Mini-Guide for Beginners: The Long Way Westward

This is a two-week literature study for the book titled The Long Way Westward, by Joan Sandin. In this historical fiction book, Carl Erik and his family continue their journey (that began in Sweden) westward -- from New York to Minnesota.

Note: Most mini-guides for beginners are for 1st-3rd graders, but this guide is for 2nd-4th graders because those are the levels that are stated on the front of the book. The book can also be read aloud to younger students.

This guide includes:

• preparing to read activities
• vocabulary exercises
• discussion questions
• reading activities – Students will learn about: alliteration, idiom, allusion, prepositions, nouns/ adjectives, onomatopoeia, and effect/cause. Students will: create a list, analyze an illustration, compare/contrast, communicate without words, summarize, and think critically.
• related activities
• map work
• life applications/Bible
• web links
• a crossword puzzle
• activities that are able to be used as assessments
• an answer key

This is an interactive guide that enables parents/teachers to facilitate an oral discussion of the book, but it only provides space for one student to complete fill-in-the-blank activities. If you are interested in obtaining reproducibles that contain all of the fill-in-the-blank activities, click on the link:

Mini Guide for Beginners: The Long Way Westward Reproducibles

• The reproducibles are designed to be used with the mini-guide.
• The Answer Key for the activities on the reproducibles is found at the end of the mini-guide.

A mini-guide and reproducibles are available for the first book and a free product is available for the third book:

Mini-Guide for Beginners: The Long Way to a New Land

Mini-Guide for Beginners: The Long Way to a New Land Reproducibles

Activities and Links: At Home in a New Land (free)

A free item is also available for all three books:

The Long Way Sequence Cards and Activities

Mini-guides are used in home schools, co-ops, and traditional schools. Click on the link to browse through all of the Mini-Guides for Beginners.