Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Literature Circle: Surviving the Applewhites


Surviving the Applewhites
by Stephanie S. Tolan


Mon Sep 14

    pass out books

    pre-reading activities from p.4
    #7 - Predicting (juvenile delinquent, home school, acceptance, community theater, butterflies, television documentary)

    reading assignment: chapters 1-3


Wed Sep 16

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapter 4


Mon Sep 21

    begin Word Maps - FREE at TpT

    vocabulary activity: part of speech, dictionary definition, sentence
    (Ashram, blearily, choreography, delinquent, documentary, incessant, intention, melliflous, metamorphosis, pathologically, patriarch, personified, probation, unmitigated, variegated)

    reading assignment: chapters 5-9


Wed Sep 23

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapters 10-13


Mon Sep 28

    continue with Word Maps

    reading assignment: chapters 14-19


Wed Sep 30


Mon Oct 5

    extension activity for color-blind casting

    "The Little Mermaid"


    writing assignment: pretend you are Randolph and write a letter responding to the article you read (by Tayo Bero, Chloe McGowan, or Susan Muaddi Darraj) and expressing support for color-blind casting

    reading assignment: chapter 20


Wed Oct 7

    lunch group meeting

    read aloud chapter 21 together and make predictions

    reading assignment: finish reading book (by Wed)


Mon Oct 12


Wed Oct 14

    lunch group meeting

    choose book report project
    (post-reading extension activities from p.26)

    #2 - Read aloud scenes in the novel with different students assuming different character roles.

    #3 - Pretend you are Jake. Write two letters to his parents in jail, one from his third day with the Applewhites and one from the day after the premiere of the musical.

    #8 - Pick one chaper from the book and draw an illustration that could accompany the chapter.

    #9 - Make a timeline of all the events in the book with short annotations and illustrations.

    #11 - Design a bulletin board on metamorphosis.

    #13 - Complete the feelings chart on p.13 of this guide for Jake.


Mon Oct 19

    work on book report project


Wed Oct 21

    present book reports (whole class)

    gather into new book groups and introduce new books


We can't do this as a school, but families may want to watch The Sound of Music at home as a good follow-up to this book!


Main resource:


More resources / ideas:

These links are from my background research and not to hand off to children (in particular, the FOX News panel discussion of this film)


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

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