Stories of people helping animals are all over the internet, and sharing them with your students is an excellent way to encourage kindness both in and outside the classroom. Because most children naturally feel compassion for animals, sharing rescue stories is a great way to engage and motivate all types of learners and encourage them to help animals in need.
TeachKind’s monthly Rescue Stories reading comprehension worksheets tell a different animal’s tale of transformation and feature key vocabulary words and questions in order to encourage literal, inferential, and evaluative thinking. This month’s rescue story is about Mayflower, a turkey who was found as a baby at a Pennsylvania auction about to be sent to slaughter for someone’s Thanksgiving dinner. Use his story to promote compassion for all sentient beings this holiday season and beyond.
Be sure to check out Long Island Orchestrating for Nature (LION), the organization that helped rescue Mayflower, as well as Broome Animal Sanctuary and Farm, where he now lives. Use other TeachKind resources to create an entire lesson around this story.
You can use the worksheets below to address the following Common Core English language arts standards:
Grade 6
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.1
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Grade 7
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1
Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Grade 8
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.1
Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Be sure to watch Mayflower’s heartwarming video to bring his story to life.
DOWNLOAD MAYFLOWER’S RESCUE STORY READING COMPREHENSION WORKSHEET!
