"The Watcher" Jane Goodall Biography Book Companion Activities

This picture book companion is a complete supplemental resource for Jeanette Winter's book, The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps. It's a great addition to units on Women's History Month, women in STEM, endangered species, chimpanzees, influential people in history, or biographies.

With 48 print-and-go reading activities to choose from, this resource is ideal for customizing learning to your student's specific needs and academic abilities. Students will investigate characters, identify story elements, determine the theme, conduct research, learn and apply new vocabulary, practice plotting story events, analyze and compare quotes, make predictions & connections, respond to questions related to the story, and much more!

It's the ideal interactive read-aloud to learn about Dr. Jane Goodall, the primatologist whose groundbreaking chimpanzee studies in Tanzania, East Africa, changed the way we think about wildlife forever! It's also fantastic to teach students about patience, resilience, passion, dedication, standing up for what you believe in, hope, unity, and so much more! Students will love the engaging and fun activities, and you will appreciate the time saved hunting for high-level resources to teach reading concepts that students frequently struggle with.

The activities provided are designed to enable students to apply higher-level thinking skills, to encourage students to provide text evidence to support their thinking, and to challenge students to express their own thoughts and/or perspectives.

⭐️This Resource Includes:⭐️

• Making Predictions - Before reading the book, students will make predictions about the text.

• Story Elements - Students fill in the boxes with words and pictures to represent the story elements.

• Summarizing - Students complete the Somebody, Wanted, Because, But, So graphic organizer and write a summary of the story.

• Cause & Effect - Students will identify 4 cause and effect examples from the story.

• Chain of Events - Students will show how one event led to another in the story.

• Problem & Solution - Students will identify problems & solutions in the story.

• Setting Influences the Plot - Students will answer the questions about the setting of the story to gain a better understanding of how a story's setting helps to build the narrative’s mood, plot, and character development.

• Story Plot - Students organize the events of the story on the graphic organizer.

• Timeline of Events - Students will use the story, the biography at the end of the book, and/or research to create a timeline of the character's life.

• Character Inside & Out - Students include details from the story to describe what the character says, thinks, does, and feels.

• Character Traits - 3 differentiated versions are included for this activity. Students will choose important character traits that describe the main character and provide evidence from the text to support their choices.

• Overcoming Obstacles - Students will fill in the T-Chart with physical, emotional, or mental obstacles the character faced and describe their response to those challenges.

• Character Change - Students choose character traits to describe how the character changed throughout the story and support their thinking with evidence from the text.

• Character Development - Students describe how the character changed and developed throughout the story, state their opinion regarding which event impacted the character the most, and support their thinking with evidence from the text.

• Character Perspective - Students will compare Jane Goodall's perspective to the chimpanzees' perspectives in the story by drawing a picture and adding words to the thought bubbles.

• Character Summary - Students will summarize the main character, focusing on challenges, responses to challenges, flaws, positive characteristics, and completing a timeline of five events that showcase the character's behavior.

• Making Connections - Students make connections to an event from the story.

• Making Inferences - Students use clues and schema to come up with two inferences they make from the text.

• Theme #1 - Students answer the questions to determine which theme best fits the story and provide text evidence to support their choice.

• Theme #2 - Students answer the questions to determine the theme of the story and provide text evidence.

• Thematic Statements - Students choose the thematic statement that they believe best fits the story and include evidence from the text to support their choice.

• Reader Response Questions - Students will respond to short-answer questions (ANSWER KEY included).

• Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle - Students will complete crossword puzzles by matching words from the story to their definitions (ANSWER KEYS included).

• Vocabulary Word Search Puzzle - Students will find the hidden words in the puzzle (ANSWER KEY included).

• Sensory Details - Students choose an event from the story and describe it with the five senses.

• 2-Quote Connections - Students will read the provided quote and give thoughtful responses to the questions using the story, personal experiences, background knowledge, and opinions to guide their responses.

• Quote Cards – Included are 36 quotes by Jane Goodall. Students will use the quotations to complete the following activities.

• Quote Pair Up - Students choose quote cards to compare and contrast.

• Inspirational Quote – Students will choose a quote card and add an illustration that depicts the quote to create an inspirational poster.

• The Perfect Playlist - Students will design a soundtrack for the story, which includes creating a playlist of FOUR songs that represent four BIG IDEAS consistently seen throughout the book and designing an album cover that symbolizes the theme of the story.

• Chimps on Social Media - Students create an Instagram post of Jane Goodall interacting with the chimps.

• 8-Writing Prompts - Students respond to writing prompts with personal opinions, experiences, and or evidence from the text to support their thinking.

• Save the Chimps - Students will conduct research to learn more about chimpanzee conservation efforts and create an informational brochure. Includes 2 tri-fold brochure options (with writing lines & without) for double-sided printing.

• Biography - Students research further into the life of the character.

• Who Is Jane Goodall? - Students conduct research to learn more about the character's life and complete a biography one-pager.

• Endangered Species Research Project - Students will research an endangered species and create a final product (brochure, infographic, digital presentation, etc.).

• Infographic Planning Sheet - Students will complete the planning sheet and create an infographic for the endangered species they researched.

• Book Review – Students rate how much they enjoyed the book, draw a new cover, and explain why kids should or should not read it.

• Design a Book Cover – Students design a new cover for the book.

💡Need ideas for different ways you can implement these activities?

• Focus on different reading skills each day for targeted instruction, and have students complete a corresponding printable to check for understanding.

• During centers, students can independently read the story again and complete an activity that reviews a previously taught concept.

• Work with students on a reading concept they struggle with during guided reading or strategy groups.

• Students work with a partner or in literature circles to complete additional reading activities.

This resource is for extension read-aloud activities only. The book is not included.

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