LitWits Printables for
by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Make this book a thoughtful, hands-on experience for kids—so they want to read more!
This set of activity printables and worksheets, used with our free creative teaching ideas, helps you bring the story to life in meaningful ways.
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Change their minds—and lives—in just one day.
Our printables and creative teaching ideas get kids INTO this story in fun, hands-on ways! They have a blast doing what the characters did, and learning what the characters learned. They also learn that great books are fascinating—and they want to read more.
Use our printables set and creative ideas to engage, educate, and inspire! Perfect for:
homeschool educators
classroom teachers
book club leaders
teacher librarians
anyone who wants to inspire kids to love great books!
ACTIVITY PRINTABLES
For activity descriptions, supplies, and directions, see our page of Creative Teaching Ideas for Farewell to Manzanar.
"Mess Hall Mess" and "Wishbook Wonders" - labels for snack activities intended to reflect the bewilderment, unfamiliarity, frustration, indignity, and cultural misunderstandings of the internment experience, to increase empathy
"A View from Manzanar" - template for art project emulating Jeanne's father as he painted Mt. Whitney, to emphasize that this was his only view, and not by choice
"Patterns of Expression" - project template to design and recreate the linoleum floors as an example of shikata ga nai--getting through what must be gotten through without losing who you are; teaches the coping skill and resourcefulness of making the best of a bad situation.
INTERACTIVE WORKSHEETS
StoryLines (with key) - narrative arc worksheet for learning the concept of the narrative arc, and ordering the plot points of this story
Whereabouts (with key)- setting worksheet for marking key locations in the story
Happenings - "A Brief Overview" handout (noninteractive0 summarizing key historical events in the story
Brave New Words (with key) - "Japanese" vocabulary worksheet for learning and using Japanese words from context and image clues
Write Angles - "A Symbolic Song" creative writing worksheet to analyze, comprehend the symbolism of the Japanese national anthem, and write one's own
Write Angles - "If That Happened to Me" creative writing worksheet for understanding, empathy-building, decision-making, and self-expression skills
StoryLines (with key) - narrative arc worksheet for learning the concept of the narrative arc, and ordering the plot points of this story
TEACHER SUPPORT
"How to explain the narrative arc to kids" - a guide to helping kids understand the arc's structure
Answer keys - answers for worksheets as needed
Common Core State Standards - alignment for grades 3-6
Terms of use - how you can use our teaching materials
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
For prop suggestions, teaching topics, and curated learning links,, see our page of Creative Teaching Ideas for Farewell to Manzanar.
Please reach out to us anytime for any reason—we're happy to help! —Becky & Jenny
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These printables are for use with our free creative teaching ideas for this book.
On that web page, you'll also find loads of lesson-planning aids: curated learning links, prop ideas, discussion topics, and more.
Use the ideas and resources on that page to build your lesson plan, or just do whatever appeals to you and your kids. There's a lot there—don't feel you need to do it all!
Then read the book, do the prep, and get ready to have a great time!
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If your kids see the pleasure in the story, and want to read more because of their LitWitty experience, we'd sure love it if you too would leave a review!
Aw, you’re just the right age, whatever that might be! Just kidding—we know what you mean. We find that 8-12-year-olds are consistently “ready to LitWit.” Generally speaking, their reading level is high enough to take on the vocabulary and syntax of literature, and they’ve acquired enough knowledge to grasp new ideas. Yet they’re still full of wonder, and are highly responsive to the “check this out!” nature of sensory immersion.
However, we often have mature kids of 6-7 in our experiential workshops, and sometimes fun-loving kids of 13-14. As a teacher or parent, you know best what your kids are ready for and interested in.
They're on our page of Creative Teaching Resources (linked above), along with Takeaway Topics, Learning Links, Prop Ideas, and other fun stuff to do!
We keep all that virtual so that we can include helpful links, update them regularly, and let you use our materials on a screen. We’re trying to save time (yours and ours) and trees too.
You can right-click to print that page, if you'd like a hard copy—be sure to open all the drop-downs first, so the hidden contents will print.
We're dedicated to being as helpful as possible, so if our products don't work for you, please let us know what went wrong, and we'll issue a full refund.
Sure you can, for your noncommercial use in your family or classroom. As long as you’re not calling your fun time a “LitWits” event or charging a fee, you can use our ideas and printables to do lots of wonderful things!
Just please don’t forward your printables or make copies for people who haven’t paid for them, of course, out of courtesy and to honor our copyright and per our Terms of Service.
You're off to teach the best of this great book in fun, hands-on ways!
We've got 15 years' experience teaching great books in sensory, hands-on ways, and we'd love to help you do the same. If you still have pre-purchase questions or need customer support, please reach out! You can also join our email list to get product updates and discounts.
Becky and Jenny