Chapter 1

Guiding Questions

• What is the setting of this story?

• Who are the characters?

• What is the main idea of this chapter? What are the supporting details?

• "Mary was bigger than Laura, and she had a rag doll named Nettie. Laura had only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll. It was named Susan. It wasn't Susan's fault that she was only a corncob. Sometimes Mary let Laura hold Nettie, but she did it only when Susan couldn't see." Why does Laura only hold Nettie when Susan can't see? What does this tell us about Laura?

• After telling the story, Pa says, "But I see that either one of you has more sense than the man who cut the two cat holes in his door." Why does he say this?

• Would you like to live like Laura and her family? Why or why not?

Figurative Language

Identify the types of figurative language used in the following passages:

• They looked like shaggy dogs.

• At night, when Laura lay awake in the trundle bed, she listened and could not hear anything at all but the sound of the trees whispering together.

• The days were shorter, and frost crawled up the window panes at night.

The idiom saved the bacon means to escape injury or save a life. Pa said, "Anyway, I saved the bacon," when he rescued the pig from the bear. What two meanings does the term have for him?

Vocabulary

Explore chapter vocabulary with the visual dictionary.

Extensions

• Watch this video (0:58) to see the real "little house" in Pepin, Wisconsin.

• Use a shoe box to make a diorama of the Ingalls' home.

• List the animals found in the big woods. Find pictures of these animals. Create a visual dictionary. Include basic information about each animal.

• Watch this video (5:42) to see how people preserve pork by salting, curing, and smoking.

• Draw and label a diagram of the smokehouse. Add captions to explain how it worked.