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The Gorp Reading Activities

Objectives

• Students will define violence.
• Students will learn the meaning of "giving your word".
• Students will color and sign an anti-violence pledge.

Materials

• The book The Gorp's Gift
• Copies of the KWL Chart
• Copies of Gorp's Pledge
• Markers, crayons

Procedures

1. Fill out a KWL chart about guns.
2. Prepare students to hear the story by involving them in a discussion about violence. Your conversation can be based on the following questions:
   1. What is violence?
   2. Can words ever be violent?
   3. Discuss the opposite of violence.
3. Explain to the students that The Gorp's Gift is a puzzle they get to solve.
4. Read The Gorp's Gift aloud.
5. When you finish the story, but before you tell them about the pledge, ask the riddle: "What is it that you give and then you keep?" (They'll answer love, friendship, gifts, etc., but the answer we're looking for is: your word.)
6. Discuss what it means to give your word.
7. Remind the children that if they sign the pledge, they are making a serious commitment and giving their word. You give it, then you keep it.
8. After your "commitment" discussion, have the students color and sign the pledge. If they'd like to be included in Gorp's Book of Pledges that he will take to the President of the United States, mail the pledges back to the address at the bottom of the pledge.

Adapted from The Gorp's Gift Teacher's Guide by Tracy Osburn.