Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Chosen because these two short sentences hold the whole rainy day. All morning Wilbur turns down breakfast and asks everyone to play, and here the chapter says why in plain words: the empty thing was not his trough. Copying the pair gives practice with a comma joining two halves of one idea, and a dash that opens like a little door to explain what Wilbur means by 'a friend.'
Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love. He wanted a friend - someone who would play with him.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Close your book and tell Wilbur's rainy day in order. Start with the rain spoiling his big plans. Then tell who he asked to play — the goose, the lamb, Templeton — and what each one said. Tell about the medicine, and end with the small voice in the darkness and what it promised. Try to keep every part in the order it happened.
Discussion Questions
- Lurvy bangs the pail at six-thirty and calls, 'C'mon, pig!' — but Wilbur does not budge, and his big breakfast just sits there in the rain. Why do you think food is not enough for Wilbur on this rainy day? What part of the chapter helps you decide what he really wanted instead?
- Wilbur asks three animals to play. The goose says no because she is sitting on eight eggs and must keep them warm. The lamb says no because 'pigs mean less than nothing' to him. Templeton says no because he hardly knows what play means. Why is each no different from the others? Use each animal's own words from the chapter, and talk about what the three answers tell us about the goose, the lamb, and the rat.
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Things you decide ahead of time that you will do.
Item 2
To move even a tiny bit.
Item 3
Sad because you feel all by yourself.
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Critical Thinking
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