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One evening a witch is flying on her broom when it loses the ability to fly. The witch falls and lands in the garden near Mina Shaw’s house. Mina Shaw, who is a widow, takes the witch in until she recovers. When she is well, the witch calls a friend to take her home and leaves the broom at Minna Shaw’s house. Minna Shaw finds out that even though the broom might not be able to fly, it can still do wondrous things!
This unit has been developed with activities and worksheets that are aligned with the Texas Essential Skills and Knowledge for easy curriculum integration. There is a video where the story is told in American Sign Langauge by Russell Harvard to help Deaf and Hard of Hearing students make better connections with the story and text to increase their literacy skills.
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Analogies
Key
Length of Activity: 15 minutes
Directions: Fill in the blanks with the correct analogy.
Key
Length of Activity: 20 minutes
Directions: Compare the relationship between Minna Shaw and the broom, and Mr. Spivey and the broom. Write specific examples.
Key
Length of Activity: 10 minutes
Directions: Answer the questions in complete sentences.
Key
Length of Activity: 15 minutes
Directions: Read Chris Van Allsburg's sentences below from The Widow's Broom. Use the context clues from the sentences to write a definition for each of the underlined words.
Inferences
Key
Length of Activity: 25 minutes
Directions: Make four inferences while reading The Widow's Broom.
Moral
Example
Length of Activity: 20 minutes
Directions: Write the moral of the story. Give details to explain how you came to this conclusion.
Key
Length of Activity: 15 minutes
Directions: In each pair of glasses, explain/define/or show examples of that point of view. When you are done, identify what point of view The Widow's Broom is written in. Provide examples.
Key
Length of Activity: 20 minutes
Directions: View the first five pages of The Widow's Broom and study the illustrations (do not read the text). When you are done, make four predictions you have for the story.
Punctuation
Key
Length of Activity: 25 minutes
Directions: Read the passage below from Chris Van Allsburg's The Widow's Broom. Determine where punctuation (including commas, apostrophes, periods, etc) should be, and add them. Be sure to make necessary edits to capitalization where necessary.
Example
Length of Activity: 20 minutes
Directions: What are sensory images? In the chart below, draw five pictures to represent the five senses. During or after reading The Widow's Broom, categorize Chris Van Allsburg's sensory details.
Summary
Key
Length of Activity: 20 minutes
Directions: Write a summary of the story The Widow's Broom.
Writing
Example
Length of Activity: 1 hour
Directions: Write a story about a broom left at your house by a witch. Explain all of it's magical powers and what happens when your neighbors and friends find out about it.
