The Secret in the Hidden Cave - Teacher's Guide

THE SECRET IN THE HIDDEN CAVE

  TEACHER’S GUIDE – Discussion Prompts, Questions & Activities

  by Debra Chapoton

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  Part 1 – chapter questions and discussion prompts

  Chapter 1:

  1.Which girl do you think is more important in this chapter?

  2.What do you think the key impressions are?

  3.Do you think the person who says “Gotcha!” is good or bad?

  Chapter 2:

  1.Discuss map legends (symbols).

  2.Discuss name calling. Do you think Missy’s experience with being called stork was bad? How would you handle it?

  3.Discuss “6th sense”. Who did you think was following Missy and her mom?

  4.Describe old Mr. Stark. What are some of his characteristics? Do you think you would like him?

  Chapter 3:

  1.Describe Kevin’s personality.

  2.Describe Missy.

  3.What does Kevin show Missy? Name at least 3.

  4.What do they see from the windows?

  5.What is the secret that Kevin reveals?

  6.What is Missy’s reaction to the secret at first and then later?

  7.Do you think that Missy strong or weak? Discuss following your conscience.

  8.What does Missy find in the attic?

  9.What does her great-grandfather give her?

  Chapter 4:

  1.Name the 7 things in the puzzle box.

  2.Discuss the significance of each. You’ll have to make guesses on some of them.

  Chapter 5:

  1.Compare and contrast this visit in June to the one in March. Include the drive, the scenery and the greeting.

  2.How can you tell that Kevin is anxious?

  3.Describe the “elevator” tree. How do you think it works?

  4.How do you think the high school boy will fit into the story?

  Chapter 6:

  1.Kevin thinks about some of the things he and Missy talked about in the tree fort. What do you think the answers are to the tree fort questions? What crazy questions would you add?

  2.Describe Kevin’s encounter with the bully.

  3.Do you think this is the high school boy Missy saw from the fort?

  4.How do you think this bully’s sister will fit into the story?

  Chapter 7:

  1.Describe Jessica.

  2.Why is it significant that she likes puzzles?

  Chapter 8:

  1.Why do you think the Monopoly game is missing the silver playing pieces?

  2.Who overhears their plans to visit the Indian graves?

  Chapter 9:

  1.What is a root cellar?

  2.Who seems the most scared, Kevin, Missy or Jessica? How do you know?

  3.What do they discover when they play grave tag?

  4.How do you think the root cellar door got opened?

  Chapter 10:

  1.How would you describe Brad?

  2.What do you think of his practical joke? What makes a practical joke good or bad?

  Chapter 11:

  1.Why do you think there were “emergency ping-pong paddles”?

  2.What was interesting about the description of the area as Missy, Kevin and Jessica paddled around the lake?

  3.Kevin reveals that there is a third entrance to the caves. What clue does he give? Where do you think it might be?

  4.What do you think the two separate grown-ups’ conversations might be about? Do you think they are connected? Could they be important to the story?

  5.When Missy great-grandfather tells her there are more secrets and she’ll have to read his diary to find out, he also wiggles his fingers. She thinks he might be playing the piano, but what do you think?

  6.What two things does Missy decide to keep with her always?

  7.Do you think Brad was helpful by throwing wood on the fire?

  8.How did the marshmallows “magically” appear?

  Chapter 12:

  1.How does chapter 12 fit into the previous chapter?

  2.Now how do you feel about Brad?

  Chapter 13:

  1.Describe how Missy’s mind wanders during church.

  2.Why does Jessica call her step-mother the step-witch?

  3.How does she keep her step-mother from tagging along to the caves?

  4.How do the kids enter the caves?

  5.What safety precautions do they take?

  Chapter 14:

  1.Missy’s mother overhears some clues as she sunbathes. What are they and what do you think they could mean?

  2.What do you think of Jessica’s dad and step-mother, Mr. and Mrs. Evans?

  3.What is Brad’s new plan? Does this sound like a good or bad practical joke?

  Chapter 15:

  1.Describe the interior of the cave.

  2.What is Kevin’s trick for not getting lost?

  Chapter 16:

  1.Who are Sarah and Charles Jones?

  2.What do they do in the caves?

  3.How does Brad execute his practical joke? How does it backfire?

  4.What are Sarah and Charles’ new plans?

  5.What happens to Brad?

  Chapter 17:

  1.Describe what happens when Missy, Kevin and Jessica reach the cellar trap door.

  2.What do they decide to do?

  3.How has Brad changed when they find him? Why do you think he changed?

  4.Describe how they manage to get out of the caves?

  Chapter 18:

  1.Describe the scene when the kids return and their parents and the Joneses see them.

