About
The Ingalls family is snug in their Wisconsin house in spite of blizzards, wolves, and the lonely forest.
Read one section at a time, then discuss the questions to review understanding. These questions are a starting place for conversation, not a complete test of the chapter.
Chapter 1
Comprehension questions
Describe the setting in this story.
1800’s; Wisconsin when only a few settlers had begun to develop the land
Who’s the main character and her family?
Page 2 — Laura, her older sister Mary, Carrie her younger sister, and her Ma and Pa
2
Chapter 2
Comprehension questions
List and describe the chore/day you would enjoy the best.
Page 29 — Listen to your child’s answer
29
What’s comforting to Laura during the long cold winter?
Page 38 — Safely being inside the cozy cabin with the fire
38
Chapter 3
Comprehension questions
Summarize this chapter.
Page 45 — Laura and Mary helped Pa clean and load his gun; Pa told a story when he was young about how he should have listened to his father and being alone in the woods in the dark
45
Chapter 4
Comprehension questions
Compare how traveling was back in the early settler days to our day today.
Page 64 — Early days, they traveled in sleds pulled by horses all covered in blankets and bundled up; today, we can jump in a vehicle, train, or plane and have a heater to keep us warm
64
Describe how the children made “pictures”.
Page 65 — They’d fall from a stump and land in the snow, trying not to touch and make other prints in the snow
65
Summarize the story Uncle Peter shared and why it was so scary.
Page 68 — Aunt Eliza wanted to go to the spring, but the dog wouldn’t let her; later they found a panther had been in the tree above the spring; the dog saved her from the panther
68
Chapter 5
Comprehension questions
Describe a Sunday for Mary and Laura and compare it to your Sunday. Mary and Laura’s-take bath Saturday night; sit quietly all day; couldn’t play with toys or each other; couldn’t sew; could look at pictures in the Bible or animal book;
Page 84 — listen to your child’s answer
84
Chapter 6
Comprehension questions
Tell me the stories of the two bears in this chapter.
Page 104 — 1st bear: It was dark, and Laura went to help her mother milk the cow; they thought the cow had gotten out of the barn; there was a gate, but mother couldn’t open it all the way to get to the cow, so she slapped the cow and realized it was a large bear; she and Laura hurried to the house and made it safely in; 2nd bear: Pa was coming home from town in the dark and saw a bear standing in his way off the road; Pa didn’t have his gun, so he picked up a branch and ran at the bear; when he hit the bear he realized it was just a large stump
104
Chapter 7
Comprehension questions
Explain sugar snow.
Page 127 — It’s a spring snow that keeps the trees just cold enough to extend the the maple syrup harvest
127
Chapter 8
Comprehension questions
Was this a fun chapter to read? Why, or why not?
Listen to your child’s answer
Chapter 9
Comprehension questions
Why hadn’t Laura known the sky was so large?
Page 164 — She and her family lived in the woods with trees all around them, they couldn’t see the vastness of the sky
164
Chapter 9
Comprehension questions
Why is Laura jealous of Mary?
Page 175 — Mary has golden hair, she looked good and sweet, the storekeeper commented how pretty she was, she kept her dress clean and minded her manners, her candy had a poem on it
175
Chapter 10
Comprehension questions
How did Pa get honey in this chapter?
Page 195 — He found a bear eating honey from a tree; he chased the bear away, cut down the tree and filled all the containers he brought from home
195
Chapter 11
Comprehension questions
Can you answer Laura’s question? How is Charlie a liar?
Page 211 — He cried out like he was in trouble three times and there wasn’t anything wrong
211
Does this remind you of another story?
The boy who cried wolf
Chapter 12
Comprehension questions
Summarize this chapter.
Page 221 — Ma and Laura made hats out of straw; It was time to harvest the garden and grain; Pa convinced his neighbor to hire a threshing machine to come and separate the wheat; it took all day and the girls helped their Ma prepare dinner
221
Chapter 13
Comprehension questions
Why didn’t Pa shoot any animals when he went hunting?
Page 232 — He was too curious watching them
232
Tell me a part of this story you really enjoyed. Why?
Listen to your child’s answer
Downloads
All the book’s resources, or just the ones you need, ready to read or print.
Worksheets
Practice sheets with space to write your answers.
Download one reading section
A small printout with all the resources for the selected section.
