A Little Princess - Chapter 5

Study guide for 1st – 3rd Grade

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Copywork

About This Passage

Sara has just found Becky, the tired little servant girl, asleep in her chair and frightened of being scolded. Instead of being angry, Sara speaks to her gently, 'quite as if she had been speaking to a little girl like herself.' Becky has never heard such a kind voice, because she is used to being ordered about and scolded. Copying this sentence helps a young reader feel how Sara treats a poor servant as an equal and a friend, the way she would want to be treated herself.

“Don’t be frightened,” she said, quite as if she had been speaking to a little girl like herself. “It doesn’t matter the least bit.”

Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.

Discussion Questions

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 5 in your own words: how the tired little servant girl Becky listens to Sara's story by the schoolroom fire, how Sara later finds her asleep in her chair and is kind instead of cross, how Sara gives her cake and treats her like a friend, and how Sara decides at the end that doing kind things for people is like a princess scattering gifts.

Discussion Questions

  1. When Sara finds Becky asleep in her chair, she could have scolded her, but she chooses kindness instead. Why does Sara make that choice, and which detail from how they talk shows you what Sara cares about most?
  2. Sara tells Becky it is 'just an accident' that she is the rich pupil and Becky is the poor servant. What does Sara mean about why one girl has so much and the other has so little, and how do you know that from the way she speaks to Becky?

+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide

Vocabulary

Item 1

Shy and easily frightened.

Item 2

Sad and lonely; left all alone.

Item 3

A person made to do hard, dull, tiring work.

+ 6 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide

Critical Thinking

+ 4 more questions in the complete study guide

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