Where the Wild Things Are

D Vocabulary: Word Relationships – Synonyms

Many words have synonyms, or words that mean almost the same thing. For example, cold is a
synonym for cool and kind is a synonym for friendly. Synonyms help spice up our language and
make what we say more interesting.

 Read the summary of Where the Wild Things Are. Use the word bank to find a synonym for
each word in small print. Then write the synonym on the line.

Word Bank
evening adventure dreamed landed

unkind supper discovered delicious

sprinted transformed creatures

leader heartbroken imagined

One ____________________, a young boy named Max ____________________ he was a

night pretended

wild animal. He dressed in a wolf costume and ____________________ around his house.
ran

Max chased his dog and said ____________________ things to his mother. Max’s mother
hurtful

sent him to his room without ____________________. Max ____________________ that his
dinner imagined

room ____________________ into a forest and then an ocean! Max ____________________

changed found

a boat and sailed on the ocean for a long time. He finally ____________________ at a
arrived

place where he found wild animals. Max became the ____________________ of these
king

wild animals and they all had a wild rumpus. Soon Max began to miss his mother so

he decided to go home. The wild animals were ____________________. When Max

sad

arrived home, he found a ____________________ dinner in his room. His mother must
tasty

have brought him dinner while he was imagining his ____________________ with the
time

wild ____________________.
animals

 Clinician note: If students need an additional challenge, cut off the word bank. Ask students
to use a dictionary or thesaurus to figure out synonyms on their own.

Where the Wild Things Are —Vocabulary

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 Where the Wild Things Are

D Comprehension: Prediction

 Clinician note: Prior to reading Where the Wild Things Are, it may be helpful to use sticky
notes to mark the text in the book listed in the After Reading column. This will help you to
avoid reading beyond the point where students are able to make a prediction.

Discuss these questions while reading the story for the first time. Give each student a copy
of the story prediction chart in Appendix A. Individually, or as a class, students should record
their predictions and the actual outcomes as you read the story.

After Reading Ask

. . . and Max said, “I’LL EAT YOU UP!” What do you think is going to happen next?

. . . and an ocean tumbled by with a private Where do you think Max is going?
boat for Max and he sailed off through
night and day . . . Where would you like to go if you had your
own boat?

And when he came to the place where the What do you think the animals are going
wild things are they roared their terrible to do to Max?
roars and gnashed their terrible teeth . . .
What would you do if you met dangerous
animals?

. . . he smelled good things to eat so he What do you think Max is going to do next?
gave up being king of where the wild
things are. Where might he go?

. . . and into the night of his very own room What do you think Max found in his room?
where he found . . .

Where the Wild Things Are —Comprehension

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 Where the Wild Things Are

D Figurative Language: Similes

Max is mischievous like a fox, which means he gets into a little trouble. He is also hungry as a wolf
when he goes to bed without supper, which means he is very hungry.

The phrases mischievous like a fox and hungry as a wolf are examples of similes. Similes are special
phrases that compare two things using the words like or as. They emphasize something special
about a person or situation. Sometimes the meaning of a simile is easy to figure out, and sometimes
you have to memorize its meaning.

 Part 1: Write what each simile means on the line under the sentence. The similes are in italics.

1. Max imagines his room is a forest with trees as tall as skyscrapers.

___________________________________________________________________________________

2. Max sails over water as bumpy as a country road.

___________________________________________________________________________________

3. The creatures have teeth like snow-capped mountains.

___________________________________________________________________________________

4. The creatures and Max hop up and down like popcorn popping.
___________________________________________________________________________________

5. Max feels like a lost puppy and goes home to be with his mother.
___________________________________________________________________________________

 Part 2: Read the similes in the shaded box. Complete each sentence with one of the similes.

like a lost puppy as bumpy as a country road like popcorn popping

as tall as skyscrapers like snow-capped mountains

1. When Bernice found out she won the contest, she jumped ______________________________.

2. The large ice-cream sundaes looked __________________________________.

3. The roller coaster ride is __________________________________.

4. My older sister says that I follow her around __________________________________.

5. The sunflowers grew so fast, they were __________________________________.

Where the Wild Things Are —Figurative Language

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 Where the Wild Things Are

D Grammar & Syntax: Grammatical Identification

 Choose the picture that each sentence describes. Then circle the word(s) that helped you figure
out which picture matches the sentence. For extra practice, create a sentence to describe each
picture that does not match.

1. Albert is not happy about being sent to his room.

a. b.

2. He imagines the room turning into a spaceship.

a. b.

3. Albert is flying to another planet.

a. b.

4. Albert meets aliens on the planet.

a. b.

5. Albert gives the aliens a pillow, a blanket, and a book as gifts.

a. b.

Where the Wild Things Are —Grammar & Syntax

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 Definition

a large area of land outside a city

country
Caps for Sale —6A Caps for Sale —6B
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Definition

to rest against something for support

lean
Caps for Sale —7A Caps for Sale —7B
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Definition

to change the position of something

disturb
Caps for Sale —8A Caps for Sale —8B
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