Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This thought is the turn of the whole escape. Wilbur pushed through the loose board to get out of his yard, but in the middle of the chase, with everybody after him, he decides the pen he wanted to leave is better than being free and afraid. The two short sentences show his panic, and his thought is split in two around 'he thought,' so copying it gives practice opening and closing quotation marks twice — like Fern's brave words in chapter one.
Wilbur didn't know what to do or which way to run. It seemed as though everybody was after him. "If this is what it's like to be free," he thought, "I believe I'd rather be penned up in my own yard."
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Close your book and tell the story of Wilbur's day, just the way it happened. Start with how lonely he felt in his yard. Then tell what the goose said about the loose board, what Wilbur did under the apple tree, and what the big chase was like. Finish with how Mr. Zuckerman brought him home. Try to keep everything in order, from the very start to the very end.
Discussion Questions
- At the start of the chapter, Wilbur stands in his yard and says, 'I'm less than two months old and I'm tired of living.' But by four o'clock he is back in that very same yard, feeling peaceful and happy and sleepy. The yard did not change at all - so why do you think Wilbur changed? Think about everything that happened to him in between, and use the chapter's details to explain his change.
- When Mr. Zuckerman holds out the pail of slops, the goose shouts that it is the old pail trick, and that an hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops. But Wilbur hears her and keeps right on walking toward the pail anyway. Why do you think the goose and Wilbur want such different things in this moment? Use the goose's words and what Wilbur does in this scene to tell about both sides.
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary
Item 1
Out in the open, able to go anywhere, with no fence holding you in.
Item 2
Not held tight; easy to push, wiggle, or move.
Item 3
To pull someone closer by offering something they really want.
+ 7 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 4 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free