, they are now being hunted as fugitives. Their nearly impossible task just got harder. Now they must race against the clock to escape from Ember with no knowledge of where they are going, and how they can get back to save everyone else.