A Free Activity Booklet for Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate
By Lily | Published 2 January 2023 | Goodreads Rating 3.98 | This post may contain affiliate links.
From Reading Quests is a FREE activity booklet for Crenshaw! These printables help kids to slow down and deepen their understanding of this book.
Crenshaw is an outspoken and large cat with a black & white coat. He first appeared in Jackson’s life when he was about five years old, during the summer after first grade – right when Jackson really needed a good friend. Visit the book summary for Crenshaw to learn more!
This activity pack is a fun way to wrap up the reading of Crenshaw. When kids can understand and enjoy what they read, it can foster a love of reading as well as have many benefits for academic success and personal growth. These printables have three key focus areas: building vocabulary, reading comprehension and creative reading responses. Let’s get started!
Three Ways to Build Reading Comprehension for Crenshaw
1. Building Vocabulary:
When kids learn and use more words, they can talk better and understand others better too. Having a bigger vocabulary helps them be more clear in what they say, which can help them express their thoughts and ideas better. However, children (and adults too!) must encounter a new word 4 to 12 times before it is added to their vocabulary. That’s why Reading Quests has created various activity sheets to help your kids with repetition, recall, and memorization.
Our family’s favorite word from Crenshaw was “flummoxed” which Crenshaw used to ask why Jackson’s family chose a dog over a cat. “I am positively flummoxed as to why your family felt the need for a dog” said Crenshaw, eyeing her suspiciously. Our family had a lot fun finding ways to use this word - “I am flummoxed as to why I need to brush my teeth”, “I am flummoxed as to why I need to do homework”, “I am flummoxed as to why you won’t eat your vegetable”. This game went on for a while!! ;-)
What was your family’s new favorite word from Crenshaw?
2. Story Comprehension:
It's important for kids to work on reading comprehension after reading a book as it helps them to understand and interpret what is being read. Because when kids are able to understand and enjoy what they read, it can foster a lifelong habit of reading for pleasure, which has many benefits for academic success and personal growth. That’s why Reading Quests provides reading comprehension printables for each book in our library including Crenshaw!
3. Creative Reading Response:
It's important for kids to work on reading comprehension after reading a book because it helps them to understand and interpret what is being read. When kids are able to understand and enjoy what they read, it can foster a lifelong habit of reading for pleasure, which has many benefits for academic success and personal growth. That’s why Reading Quests provides reading comprehension printables for each book in our library including for Crenshaw.
RELATED: Check out these Crenshaw-themed activities to continue the reading fun!
– Goodreads review by Calista
“I knew nothing of this book before going in but it was supposed to be good. WOW! Love. It seems like this book will be about an imaginary friend and it is. Then Katherine Applegate super ninja's you and she gives only hints about Crenshaw the imaginary cat and she shows you the raw painful world of Jackson and the life he leads. This book is about poverty. The end does address the help Imaginary friends give. What an amazing fantastic book. It is so raw and real. I am so affected by this book. I think this is a masterpiece. I think this could help anyone going through some real tough times. Sometimes facts are not pleasant. Fact: this book is fantastic.
Download Crenshaw Book Study here.
About the Author
Beloved author Katherine Applegate is the author of several best-selling young adult series, including Animorphs and Roscoe Riley Rules. Home of the Brave, her first standalone novel, received the SCBWI 2008 Golden Kite Award for Best Fiction and the Bank Street 2008 Josette Frank Award. She lives with her family in Irvine, California.
This title has Common Core connections.