Welcome to Week 6 of our Wonderful Wizard of Oz book study! This post features teaching materials and skill-building strategies for Chapter 6: “The Cowardly Lion.” Whether you’re focusing on character development or grammar practice, this installment offers flexible tools to support your classroom goals.
If you’re just joining us, be sure to begin with the Introduction to the Book Study for pacing tips and setup ideas.
Learn how the Oz novel study is organized, with details on the full unit, free sampler, mentor sentences, and chapter handouts.
Mentor sentence lessons, student practice pages, and grammar-focused writing tasks are included.
Download the free handout for this chapter, complete with instructions and materials for the activities described here.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 6: “The Cowardly Lion”
As Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman journey deeper into the forest, eerie sounds surround them. Suddenly, a fierce lion leaps from the trees, knocking over the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman. He charges toward Toto, but Dorothy bravely slaps him on the nose to protect her dog.
Surprised and ashamed, the Lion admits that his loud roars are meant to hide his fear. He is, in fact, a coward. Despite his strength and size, he lacks courage and feels deeply insecure. Moved by Dorothy’s kindness and the group’s acceptance, the Lion decides to join them on their journey to the Emerald City, hoping the Great Oz will grant him the courage he longs for.
This chapter introduces a new companion and explores the theme of inner strength versus outward appearance.
Chapter 6: “The Cowardly Lion” Projects
Mentor Sentences
One way to turn classic literature into a powerful teaching tool is to pull mentor sentences straight from the text. Instead of random worksheets, students get to see grammar, punctuation, and style in action—inside a story they’re already reading.
Here are a few examples you can use right from Chapter 6 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
“I am going to the Great Oz to ask him to give me some,” remarked the Scarecrow, “for my head is stuffed with straw.”
Focus: Commas with Dialogue Tags
Practice Prompt: Write a divided quote with the phrase said the student placed in the middle. Be sure to punctuate it correctly.
“Don’t you dare to bite Toto! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a big beast like you, to bite a poor little dog!”
Focus: Commas in Direct Address + Exclamatory Sentences
Practice Prompt: Use these words in a sentence that includes direct address and ends with an exclamation point: friend, help, mess.
Once, indeed, the Tin Woodman stepped upon a beetle that was crawling along the road, and killed the poor little thing.
Focus: Compound Predicate with Coordinating Conjunction
Practice Prompt: Use these two actions in a sentence with a compound predicate joined by “and”: opened the door, dropped the book.
Would You Rather Question
Would you rather be brave but misunderstood or scared but surrounded by friends?
3D Character Portraits
Instead of flat illustrations, let students create three-dimensional portraits of Oz’s most beloved characters using simple craft materials. The Cowardly Lion can be made with yarn or raffia for a shaggy mane. The Tin Man shines with aluminum foil pieces glued to his body. The Scarecrow gets patched together with scraps of felt or cloth, straw, or raffia sticking out at the edges.
Students can mount their creations on sturdy paper or even cut them out to form a gallery of characters across the classroom wall. This project works beautifully for teaching character traits, as students can attach labels or captions that describe the personalities of each character they’ve crafted.
Focus Skills
Each chapter in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Novel Study includes a constructed response question and a skill-based graphic organizer. These two pieces are part of the full-paid unit, which includes comprehension questions, skill lessons, assessments, answer keys, and Google Slides versions.
The free handout linked below includes the activities from the blog post for this chapter. If you’d like the complete set of constructed responses and skill organizers for all 24 chapters, you’ll find them inside the full unit once it is released.
Constructed Response Skill – Character Traits: The Lion
Students analyze the Cowardly Lion’s behavior, motivations, and emotional vulnerability. A foldable organizer helps students track character traits, cite evidence, and reflect on how fear and bravery are portrayed in the story.
Standards: RL.5.3, RL.6.3, RL.7.3
Language Arts Skill – Pronouns (Subjective, Objective, Possessive)
This chapter expands pronoun instruction by introducing all three types—subjective, objective, and possessive. Students use a foldable organizer to identify pronouns in context, revise sentences, and explore how pronouns clarify relationships between characters.
Standard: L.6.1.A
Click here to download the FREE Chapter 6 resource.
Previous: Chapter 5 -The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
Next: Chapter 7 – The Journey to the Great OzSubscribe to unlock a password-protected area with:
– All four novel studies in one easy download
– Animated shorts handouts in a tidy PDF
– Bonus teaching materials and updates
3 comments
Gay,
I very much like your book units and plan on purchasing many of them. I have a favor. Could you create a Book Unit for Edward Tulane? I just love this book and my third graders do too! I would love for you to make a unit of this book!!!
Author
Thank you so much, Kathleen!!
I am going to start creating some new book units next month. I’ll add Edward Tulane to my list of books I’m considering. I love hearing what teachers are using
! I’ve not read this book, but Kate DiCamillo is great!
Gay, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy reading Edward Tulane. My students get so excited waiting to hear his next adventure. And…how will it end..I know you will love it! Kathleen