Interactive Whiteboard Activities, Book Resources
Because of Winn-Dixie: A Flashlight Readers Activity
This fun, visually appealing online hub brings the book to life with Because of Winn-Dixie–related activities and exclusive content about the author.
- Grades: 3–5
The “Explore Winn-Dixie” interactive hub, part of the Flashlight Readers experience, lets Because of Winn-Dixie fans go inside their favorite read!
Students can:
- Create Scrapbook pages featuring their favorite characters from the book.
- Play Stump the Dump Maze Game, where they answer questions about the book to help Winn-Dixie move through a maze.
- Use words and pictures from the Flash Board to post a message for other Flashlight readers.
- Act out the “Winn-Dixie: A Play” with friends, or alone.
- See and hear exactly how the author changed the beginning of her story over the course of five drafts (available in PDF form) in See the Story Grow.
- Read “About Kate DiCamillo,” where the author talks about dressing up her dog, becoming a writer, and why she wrote her first book, Because of Winn-Dixie.
- Read “Kate DiCamillo on Writing”
- Watch our Kate DiCamillo Video
- Find out Kate DiCamillo’s Favorite Books
- Browse a Movie Slideshow of images from the film based on the book
- Get a list of recommended reads with Books for Winn-Dixie Fans
Learning Objectives
While participating in “Flashlight Readers,” students will:
- Offer observations, make connections, react, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to text
- Identify and discuss book themes, characters, plots, and settings
- Connect their experiences with those of the author and/or with characters from the books
- Support predictions, interpretations, conclusions, etc. with examples from text
- Practice key reading skills and strategies (cause-and-effect, problem/solution, compare-and-contrast, summarizing, etc.)
- Monitor their own comprehension
Benchmarks for Because of Winn-Dixie Lesson Plans
Language Arts Standards (4th Ed.)
Lesson 1: Because of Winn-Dixie Scrapbook Lesson Plan
- Understands elements of character development in literary works (e.g., differences between main and minor characters; stereotypical characters as opposed to fully developed characters; changes that characters undergo; the importance of a character's actions, motives, and appearance to plot and theme)
- Makes connections between characters or simple events in a literary work and people or events in his or her own life
Lesson 2: Stump the Dump Maze Game Lesson Plan
- Understands the basic concept of plot (e.g., main problem, conflict, resolution, cause-and-effect)
- Applies basic trouble shooting and problem-solving techniques
Lesson 3: About the Author: Kate DiCamillo Lesson Plan
- Drafting and revising: uses strategies to draft and revise written work (e.g., elaborates on a central idea; writes with attention to audience, word choice, sentence variation; uses paragraphs to develop separate ideas; produces multiple drafts)
- Evaluates own and others' writing (e.g., determines the best features of a piece of writing, determines how own writing achieves its purposes, asks for feedback, responds to classmates' writing)
Related Resources
Students build their knowledge of plot, character, setting, and theme as well as the writing process by participating in activities related to the book Because of Winn-Dixie.
Fun activities that let students go inside nine popular and highly-taught books.
- Subjects:Literature, Reading Comprehension, Writing Process
- Skills:Reading Comprehension
