The Cricket in Times Square Novel Study Unit and Literature Guide

This Cricket in Times Square complete novel study is low prep and provides chapter by chapter choices for teaching the book with a whole group, in reading groups, or with book clubs. Stretch your students' thinking past chapter vocabulary and reading comprehension questions with high interest options!

This standards-based literature guide has so many engaging activities for your reading class. Have fun introducing your students to classical music, so they build a better character connection to Chester! Compare cricket facts to Chester’s behavior in the story. Identify figures of speech. Closely read the narrative stories the characters tell in the book. Next, students can write their own stories using the author’s style as a model. Encourage class discussions about friendship and more.

Resource Includes:

CCSS (4th grade)

Pacing chart

Vocabulary list for each chapter

Reading comprehension questions (3-5 questions per chapter)

Character chart

Draw a diagram of the newspaper stand

Describe familiar sounds listening activity

Find figurative language

Mad Lib style descriptive writing

Compare/contrast Orpheus facts

Author's writing style and Sai Fong's accent

Money math with coin calculations

Cricket facts non-fiction reading

Cause and effect

Create a song playlist for Chester

Mood words

Story timeline

Parts of a story plot map

Theme

Write a narrative in George Selden's style

Teacher notes, answer keys, and student samples for all pages except vocabulary.

• Need another animal fiction novel study? Try my Bunnicula Unit.
• How about an historical fiction story set in New York? I love using In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.
• To view all of my literature units for upper elementary students CLICK HERE.

This is a zipped file with two secure PDF files for The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. The resource includes a student PDF with all student activity pages that teachers can print as a packet or print as individual pages. The second PDF has student pages with teacher notes, answer keys, and student samples.

**Page count includes student pages and teacher pages**

literature unit, reading groups, literature circles, read aloud, guided reading, Newbery