Jem Strikes GoldGoldtown Beginnings Book 1
Before You Begin . . . . . . . Fold your lapbook (see p. 2) and create the cover
About the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Book Information
Chapters 1-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gold Tools
Chapters 3-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wild Blueberries
Chapters 5-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Golden Retriever
Chapters 7-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Moon
Chapters 9-10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roasted Rattlesnakes!
A Peek into the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Five Story Elements
Cut around on the dotted line and glue the cover piece to the large outside cover of your lapbook. If you plan to glue the lapbooks for books 1 and 2 together, place this piece
closer to the top to leave room for the Jem’s Frog Fiasco cover piece. If the lapbooks will be separate, then you can center this piece on the lapbook cover. Color the picture.
Activities for Jem Strikes Gold
Character Trait: Kindness
“And be ye kind one to another . . .” Ephesians 4:32
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Being polite, helpful, and understanding of others.
Read the Jem Strikes Gold chapters indicated at the top of the following pages. Then complete the activities for those chapters. This is a one-folder lapbook. You can add the other Goldtown Beginnings books to expand the lapbook by gluing them together. Use Elmer’s (white) glue for the folders. Use stick glue to glue the booklets into the folders.
Folder Layout for Jem Strikes Gold
About the
book
WildBlueberries
Roasted Rattlesnakes!
5 Story Elements
About the Book: Author-Susan K. Marlow; Illustrator-Leslie Gammelgaard; Publisher-Kregel; Copyright-2019; Series-Goldtown Beginnings; Ages-6-8Chapters 1-2: Gold Tools. Answers will vary. See study guide. Chapters 3-4: Wild Blueberries. Outside color-blue; inside color-purple; when to pick-fall; how tall-two feetChapters 5-6: Golden Retriever. Coloring-each dog should be colored one of the following shades: cream, lt-gold, dk-gold, mahogany (reddish-brown); Facts-retrieve means “bring back”; Two dogs-water spaniel and retriever. Chapters 7-8: The Moon. The yellow can be on either side.
Chapters 9-10: Roasted Rattlesnakes. From left to right-rattle, fangs, scales, reptiles Five Story Elements: Sample answers: Characters-Jem, Ellie, Pa, Mama, Strike, Will, dog; Setting-Goldtown, Cripple Creek; Story Problem-Jem needs to deliver his pies (or) Jem wants to find a way to keep the dog; Plot Events-(name anything that happens in the story); Solution-The dog helps Jem deliver pies (or) Jem gets to keep the dog.
Answer Key for Jem Strikes Gold
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Gold Pouch
Golden Retriever
The Moon
Full Moon
Half Moon Crescent Moon
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1- Jem Strikes Gold: About the BookFolder
Directions: Cut out the books and stack with book cover on top. Staple and glue into lapbook. Look at the front cover, the back cover, and both sides of the title page of Jem Strikes Gold. Fill in the blanks with information about the author, the illustrator, and other fun book facts.
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Folder
Directions: Cut all the way around the pocket. Fold the back bottom section up in back, and then fold the flaps back and glue to make a pocket. Glue into lapbook.Next Page: Read the instructions and do what it says.
Flap Flap
1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 1-2
Gold PouchGlue this flap
to lapbook
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Do this: Read about the tools a prospector used to mine gold. Then cut out the tools. On each sheet, write one thing you learned about that tool from what you read. Store the prospector’s tools in the pocket you glued in the lapbook.
1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 1-2
Gold Pan
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Rocker
Gold Pan: A miner used his pan to scoop up dirt that he hoped was mixed with bits of gold. He added water and swished the pan around and around in the creek. The heavy gold stayed on the bottom. The lighter dirt and sand washed away. It took a long time to find gold this way.
Rocker: A rocker is also called a cradle. The miner put dirt into the top of the rocker. Then he poured water on top and pulled the handle back and forth. The water washed the dirt out, and the heavier gold got stuck on little ridges called riffles.
