Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This passage was chosen for one small echo that holds the whole afternoon. The barnyard animals thrill that a friend is 'no longer penned up' — and moments later Wilbur, dazed by the chase, decides he would rather be 'penned up in my own yard.' E.B. White hands the same phrase to both sides, and between them its meaning flips from prison to shelter. As your child copies, the words get to do the teaching. There is also a quiet skill tucked inside: an interrupted thought, where 'he thought' splits the quotation, and the commas stay snug inside the quotation marks.
Every animal stirred and lifted its head and became excited to know that one of his friends had got free and was no longer penned up or tied fast. Wilbur didn't know what to do or which way to run. I...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter's one wild afternoon in order: how Wilbur gets out of his yard, what he does under the apple tree, who joins the chase and what they shout, how Mr. Zuckerman finally leads him home, and what Lurvy does with the loose board at the end. Keep the turns straight — the afternoon goes from boring to happy to frightening to safe.
Discussion Questions
- The chapter opens with a whole page about how good the barn is — warm in winter, cool in summer, smelling of hay, a place where it seems "nothing bad could happen ever again in the world." Yet inside this wonderful barn, Wilbur stands in his yard thinking, "There's never anything to do around here." Why do you think E.B. White makes the barn sound so safe and comfortable right before showing us how miserable Wilbur feels inside it? Gather details from the barn description and from Wilbur's bored afternoon, so both sides of the question get a fair hearing.
- When the goose hollers the news, every animal stirs and becomes "excited to know that one of his friends had got free." But Wilbur — the one actually loose — ends up "dazed and frightened," crying so hard he can barely see. Why does the escape feel so thrilling to the animals watching from their stalls and pens, and so awful to the pig living it? Use the scene where everyone shouts instructions at once, and look closely at what all that shouting does to Wilbur.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Being able to go where you like and do what you choose, with nothing holding you in.
Item 2
A loud uproar of shouting and noise made by many excited voices.
Item 3
So confused and stunned that you can hardly think or see straight.
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 5 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