LitWits Printables for
by Scott O'Dell
Make this book a fun, 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 instructions and more ideas, see our free Creative Teaching Ideas for Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Printable: basket template
When Karana jumps off the ship, her baskets holding her most important possessions sink to the bottom of the sea. This activity represents the real Conflict of this story, the problem of survival that Karana must deal with alone. A new basket is also the first and last thing she and Ramo make together after the ship leaves, and a poignant reminder of their final conversation as they stand on the cliff, holding their basket of abalone.
Printable: constellation model
When Karana sets out in her canoe at night to try and reach the mainland and her people, the sea is so black she can’t tell the difference between it and the sky. Focusing on a familiar green star in the east calms and guides her. This is the night she conquers fear and acquires more wisdom. This project captures a critical "turning point," as well as Karana's intense solitude and her indomitable spirit.
Printable: specimen label
As a meaningful snack from the story, serve up some devilfish (aka squid) and seaweed in recognition of Karana's leadership and survival skills, and package these dried marine munchies with Karana and Rontu's specimen label.
Printable: travel sticker
Here's a travel sticker to prove kids have taken a trip through this great book, LitWits style, and have met some great people and learned some great things on the way!
WORKSHEETS
This set includes seven worksheets that help kids retain information and gain writing skills. Your kids can use them to:
take notes about the author while watching a biography video
learn the important concept of the narrative arc, gain an overview of this story's structure, and engage in discussion questions (key included)
locate the setting and calculate the years the "real" Karana spent on San Nicolas (key included)
pick up some vocabulary about island geography (key included)
understand, through writing analysis, why some metaphors work and some don't
do some creative writing to describe a creature as if seeing it for the first time, without using its known name
kids discover the theme of leadership (key included)
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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