TeachKind Rescue Stories: Teens Save a Suffering Squirrel
Stories of people helping animals are all over the internet, and sharing them with your students is an excellent way to encourage kindness both in and out of the classroom. Because most children naturally feel compassion for animals, sharing rescue stories is a great way to engage and motivate different types of learners and encourage them to take action to help end animal abuse.
Each TeachKind Rescue Stories reading comprehension worksheet tells a different animal’s tale of transformation and features key vocabulary words and questions in order to encourage literal, inferential, and evaluative thinking. These worksheets were used in a study that found that students who read passages about having compassion for animals performed significantly better on Common Core–aligned assessments, demonstrating that instructional time need not be sacrificed in order to instill empathy in young people!
This rescue story is about a squirrel who was covered with hard foam insulation. Two teens sprang into action and got him the help that he needed. As a result of their kindness, he was able to be released back into his natural habitat. Use this story to engage reluctant learners and inspire your students to help those in need—no matter their species.
Use other TeachKind resources to create an entire lesson around this story. You can use this worksheet to address the following Common Core English language arts standards.
Grades 9 and 10
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Grades 11 and 12
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
DOWNLOAD OCTOBER’S RESCUE STORY READING COMPREHENSION WORKSHEET!
Download this lesson in digital format here!
(Note to teachers: The digital format does not include the answer sheet. To view the answer sheet for grading purposes, please download the PDF version.)
Please share these resources to inspire other teachers to incorporate compassion for animals into their curricula.
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