Pick and Shovel
Pick and Shovel: A miner used a pick to break up a hard piece of ground where he thought he might find gold. After he broke the ground up, he used a shovel to scoop the dirt into his rocker or his gold pan. Sometimes a miner dug deep into the ground or the side of a hill. He would then use a bucket to take the dirt out of his hole and haul it down to the creek to wash. Maybe he would find gold!
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Wild BlueberriesBlueberries are a tasty fruit with blue skins and purple insides. Today, there are blueberry farms where blueberry bushes are grown. We can buy blueberries in the store—fresh and frozen.
Did you know that blueberries also grow wild? Blueberry bushes in California grow in the cooler parts of the Sierra above Goldtown. Every fall, Jem’s family picks baskets and baskets of this plump, blue fruit. They bring them home, and Mama lays the berries out to dry in the hot California sun. Dried blueberries keep well all winter. They look like big, dark-blue raisins.
When Mama wants to make a pie, she scoops a few handfuls of dry, wrinkled blueberries into water. The water makes the berries become soft and plump.
1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 3-4
Wild blueberry bushCreative Commons 2.5 license,
Banangraut, 2006
Then she drains the water away. Now she can make the blueberry pies the miners like so much.
The wild blueberries in the Sierra grow on strong, woody bushes. They have round, green leaves and purple-white flowers. The bushes grow about two feet high. This makes it easy for even Ellie to pick the berries. Jem’s family must be careful when they pick wild blueberries. Bears love to eat this fruit too!
Tasty blueberries waiting to be picked! Wild blueberry blossoms
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Read “Wild Blueberries.” Cut out the booklets. Stack together with the cover piece on top. Staple across the top and glue into lapbook.Directions: Answer the questions in the booklet.
Folder1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 3-4
Blueberry Pie
¾ cup sugar3 tablespoons cornstarch½ teaspoon cinnamon4 cups fresh berries (or frozen)1 tablespoon butterDouble 9" pie crust (buy or make)
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix berries, sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Line a 9" pie pan with bottom crust. Pour berry mix into pie pan. Slice butter and dot on the berry mixture. Cover with pie crust. Seal edges. Poke a few holes in the crust. Sprinkle with more sugar.
Bake 45-50 minutes until crust is golden brown and the pie is bubbly. Cool and eat!
COVER PIECE
What color is the outside of a blueberry?
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What color is the inside of a blueberry?
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When do you pick wild blueberries in the Sierra?
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How tall is the wild bush?
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Golden Retriever
The half-grown dog Strike-it-rich Sam brings back to the gold camp is a golden retriever. He will grow up to be a big dog, about 70 pounds. The retriever brings back game birds like ducks and wild geese after the hunter has shot the bird.
Retrieve means “to bring back.” Hunters like retrievers because they have what is called a soft mouth. This means the dog does not chew up the bird when he retrieves it.
Golden retrievers love water! They are very smart and easy to train. Their fur is long and wavy. It can be cream, light gold, dark gold, or even a dark reddish-brown called mahogany. They have a soft undercoat. This coat keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 5-6
The golden retriever is kind, friendly, trustworthy, and calm. They make good family pets and are very patient with children—the perfect dog for Jem and Ellie (at least Jem thinks so). The retriever is also intelligent. He is an active and fun-loving dog and loves to play, but he can also sit quietly for hours. These dogs get along well with other dogs, with cats, and with livestock.
Retriever
Water Spaniel
The dog Strike brings home is the first golden retriever Jem and his family have ever seen. The breed did not even get its start until the middle of the 19th century, in Scotland. People crossed water spaniels with retrievers.
Nobody in Goldtown knows how a young dog of a “new” breed became lost in the Sierra wilderness.
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Folder
Read “Golden Retriever.” Cut out the pieces and stack them together with the cover piece on top. Staple (or hole punch and tie with a narrow ribbon). Glue into lapbook. Directions: Answer the questions on each booklet piece.
1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 5-6
Gold
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Retr
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ColoringFacts
COVER PIECE
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1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 7-8
The Moon
This picture shows the many phases the moon goes through as it travels around our earth.
The moon does not have any light of its own. (Only stars shine with their own light.)
The sun (a star) shines on the moon so we can see it.
