Introducing the Book

Here are a few strategies for introducing the book to the class.

• Talk About the Title Write the book title on the chalkboard and ask students to speculate on what the book will be about. Guide them with questions such as: Who or what do you think Stone Fox is? Could it be an animal? a sculpture? a person? Why do you think so?
• Sled Dog K-W-L Chart Tell students that one of the characters in the story is a sled dog named Searchlight. What do students know about sled dogs? Start a K-W-L (Know, Want to Know, Learn) chart to tap prior knowledge. In the first column, list what students know. In the second column, list what they would like to find out. After reading Stone Fox, revisit the chart and complete the third column.

What We Know	What We Want to Know	What We Learned
They're strong	How fast can they run?
They're fast	What do they eat?

Analyzing Advice Tell the class that one of the characters in the book gives this advice: Where there's a will, there's a way. Ask students to tell what this means to them. Have students speculate about how this advice might apply to the story.