  2.How do the Joneses hide their reaction?

  3.What idea do you think is forming in Missy’s mother’s mind?

  4.What secret do you think old Mr. Stark is referring to?

  5.Do you think he already knows what would save the lodge?

  Chapter 19:

  1.When Missy visits her great-grandfather he has been working on a new invention, a tiny camera with wings. Does this remind you of anything from the story?

  2.How do you feel about the story he tells Missy about the girl who drowned. Discuss tragedies.

  3.What is the invisibility project?

  4.What do you think of the clue – “The key is the ledge. The ledge is key.”?

  5.When Missy closes the door to her great-grandfather’s place she hears his fingers clicking on the keyboard. Does that remind you of a previous clue? What was it?

  Chapter 20:

  1.“Mr. Jackson was quite irate” – what does “irate” mean and how do you know from the context?

  2.What happened to the first three steps to the tree fort?

  3.How does Jessica react to the secret passageway to the attic?

  4.What plan does Jessica come up with?

  5.What does she do?

  6.What things does she find in the attic?

  7.What does she overhear on her way down?

  8.Do you think she was right to take the diary and read it? Discuss privacy.

  Chapter 21:

  1.Describe the big clue the girls find in the diary.

  2.What does Jessica reveal to Missy about the Joneses?

  Chapter 22:

  1.Explain the family separation that old Mr. Stark had suffered.

  2.Give an explanation of “Arby”.

  3.How do you think “Arby” will figure in the story?

  Chapter 23:

  1.What was the coolest part about going to the cemetery?

  2.Describe the 6-whe
el vehicle and its purpose.

  Chapter 24:

  1.How does Brad find out where the kids went?

  2.What does he do?

  3.What discoveries do the kids make?

  4.What do they do when Brad shows up?

  5.Do you think they were right to leave him?

  Chapter 25:

  1.Why did Missy make a list?

  2.What would you add to it?

  3.Describe what the girls and Kevin find in the kids’ playroom.

  4.What big discoveries do they make in the cave?

  5.How do you think Missy feels about the last discovery?

  Chapter 26:

  1.What do Missy and her great-grandfather talk about?

  2.What do you think the game of cribbage is?

  Chapter 27:

  1.Summarize what happened at Olsen’s Dairy Farm.

  Chapter 28:

  1.What was Kevin’s consequence for failing to put the 6-wheel vehicle away? Discuss being responsible.

  2.What is the “cricket”?

  3.Why do you think it is there?

  Chapter 29:

  1.Why do you think old Mr. Stark is not worried?

  Chapter 30:

  1.Describe the great discovery in the caves.

  2.Why would this be so important?

  3.Why do the kids invent a half-truth in order to borrow a camera? Discuss honesty.

  4.Explain what pictograms are.

  Chapter 31:

  1.What does Kevin overhear?

  2.What is Kevin’s plan?

  Chapter 32:

  1.Summarize Jessica and Brad’s visit to Olsen’s Dairy Farm.

  Chapter 33:

  1.Who do Kevin and Jessica see from the play fort?

  2.What idea does Jessica have?

  3.Why do you think that Jessica make a face behind Kevin’s back?

  Chapter 34:

  1.What does Brad see from the tree fort?

  2.What does he think about while he waits? Do you agree with his conclusion?

  3.Do you think that Brad has changed?

  Chapter 35:

  1.What terrible thing happens in the caves?

  2.Why does Jessica get grounded?

  Chapter 36:

  1.How does Kevin figure out a way out?

  2.How does the “cricket” help?

  3.Who does Missy go to for help?

  4.What is her great-grandfather’s reaction to the dilemma?

  5.Do you think that he has had everything under control all along? If so, what was his purpose in letting the kids figure everything out?

  6.What is the plan to get Jessica out of the lodge? Discuss disobedience.

  7.The scene on the ledge is identical to the opening of the story. Why do you think the author opened with that scene?

  8.How does the scene end this time? (You might be surprised to learn that the author did not know that it would end up being Brad in the bushes below when she first wrote the opening.)

  9.How does the story end? Are you satisfied with the result?

  Part 2 – activities (art, music, speaking, writing, creating)

  1.Draw a map of Big Pine Lodge. Include the lodge, cabins, Indian graves, settlers’ ruins, cave entrances, lake, Mt. Rocky and at least two other features that you think are important.

  2.Fill a shoe box with 7 small items that are important to you. Talk about the importance of each one.

  3.Create a campfire song or rap lyrics that describe Missy and Kevin’s adventure.

  4.Draw a picture of the opening scene in chapter 1 and then draw what happens next as recounted in chapter 36.

  5.Do some research on puzzle boxes and present a report with pictures.