Seedfolks - Literature Kit Gr. 5-6

Book excerpt: Strangers become a community in this heartwarming story about overcoming prejudices and finding a common ground. The vocabulary lists and quizzes create a complete resource that saves time while preparing these lessons. Students make predictions on how certain characters might be connected to each other. Analyze Leona's comments about her experience dealing with officials to characterize her feelings towards them. Answer multiple choice questions about Virgil's relationship with his father. Students explore Sae Young's actions when the thunderstorm fills the rain collection barrels and relates this back to the themes of the book. Imagine being Virgil's father and create a business plan for the baby lettuce idea. Detail how the setting of the book evolves with the characters in a transformation graphic organizer. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Seedfolks follows the intertwining stories of several neighbors as they break down barriers and form a community. A vacant lot in Cleveland, Ohio is not the perfect spot for Kim to plant her lima beans. It's too cold and there's not very much sun. She does this anyways in honor of her father. Little does she know that this action will intrigue the neighbors she knows only as strangers, and cause a ripple effect throughout the neighborhood. Each chapter follows a different neighbor and their personal journey that brought them to this vacant lot. People of varying ages, genders, races and religions come together with a shared goal of growing their item of choice. Some want to start a business, while others want to win back a lost love. The garden blooms from a segregated group of individual plots into a real community as peoples' guards are lowered and they begin to really know one another. When the season ends, only time will tell whether this new community will thrive.