The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree: An October Mentor Text and A Free Inference Activity

Apple days are ticking away.  Tomorrow marks the beginning of October.  Bringing with it pumpkins, bats, spiders, and other fun, spooky signs of the season.  I'm linking up with the Collaboration Cuties to share a favorite mentor text for October.  My pick is an oldie, but a goodie, The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree.

This book follows three cubs as they explore the spooky old tree.  They keep coming to terrifying obstacles.  Leaving the reader to wonder if will they go on with their adventure.  If you haven't read this book, I don't want to be a spoiler.  You will have to read to find out the fate of this trio.
I loved this book when I was a little girl.  The illustrations of the corridors in the tree really captured my imagination.  This story is a very readable text beginning readers.  While this story is simple to read, it offers loads of opportunities for various comprehension activities and discussion.
One activity I like to use with my firsties is this quick and easy inference chart.

For this handout, you will read the story up until the point where the bears have to make a choice.  Let the students mark on their inference charts yes or no to the inference question.  After all your kiddos have made their inferences, then continue on with the story.  Once the students find out what really happens in the story they can draw a smiley or a frowny face depending if their inference was correct or not.

I usually have my kiddos use markers for this type of activity, so they do not erase their answers.
If you would like a free copy of this handout to go along with The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Tree, you can click on one of the pictures above.
The clip art is from Scrappin Doodles and the fonts are from Cara Carroll.
This book engages the students and this inference activity is an uncomplicated way to introduce inferencing to your young learners.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you can get some use out of this activity. For more fun October reads and ideas, be sure to visit Collaboration Cuties.