The Rikki Inference Activity

INSTRUCTIONS:

Click here to download the Word template.

Click here to download the Works 4.0 for windows template.

Once the template is downloaded, have the students open it. Students are then to read each excerpt and respond to the questions and statements. Once the template is completed, students should either print their responses or save them to their documents folder.  Alternately, students could read the excepts on-line and answer the questions by copying and pasting them into a word processing program.

EXCERPT 1:

He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly

drowned himself in the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a

writing table, and burned it on the end of the big man's cigar,

for he climbed up in the big man's lap to see how writing was

done. At nightfall he ran into Teddy's nursery to watch how

kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddy went to bed

Rikki-tikki climbed up too. But he was a restless companion,

because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the

night, and find out what made it. Teddy's mother and father came

in, the last thing, to look at their boy, and Rikki-tikki was

awake on the pillow. "I don't like that," said Teddy's mother.

"He may bite the child." "He'll do no such thing," said the

father. "Teddy's safer with that little beast than if he had a

bloodhound to watch him. If a snake came into the nursery now--"

INFERENTIAL QUESTIONS:

List examples that would support the statement, "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is curious".
 
 
 
 

One character trait of Rikki-Tikki is that he is curious. Using the word processing thesaurus, list five synonyms for the word "curious."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What will happen if a snake comes into the nursery now?
 
 
 
 

EXCERPT 2

"Tricked! Tricked! Tricked! Rikk-tck-tck!" chuckled

Rikki-tikki. "The boy is safe, and it was I--I--I that caught

Nag by the hood last night in the bathroom." Then he began to

jump up and down, all four feet together, his head close to the

floor. "He threw me to and fro, but he could not shake me off.

He was dead before the big man blew him in two. I did it!

Rikki-tikki-tck-tck! Come then, Nagaina. Come and fight with me.

You shall not be a widow long."

INFERENTIAL QUESTION:

What is meant by the statement, "you shall not be a widow long"?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

EXCERPT 3

He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the veranda, and

Nagaina came nearer and nearer to it, till at last, while

Rikki-tikki was drawing breath, she caught it in her mouth, turned

to the veranda steps, and flew like an arrow down the path, with

Rikki-tikki behind her. When the cobra runs for her life, she

goes like a whip-lash flicked across a horse's neck.

Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her, or all the trouble

would begin again.

INFERENTIAL QUESTION:

Using the word processing thesaurus, list five synonyms for "veranda."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What is meant by, "all the trouble would begin again"?
 
 
 
 
 
 

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

1. Access http://www.encarta.com for researching mongoose, India, Rudyard Kipling, or other related topics.

2. Use attached Literary Terms chart for terms development. This chart can be used on-line or as a reproducible.

3. Have students use "My Own Stories" software to create an original book after reading "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi".

4. Have students cut and paste the story excerpts into a word processing document. Using the thesaurus, have students replace words with synonyms/antonyms. Click here for a double bubble vocabulary web template.

RESOURCES

http://www.1stbooks.com

http://www.encarta.com

http://www.promo.net

Created at NCCAT on August 23, 2000 by teachers from Lee County Schools - Vicki Haislip, Kim Collazo, Christi Patterson, Callie Hammond, Beth Strickland and Chris Cobitz Ph.D. (NC A&T State University)
copyright 2000 Lee County Schools