Stone Fox Study Questions & Activity Ideas {FREE}

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I recently read Stone Fox and wrote study questions and activity ideas for my fifth grade daughter. I choked up at the ending just like I did when I read it in elementary school so long ago. It really is a great book -- I highly recommend it! (Age range: 7-11)

*For this book, I had my daughter read the whole thing before I gave her the questions. It's only 83 pages, so it didn't take that long. I didn't want her to read through the questions, especially since I didn't do them by chapter this time, and spoil the ending.

*I wrote these questions with my 10-year-old in mind, so you may need to adjust some of them for younger children. My daughter completed all three additional activities, and for #2 she chose to write about Samoyeds which was no surprise to me since she LOVES all things dog! (Scroll down for printable link to study questions.)

Stone Fox Study Questions

1. Describe Little Willy’s grandfather and make sure to include his occupation.

2.  What do you think is wrong with Willy’s grandfather?

3. Who is the protagonist?  By the end of the first chapter, what’s the main thing the protagonist wants? (If you don’t know what a protagonist is, look it up!)

4. In chapter 2, how does the protagonist go about accomplishing what he wants?

5. What is Little Willy’s discovery?

6. Why did Willy think his grandfather was sad about money problems?

7. Little Willy is forced into taking care of himself and his grandfather—what are some of his responsibilities?

8. If you were suddenly on your own, what would some of your responsibilities be, and how would you accomplish them?

9. Describe Searchlight. What is her role in the story?

10. Tell about the stranger who showed up at the farm. Why did he come?

11. After Willy realizes the farm could be taken away, how does he try to find a way to help? Be thorough—retrace Willy’s steps in chapter 5. End your answer with what Willy finally thinks is the way to save the farm.

12. Do people encourage or discourage Willy from entering the race? How so?

13. Write a short paragraph describing Stone Fox.

14. Why do you think Willy lied about his black eye? Do you think he should have told the truth? Why or why not?

15. Do you think everyone in the town showed up at the race to see Willy or Stone Fox? Give reasons to support your answer.

16. The first time you read the book, who did you think would win the race?  Why? Were you surprised by the ending? Why or why not?

17. Why do you think Stone Fox let Willy and Searchlight win the race?

18. Do you think Stone Fox would have let Willy win had Searchlight not collapsed? Explain your answer.

Additional Activities

1. On a separate sheet of paper, write a narrative prompt about one of your grandparents. Be sure to include vivid descriptions about things like looks, job, likes/dislikes, where he or she lives, etc. Also tell about what makes him or her special and what kinds of things you like to do together.

2.  (a) Write a short expository essay on why Little Willy is a character who shows great courage. Use examples from the book. Be creative and make sure to grab the reader with your first sentence! The first sentence should make the reader feel curiosity, humor, wonder, sympathy, mystery, fear, sorrow, anger etc. Suggestions for creating a great first sentence: Use a quote, a rhetorical question, a shocking or mysterious statement, onomatopoeia, an opinion, a scenario type statement starting with the words, Picture this:, etc. Make sure your essay has a beginning, middle, and ending.

     (b) OR research Samoyeds, the dogs Stone Fox owned, and write a short paper about them.

3. Wyoming Project: Use poster board or sturdy construction paper to cut out the shape of Wyoming. Use sticker letters or write neatly the name of the state. On your poster board state, draw or cut out and paste pictures of the state flag, state bird, state flower, state tree, important crops, landmarks, and anything else you can think of. Be sure to label all of your pictures. Mark with a star and label where the capital is. Also include somewhere on your state of Wyoming the state nickname and the year it became a state. Do your best to make your project neat and colorful!

Click on link to download Stone Fox study questions.


Here's my daughter's Wyoming project. It was definitely an easy state to cut out! :)

Hope you enjoy the book, and feel free to ask any questions you may have. If you  need the book, please consider using my amazon affiliate link -- thanks!



Linked to WFMW, Mommy Monday Blog Hop, Hip Homeschool Hop, A Little Bird Told Me, Literacy Musing Mondays, Thoughtful Thursdays

Rump: Discussion Questions & Activity Ideas

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This past summer my daughter and I hosted a book club for a few girls (ages 8 & up) in our homeschool group. We started off with a list of around 50 books from which to choose. With a little help from girls in the group, we finally narrowed down our choices to 4 books: Rump: The True Story of Rumpelsiltskin, All-of-a-Kind Family, The Fairy's Mistake, and Remarkable.

