Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This is the father's gentle answer to the mother's worry — and the chapter's open door. He chuckles instead of frowning, and his first three words leave room for wonder: 'Maybe they do.' The reader, who has heard the animals talk for seven chapters, knows something Mr. Arable only suspects. Copying the passage gives practice with a short action sentence before a speech, quotation marks around a longer reply, and a dash that adds an explanation.
Mr. Arable chuckled. "Maybe they do talk," he said. "I've sometimes wondered. At any rate, don't worry about Fern - she's just got a lively imagination. Kids think they hear all sorts of things."
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell the story of the breakfast in order: what Fern reports about the goslings and the egg, how she introduces Charlotte as Wilbur's best friend, the questions her parents ask about Templeton and Charlotte, the speech Fern remembers word for word, and what her mother and father each say after she runs upstairs. Finish by telling who plans to visit Dr. Dorian, and what the father's last words were.
Discussion Questions
- When Fern says 'everybody in the barn cellar' and ends her list with 'and me,' what does that tell us about how she thinks of the barn and the animals there? Use the words of her list to explain what the 'and me' shows.
- The same breakfast holds two different feelings: Fern tells her barn news happily, while her mother listens 'with a worried expression on her face.' Why might a story that makes Fern happy make her mother worried? Use the words of Fern's telling and the details of her mother's looks to explain what each of them hears in the same story.
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary
Item 1
Loves with the whole heart.
Item 2
Talked on and on, wandering from one thing to the next.
Item 3
Full of life and energy.
+ 6 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
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