Directions:  Students may do one or all of the activities below after reading the novel “My Side of the Mountain”.

ACTIVITY 1—Four Square Writing or Poetry:
Students will pick an animal to research that was in the novel and then either write a story using the “Four Square” Concept or write a poem about the animal.  Some of the animals to choose from include the Red Fox, Squirrel, Weasel, Mink, Skunk, Raccoon, Deer or Mouse.  After choosing your animal to research click on a link below to locate information and then begin your writing.

Red Fox—
http://library.thinkquest.org/11234/redfox.html
(Click on the link Wild Habitat to get the info on the Red Fox.)

http://www.fishbc.com/adventure/wilderness/animals/redfox.htm

Squirrel—
http://personal.boo.net/~goober/
(click on the picture to learn more)

http://clab.cecil.cc.md.us/faculty/biology/Chesapeake/squirrel.html

Weasel—
http://www.northstar.k12.ak.us/schools/joy/creamers/Mammals/Studenthtmls/Weasel/weasel.html

Mink—
http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/ammink.htm

Skunk—
http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/skunk.htm

http://www.fishbc.com/adventure/wilderness/animals/skunk.htm

Raccoon—
http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/ES/AP/forest/raccoon2.html#back

http://www.fishbc.com/adventure/wilderness/animals/raccoon.htm
 

Deer—
http://zoo.pgh.pa.us/wildlife_search_animal.asp?categoryname=Mammals&animal=20

Mouse—
 http://wildwnc.org/af/deermouse.html
 

ACTIVITY 2—Reading More Books By This Author:
Did you know that Mrs. George has written two other books that are based on the story “My Side of the Mountain”?  She has also written lots of other books.  Visit her web site in the link below to determine the names of the other two books in the “My Side” trilogy.  Also write down the names of three other books written by Mrs. George.  Write down the names of these five books and turn in your paper to your teacher.

http://www.jeancraigheadgeorge.com/
(click on the Books link--if this site is down try another link.)

http://www.alexlibris.com/bio_jgeorge.asp
(scroll down to the Works By Subject section.)
 

ACTIVITY 3—Create a presentation using PowerPoint:
One of the main characters in this novel is Frightful, the Peregrine Falcon.  Research the falcon using the links below.  You need to find out what the falcon looks like and describe its appearance, where it lives, what it eats, why it nearly became extinct and then put each of these on a slide in PowerPoint.  You will have a total of seven slides: Title Page, Introduction, Appearance, Lives, Eats, Extinction, Conclusion.  Also, you need to include a picture of the falcon in your presentation and a sound of the falcon.  Orally present your show to the class when done.

http://www.adoptabird.org/pf.html

http://www.gov.ab.ca/env/fw/threatsp/index.html

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/biology.html

http://www.raysweb.net/specialplaces/pages/falcon.html

http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/birds/
(Bird Songs or Sounds)

ACTIVITY 4— Henry David Thoreau:
Sam Gribley was likened to Thoreau in the novel “My Side of the Mountain”.  Who is Thoreau and why was Sam similar to him?  Use the links below to find similarities between the two and write down the similarities on your own sheet of paper or copy & paste the information into your word processing software like Microsoft Word.  Write down who Thoreau was and what characteristics he and Sam both had in common.  Least at least three characteristics.

http://libws66.lib.niu.edu/thoreau/bexhibit.htm

http://eserver.org/thoreau/ignored.html