God created the moon on the fourth day of creation as the “lesser light to rule the night” (Genesis 1:16). Jem likes it when the full moon lets him see his way to return the dog to Strike’s tent. Without the moon to give light at night, it would be very dark every night. The stars are bright, but not bright enough to see your way like you can by the full moon.
The full moon usually rises early in the evening and can be seen in the sky most of the night. But the big, bright moon is not full and round every night. Sometimes the moon looks like it has been chopped in half. This is a half moon. Sometimes it looks like a very thin slice called a crescent moon. When the moon is thin, it does not light up the night sky, but you can see it at sunrise or at sunset.
Sometimes you can see the moon during the day. Sometimes you can’t see the moon at all. This is called a new moon. Why does this happen? The moon goes around the earth. It takes one month to go all the way around. When the moon travels around the earth, our planet blocks some of the sunlight so it can’t shine on the moon. This makes it look like the moon is shrinking or growing. The shrinking and growing of the moon are called phases of the moon.
HALF MOON HALF MOONFULL MOON
QUARTER MOON
QUARTER MOON
CRESCENT MOON
CRESCENT MOON
GIBBOUS MOON
GIBBOUS MOON
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1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 7-8Folder
Read “The Moon.” Cut out the circles and stack, with the cover piece on top. Staple and glue into lapbook. Directions: Use yellow and black crayons (or pencils) to color each phase of the moon (look on the other page for hints): FULL MOON, HALF MOON, CRESCENT MOON.
The Moon
Full Moon
Half Moon Crescent Moon
COVER PIECE
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Jem’s favorite saying when he is surprised or mad is “Roasted rattlesnakes!” He likes the way the words roll off his tongue. Jem has also seen rattlesnakes. They live all over the Sierra foothills of California.
Rattlesnakes are reptiles, just like turtles and lizards. They have scales and are cold-blooded. This means they need the sun to heat up their blood, and they hide in the shade when it is too hot.
1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 9-10
Roasted Rattlesnakes!
Read “Roasted Rattlesnakes!” 1. Cut out the “Roasted Rattlesnakes” booklet on the next page. Fold the booklet in half along the black line. 2. Fold the “Roasted Rattlesnakes” label up and over the picture of the snake. Glue into lapbook. 3. Cut out the sheet with the pictures and glue it inside the booklet. 4. Cut out the words and match them with the pictures. Glue in place.
Folder
Rattlesnakes have no eyelids. But they have sharp teeth called fangs. When they bite their victim, the poison goes through the fangs and into the victim. They like to eat birds, mice, rabbits, and other small creatures.
A rattlesnake has a rattle at the end of its tail. It shakes the rattle very fast when the snake thinks it is in danger. The rattle makes a buzzing noise. A baby rattlesnake has a tiny rattle bud. When the snake sheds (gets rid of) its skin, a new rattle grows. The snake grows too. Rattlesnakes can grow five or six feet long.
Rattlesnakes do not like people. If you see a rattlesnake . . . freeze! Then back up slowly. The rattlesnake is just as scared of you and will go away too.
A northern Pacific rattlesnake, the kind of snake Jem would see.
1- Jem Strikes Gold: Chapters 9-10
Glue this side to lapbook
Roasted Rattlesnakes!
FANGS REPTILES RATTLE SCALES
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Cut out the booklets on this page and the next. Stack together from smallest to largest, with the cover piece on top. Staple at the top and glue into lapbook.
Char
acte
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The 5 Story Elements
Folder
Wh
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tory
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A story is like a puzzle. A good story needs 5 pieces or “elements.” 1. Characters: Who is in the story?2. Setting: Where does the story take place?3. Story Problem: What problem does the main character have to solve?4. Plot Events: What happens in the story?5. Solution: How does the story end? How does the character solve the problem? Can you find the 5 story elements in Jem Strikes Gold? Write them in the booklets.
1- Jem Strikes Gold: “A Peek into the Past”
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COVER PIECE
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What does Jem want in Jem Strikes Gold?
Plot EventsStory Problem
What are some things that happen in the story?
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Solu
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1- Jem Strikes Gold: Five Story Elements