Wild Home

Setting, text features, key details, interpreting text, making inferences, compare and contrast, main idea

Set a Purpose for Reading (10 minutes)

• Begin by reading the Setting bubble for the class. Have students listen for words that help them imagine where and when the events take place.
• Read aloud the Background Knowledge note. Direct students to the nonfiction feature on page 4. This is the true story of a young lion who was raised in a furniture store in London before learning to live with other lions in Kenya. Look at the photos and read the captions with the class.
• Have students look at the photograph that accompanies this poem. What is the lion doing? What might it be thinking? Ask them to describe the setting of the photo. Then have them compare the setting of this image with the photo of Christian on page 4 of the nonfiction feature.

Read the poem for the class or play our audio version. Play the Vocabulary Slideshow to explain the meaning of the highlighted words.

Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions (15 minutes)

• Where and when do the events described in the first two lines take place? (setting) The events take place at watering holes during the day.
• How does the photo of the lion help you better understand these lines? (text features) The photo shows a lion next to a watering hole during the day.
• What are the lions doing in lines 3, 4, and 5 of the poem? (key details) They’re napping under trees, grazing in star grass, and listening to birds.
•  Why are the lions “joining fellow roamers day and night”? (interpreting text) They are roaming with other animals in the wild.
• Which context clue helps you understand that the words acacia and kapok are types of trees? (making inferences) “Napping in the shade of” is a clue that acacia and kapok are types of trees.
• How is the setting of the beginning different from the setting at the end of the poem? (compare and contrast) In the beginning, the lions are sitting at watering holes during the day. At the end, they are wandering free at night.
• Why does the poet say that lions “belong at watering holes” and “belong under the white moon”? (main idea) The poet believes that lions should be in the wild, where they can live freely in a variety of settings.

• Call on a volunteer to read the Think and Write box at the bottom of the page.
• Distribute our Setting Skill Builder. Students can complete the activity in small groups. If they write their own poem, they can read it aloud in class.