The girls met twice a month during June and July, so they had about 2 weeks to read the assigned books before meeting for discussion and fun. :) (It also gave me time to read the books and make up questions!) We kicked off the book club with Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff.

Rump was by far my favorite book out of the 4 we read. Full of magic and everything fairy tale, it was fun following Rump on his quest to find his true name and his destiny right along with it.

Following are 21 discussion questions (no need to have a book club to answer them), and at the end you can click on a link (google doc) for a free printable version. After the questions, you'll find a link to an activity and some ideas for food fun.

Book Club Questions for

RUMP: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

By Liesl Shurtliff

1.  Rump is set in a magical kingdom where destiny is determined by a person’s name. How do you think names affect people? Do you think your life would be different if you had a different name?

2.  Share what’s special about your name (first and middle) or how your parents came up with it.

3.  Have you ever made fun of someone because of his/her name? Has anyone ever made fun of your name?

4.  Why do you think you should be careful to not to make fun of others?

5.  If you’re familiar with the original story of Rumpelstiltskin, can you think of some events or actions from that tale that are explained in Rump? What are some things Liesl Shurtliff changed in her story?

6.  Who is Red? What do we know about her? What do Rump and Red have in common? How are they different from each other?

7.  Who is your favorite character in the story? Why?

8.  Which character are you most like?

9.  What are pixies in this particular story? Are they helpful or harmful? Why?

10.  Try to name other fairy tales mentioned in the book. I think I counted at least 6.

11.  Rump wanted to see Kessler turn one thing into something else – remember that? (p. 31) If you could turn only one thing into something else, what would it be? Can you think of any instances in the Bible where one thing was turned into something else? (There’s more than one example!)

12.  Do you think Rump was greedy for wanting to spin straw into gold? Why or why not? Before Gran dies, where does she tell Rump to spin gold? (p. 61) What do you think she meant by that?

13.  Greed could be considered one of the themes in Rump – do you ever struggle with being greedy? How so? What does the Bible have to say about greed? (Verses to look up: 1 Timothy 6:6-9; Luke 12:15)

14.  Granny says to Rump, “Every strength can become a weakness.” What do you think she means? (p. 85)

15.  This book is full of magic, and it has serious consequences. What was the main consequence of Rump’s magic? (p.87) (p. 172-173 also explain consequences of magic further.)

16.  Would you be tempted to use magic even if you knew it was evil and could cause bad things to happen?

17.  What does “rumpel” mean? (p. 176)

18.  What does “stiltskin” mean? (p. 88)

19.  Hadel, one of the wool witches, says on p. 195, “When you get your wool tangled in a knot, only the tangler can get it untangled.” What does she mean by that?

 20.  A quote to love: “It’s the people who cause the trouble, Rump. Not the magic itself.” Do you like it? What does it mean to you?

21. Did you like the book? Why or why not?

* Note: depending on which Rump book you use, page numbers referred to in the questions may or may not match.

 Click link to print Rump discussion questions for free.

Rump is available on Amazon:

 

Activity ideas: 

1. Your Name Is Your Destiny Worksheet

Rumpelstiltskin is a fun, silly name. Not only that, it's also quite a mouthful! I had fun creating a simple name activity that all the girls enjoyed. Basically, you come up with a new name using your own first name spelled backwards and adding on a few things that pertain to you. Look below at the picture of the worksheet that I filled out to get a better understanding of what to do.

Click link to print Your Name Is Your Destiny activity page

* I created this worksheet with girls in mind since it was for an all girls book club. If you want to use the activity for a boy, you will probably want to change the birthstone and tree/flower fill-in-the-blanks to something else. ;)

2. Read Rumpelstiltskin story based on original fairy tale

Online resources:

Grimm Brothers fairytale

Read-aloud story on YouTube

Animated fairytale on YouTube

Books:



Food Fun

I wanted to go with a straw-into-gold theme for the book club snack, so I chose veggie sticks (the yellow ones) and a can of shoestring potatoes to represent the straw and yellow cupcakes surrounded by gold coin chocolate candy to represent the gold. 

