The Wednesday Surprise
by Eve Bunting
illustrated by Donald Carrick

About the Author

About the Illustrator

Respond to this book on the Powers Ferry blog

Words and Phrases to Explore

Curriculum Connections

• To build background knowledge consider using physical items such as a cloth bag, pebble, wildflowers, pot roast, websites, and videos from unitedstreaming.

• Have you ever helped an adult learn something new? A new language, a song, a game, to read, etc.

• Do you have extended family that lives nearby?

• What type of family celebrations do you have?

English/Language Arts

Readers Workshop

• Making Predictions
• Making Connections
• Character traits
• Figures of Speech
• Book Titles - Written in italics

Writers Workshop

• Narrative Writing
• Building Suspense - clues...How did Grandma and Anna hid their surprise from the family?
• Surprise Ending - How did the author lead us to believe Anna, the little girl, was learning to read? 
• Procedural Writing - Write directions for something you could teach others to do.  Write a procedural paper listing the steps in planning a party for a family member
• Descriptive language - brimming with tears
• Dialogue - Using punctuation, new paragraphs for new speakers.

Math

• Create a birthday graph or a book graph.

Social Studies

• Families - Who are the members of your family?  Do they include any grandparents?

Science

• Desert - Dad brought Anna a pebble from the desert.  What is a desert?

Activities Integrating Technology

Graph Club

• Create a graph of classroom birthdays.  Expand your graph to include the entire grade level.
• Looking at reading logs, create a graph that shows how many books have been read for the year.

Kidspiration

• Use the character template to list character traits for Anna and Grandma. Lesson plan for this activity.
• Show the Text to Self, Text to Text, and Text to World connections that you made with the book.

Video Streaming - Listed below are titles that are available at www.unitedstreaming.com.  Please preview any videos before using them with students.  You may also want to import the video into PowerPoint and then create questions to use with Beyond Question.

• Away We Go:  All about Transportation
• Desert Habitats

Related Websites

Discussion Guide

Cross Curricular Connections - A page set up by McGraw Hill.  Includes technology connections for deserts, holidays, and achievements.

Lesson Plans

• Grade 2 - Surprises:  Reading - Draws conclusions, makes predictions, and comparisons.
  
   

Updated On: April 18, 2007