Website Designed by Jennifer Smith

                                                                           Intended Grade Levels: 5th & 6th

 

 

 

 

Summary of the Book:

      Michael and Elizabeth are brother and sister, and they love nature.  Behind their house is a creek, and one day while panning for gold, they find something even more rich.  In the creek, they find fossils, crawdads, and plenty of other interesting things.  Also, they begin to see several kinds of wild animals and learn to identify their tracks.  Soon, Michael and Elizabeth begin spending all of their time at the creek in hopes of discovering more treasures!

 

 

About the Author:

      Scott Russell Sanders is originally from Memphis, Tennessee.  At Brown University, he studied Physics and English; four years after graduating, in 1971, he became a professor of English at Indiana University.  His first book was released in 1983 and since then, he has published eighteen more.  Scott and his family currently reside in Bloomington, Indiana.  To learn more about the author, visit his official website.

 

 

 

Instructions: Complete the following activities in the order that they are listed.  Please print each worksheet to show that you completed the activity.

 

Print off the grading rubric before you begin the activities.

   

 

 

Pre-Reading Activities

       Activity One: Print off this K-W-L chart and with a partner, fill-in the first two columns. 

                             Use the title of the book  as your topic.  Each pair needs to have at least

                              THREE items in the K and W columns.

 

   

    Activity Two: Complete the vocabulary worksheet to learn some new words before reading

                            the story.

 

 

 

   During Reading Activities

    Activity Three: Use this website to learn some basic info about wild animals.  Notice their

                                 tracks also.  Then  write down on your own paper which tracks are 

                                 are your favorite and why.

     

   

    Activity Four:  Print off the Crawdad Creek story map.  Fill-in each circle with a question

                              or a bit of interesting information while reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Reading Activities

 

    Activity Five: Complete the "Treasures from Crawdad Creek" word search.

 

   

   

    Activity Six:  On page one, Sanders writes, "The creek behind our house talks all the time.  It whispers in the hot months when the water is low. and it murmurs in the cold months under a skin of ice. After snow melts or rain falls, the creek nearly shouts."  Describe other examples of imagery and personification the author uses throughout the story.

 

**Don't forget to finish the "L" section of  your KWL chart!**

                                  

 

~Once you have completed all of the activities, please staple them all TOGETHER and place them in the Homework Rack on my desk~