I wasn't sure which would work better, so I bought both veggie sticks and shoestring potatoes. If I did it again, I'd probably just go with 2-3 cans of shoestring potatoes.

Other ideas to represent gold: gumballs, lemon drops, butterscotch candies, Rolos, and really any type of yellow candy. For a healthy gold option, you could cut up fresh pineapple into bite-size chunks. Even though I think decorating with candy is so pretty, I didn't use it exclusively since it can get a bit pricey!

Gold candy options to check out on Amazon:

Quantity will depend on how high you want to pile your gold. I'm not linking to anything chocolate since it might melt in the mail! Check out party stores if you really want chocolate gold coins. :)

Amazon also has shoestring potatoes if you can't find them at your local store:




Quantity will depend on how high you want to pile your "straw."

The girls had fun discussing Rump questions and decorating folders to store all of their summer book club questions. 

Hope you enjoy Rump as much as we did!! Be sure to check out Liesl Shurtliff's latest book, Jack: The true story of Jack & The Beanstalk. My daughter finished reading it not too long ago. :)

Linked to WFMW, Hip Homeschool Hop, Literacy Musing Mondays

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Muddy Buddies Without Peanut Butter

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These Mudddy Buddies (or Puppy Chow or whatever you may call it) went incredibly fast at my house! Replacing peanut butter with almond butter worked great. I had to use almond butter so one of my kids wouldn't be left out of this bowl full of crunchy, chocolatey yumminess. :)

See below for the super easy recipe and the kind of peanut free & gluten free almond butter I used to make this delicious treat.

Muddy Buddies Without Peanut Butter

You will need:

• 9 cups rice cereal squares
• 1/2 cup smooth and creamy almond butter
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups powdered sugar

What you'll do:

Pour rice cereal into large bowl. Melt chocolate chips slowly in heavy sauce pan (what I did) or double boiler over low heat, stirring constantly. Add almond butter and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and pour over rice cereal. Stir with spatula until cereal is evenly coated. Put 1/2 of the mixture into a large zip-top plastic bag and add 1/2 of the powdered sugar. Seal bag, then shake it up until completely coated. Transfer Muddy Buddies to a pretty serving bowl. Repeat process with remaining cereal mixture and powdered sugar. 

Here's the almond butter I used to make the Muddy Buddies. It's made with blanched roasted almonds, organic cane sugar (3 grams per 2 Tbsp), palm fruit oil, and sea salt.

Can't find it at your store? You can order from Amazon and choose between a 16 oz or 10 oz 3-pack:



Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!

*Affiliate links used in this post.

Linked to Try  A New Recipe Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays

Homemade (Not Too Sweet) Coleslaw

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Coleslaw is one of my favorite summer side dishes. Even though I will eat it on the sweet side, this recipe is less sweet but just right! In fact, as soon as I post this, I'm going to go make some. :)

What you'll need:

• 1 bag of shredded coleslaw 
• 1/4 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1/2 tsp. of favorite seasoning salt (I use a blend of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and turmeric.)
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. lemon pepper
• 1 TBS. white sugar
• 2 1/4 TBS. white vinegar
• Dash of dry mustard
• Dash of paprika

What you'll do:

Mix all ingredients thoroughly with a spoon. Dust the top with more pepper and seasonings as you wish. Cover and refrigerate for about 2-3 hours or more. You may or may not need to add more mayo - depends on how creamy you like it.

* I often double this recipe to make sure there are plenty of leftovers!

Linked to WFMW , Try A New Recipe Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays

Summer 2015 Memories

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It seems that no matter what trials and troubles may come our way, there's always plenty of fun and blessings to go around, too. So, here's to some of the memories during our summer of 2015. For my family . . .

Kicking off summer vacation with a trip to Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park with my sweet girl and our friends.

The end-of-spring flowers were just gorgeous there!

Lots of Catan!

Girl trip to Glendale to see my grandpa.

Book Club meetings

Baking and hanging out with friends

Just mom and me trip to Carlsbad

All the cousins together

Father's Day

Shiloh turning double digits - 10- yikes!

Mullin's first time to go on a trip without us.

Amazing Jakes fun

My chalk paint class with my friend :)

End of summer day trip to Tempe to see a cool cave.

My prayer for you all is that you will always take with you all of the good memories that our family has made together! I love you. Mom