Blueberries for Sal Reading Activities For Senior

Blueberries for Sal  
by Robert McCloskey. Viking, 1978. 
Activities ©2003 Nancy Polette

ABOUT THE BOOK A mother and her child go berry picking on Blueberry Hill. Mother wants to can the berries for winter. A mother bear and her cub go berry eating on Blueberry Hill at the same time. Mother Bear wants her cub to eat lots of berries to get ready for winter. Imagine the surprised mothers when they turn around to find each other's children behind them! Both mothers walked quickly away...mother to find Sal and Mother Bear to find her cub. All ends happily when mothers and children do find each other.

SINGING THE STORY  Fill in the missing words. Sing the song to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean". Oh, Sal and her (1) M _____________________________ went walking All over the Blueberry (2) H ______________________________________ They wanted to pick sweet, ripe (3) b ______________________________ And each had a tin pail to fill. Chorus Mother picked and She filled up her (4) p ____________________________ to the very top Sal dropped (5) b ______________________________________ The sound that they made was ker-plop. A bear and her (6) c ________________________ they went walking To find lots of good things to (7) e _______________________________ The next thing they knew they got parted Then Sal and the Mother (8) b _____________________________ meet. The baby bear followed Sal's (9) m _______________________________ Who thought (10) S __________________________ was walking behind Both mothers took off to go hunting Their own little children to find.

JOURNAL WRITING Directions: Choose one of the sentence starters below. Finish the sentence and write two more sentences about the topic. 1. Picking berries can be fun when... 2. A baby bear needs its mother because... 3. Walking in the woods... 4. Getting lost from your mother... 5. Things to make with blueberries... 6. Sounds that bears make are.... 7. Sounds that children make are.... 8. Things to do to prepare for winter...

DISCUSSING THE STORY1. Did Sal's mother expect her to fill her pail with berries? Why or why not? 2. Why was Mother Bear afraid of Sal? 3. Why did Sal's mother run away from Little Bear? 4. How many things can you name that are made of blueberries? 5. Why did Mother Bear want Little Bear to eat lots of berries? 6. How do you think Sal felt when she saw she was following Mother Bear?

SEQUENCING, CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATIONDirections: Cut apart the story strips and place in correct order to tell the story. Add capital letters and punctuation marks where needed. 1. blueberry hill to pick berries 2. and finally found their children 3. blueberry hill to eat berries 4. mother bear and little bear went to 5. both mothers looked for 6. mother and sal went to 7. little bear followed sals mother 8. sal followed mother bear

LEARNING ABOUT BEARS From the encyclopedia or a book about bears, find out what bears eat. Make a list. What bears eat: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Choose another forest animal. Find out what it eats. Make a list. What ____________________ eat: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Use the pattern below to report your information: If I had the appetite of a bear, I would eat _____________________ And ____________________________ But I wouldn't eat ______________________ Because only ___________________ eat that. Example: If I had the appetite of a wart hog, I would eat roots, plants, bird's eggs And even small animals. But I wouldn't eat caribou Because wolves eat that.