Are you looking for some fun and interesting Riding Freedom teaching activities? You’ve come to the right place. Read the brief description. Grab a book unit sample. Finally, check out the activities.
Riding Freedom Summary
When Charlotte is 2 years old, her parents die in an accident. Their wagon rolls over in the river during a storm. Charlotte survives. The horses protect her until a neighbor finds her. Since the neighbor can afford to take care of another child, Charlotte is sent to an orphanage.
When Charlotte is 12 years old, she is excited about the horse race. The orphanage occasionally has races to show the townsfolk that the orphanage is a good environment for its residents. Charlotte saddles her favorite horse named Freedom and heads toward the start line. The orphanage bully William tells Charlotte that she will be sorry if she enters the race…
Freedom dies which breaks Charlotte’s heart. Mr. Millshark, the orphanage overseer, approaches Charlotte and tells her she is not allowed in the stables. Because she is a girl, she must work solely in the kitchen. Hayward, Charlotte’s best friend, tells Charlotte that a family who came to the race wants to adopt him. Because of these three events, Charlotte decides to run away from the orphanage.
Read Riding Freedom to see how Charlotte survives on her own in the mid-1800s.
Riding Freedom Teaching Activities
Book Unit Samples
You will find the following in this novel study sample:
- Vocabulary Practice
- Comprehension Questions for Chapter 1
- Constructed Response Question for Chapter 1
Teaching Idea #1 – Activities
Students love draw. YouTube has many how-to-draw horse videos to choose from. You can find everything from 3-minute or fewer cartoon drawings to realistically detailed videos that run close to an hour.
Teaching Idea #2 – Riding Freedom Summarizing Booklets
Are you having a difficult time getting students to write paragraph responses about what they are reading? Add interest to writing projects with these versatile booklets.
With only two printable pages and some notebook paper, you will be set for the entire book. Full instructions for assembling the booklets in either backline or color are provided as well as some suggestions for using them.
Here are the suggested writing prompts.
Page 1 – The first half-page is a great place for students to write the main idea of the chapter.
Have students write one of the following to show their understanding of the main idea.
- the main idea in sentence form
- a Somebody Wanted But So sentence
- a title for the chapter
- themes in the chapter
The Rest of the Booklet
Have students write one or a combination of the following. You can even mix things up by having students write something different for each chapter.
- chapter summaries
- list of characters introduced in the chapter with descriptions of each
- figurative phrases
- favorite quotes
- reactions to specific events
- words to learn
Discussion Questions
Examples
- How did living in a boys’ orphanage impact Charlotte?
- Explain two reasons for naming the book Riding Freedom.
- Can women do well in jobs that are historically considered “men’s work”?
Would You Rather Questions
Example
- Would you rather stay at the orphanage and work in the kitchen or cut off all your hair?
Teaching Idea #3 – Horse Snacks
Nutter Butters are the perfect shape for making a cookie treat shaped like a horse’s head. Just add ears from candy corn or peanuts, candy eyes, and icing features. Your Nutter Butter soon becomes a horse. These cute cookie treats are easy to make in the classroom.
In the YouTube video below, the cookie is used to decorate a cupcake. This quick video is great for showing what the finished cookie can look like.
Riding Freedom Teaching Activities #4 – Video Trailer
The Book Boys, Allister, Elliott, and Max, are friends who work for Scholastic. Their videos are fun hooks to show students before reading one of the books they feature. Below is their video for Riding Freedom. If you want to check other videos from the Book Boys you can find them at Scholastic here.
Riding Freedom Teaching Activities #5 – Audio Book
Michele Renner at Reading Rescue is the best nonprofessional reader I have ever heard. She reads the full book.
See the product that inspired this post.
Riding Freedom Novel Study includes vocabulary practice, comprehension questions, constructed response writing, and skill practice.
