Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This sentence from Chapter 2 shows the author piling up four sense-words in a row — warm, moist, sticky, oozy — to let the reader feel the mud the way a pig feels it. Copying it teaches a young writer that good sentences can pile up describing words to paint a very clear picture, and that even a sentence about mud can sound like poetry if the words are chosen with care.
Wilbur amused himself in the mud along the edge of the brook, where it was warm and moist and delightfully sticky and oozy.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell someone what happened in Chapter 2 in order. Start when Fern is still taking care of Wilbur at home, and go all the way to the last sentence of the chapter. When you get to the part where Mr. Arable says Wilbur has to be sold, slow down and tell that part carefully. What did Fern do? What did she feel? Why was that the most important part?
Discussion Questions
- Wilbur follows Fern everywhere in this chapter. He waits at the bottom of the stairs when she goes upstairs, he rides in the doll carriage under a blanket, and he wades into the cold brook right after her. What in the story makes you think Wilbur loves Fern back? How do you know it is not just that she feeds him?
- When Mr. Arable says Wilbur has to be sold because he is too expensive to feed, Fern breaks down and weeps. Was Mr. Arable being mean, or was he being practical? What in the story makes you think so?
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
To pet something softly with your hand
Item 2
To look at something for a long time
Item 3
The long front of a pig's face
+ 7 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
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