Welcome to Chapter 21: “The Lion Becomes King of the Beasts!” This post in our Wonderful Wizard of Oz book study features teaching materials that support theme development, leadership traits, and character transformation.
If you’re just joining us, be sure to start 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.
👑🦁 Summary
Chapter 21: “The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts”
Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion cross the china wall and enter a swampland. After traveling for a while, they reach a forest. The Lion feels at home in the woodland, but the others find it gloomy. Soon, they encounter a gathering of animals that discuss how to rid themselves of a giant spider that has been killing members of their community.
The Lion volunteers to take on the task. He goes alone and finds the spider sleeping. After studying the creature and spotting a weakness, the Lion attacks and kills the spider. He returns to the group and announces his victory. The animals crown him King of the Beasts. The Lion promises to return and rule the forest once Dorothy is safely back in Kansas.
Chapter 21: “The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts” 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.
📌 “We are all threatened,” answered the tiger, “by a fierce enemy which has lately come into this forest.
Focus: Relative Clause
- Highlight “ which has lately come into this forest” as a defining clause.
- Students can practice writing sentences that add extra detail with “which” or “who.”
📌 He bade his comrades good-bye and marched proudly away to do battle with the enemy.
Focus: Compound Predicate
- Show how two actions are joined into one sentence without needing another subject.
📌 It is a most tremendous monster, like a great spider, with a body as big as an elephant and legs as long as a tree trunk. It has eight of these long legs, and as the monster crawls through the forest he seizes an animal with a leg and drags it to his mouth, where he eats it as a spider does a fly.
Focus: Similes
Ask students to identify the similes in the passage.
- monster, like a great spider
- body as big as an elephant
- legs as long as a tree trunk
- he eats it as a spider does a fly
Simile Sorting: Have students sort the similes by what they describe, such as appearance, size, movement, and behavior.
Sensory Mapping: Ask students which senses each simile appeals to (sight, touch, sound, etc.).
Tone Tracker: Discuss how the similes contribute to mood. Is the monster terrifying, fascinating, exaggerated?
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 Change: The Cowardly Lion
Students use the included organizer to contrast the Lion’s early self-doubt with his later courage and leadership. In Chapter 6, he admits to being a coward, hangs his head, and feels ashamed. By Chapter 21 “The Lion Becomes King of the Beasts,” he strategizes, fights, and earns respect from the forest animals.
Standards: RL.5.3, RL.6.3, RL.7.3
Language Arts Skill – Context Clues
Students write definitions and examples for four types of context clues on the provided foldable organizer.
- Definition Context Clue
- Restatement Context Clue
- Example Context Clue
- Series Context Clue
Click here to download the FREE Chapter 21 resource.
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