The Boston Coffee Party
by Doreen Rappaport

Pages 5-63

5th grade (below grade level-2nd grade)
Section 3

Discussion Director

Your job today is to write down 5 questions that you and your group can discuss.

Hero/Heroine/Villian

1.  Who is the villain in this book?  Why?  Give examples from the book that support your answer.

Answer:  Merchant Thomas is the villain because he is a very mean man.  Merchant Thomas sold the sugar to another lady
             because she was willing to pay more and he also hide some barrels of coffee so that he could raise the prices when
             everyone else was out of coffee.

Cause/Effect

2.  What did mother have to do since she did not get the sugar?

Answer:  Mother had to let Emma eat the berries because she did not have any sugar to make the jam.

EOG

3.  The women took all of these to the coffee party except

    A.  Plates
    B.  Pots
    C. Pans
    D. Cups

Answer:  A

Passage Picker

Your job is to pick four passages from this section that you and your group can discuss.  Choose passages that satisfy these  reasons:

1.)  A.  p 32 lines 7-9

      B.  "He has . . . his warehouse"

      C.  This passage is important to the story because it tells why Merchant Thomas has supplies when no one else does and
            that he is a greedy man.

      D.  Question:  Why did Merchant Thomas want to lock up the coffee in his warehouse?

            Answer:  Merchant Thomas wanted to get more money for the supplies when everyone else was out of them.

      E.  Author's Purpose:  To Inform

2.)  A.  p 51 lines 1-3

      B.  "She pushed . . .the cart."

      C.  The passage is historical because some woman really did push a greedy merchant into a cart to get the keys to unlock
            his warehouse.

      D.  Question:  Why did Mrs. Homans and Aunt Harriet push the cart with Merchant Thomas in it?

            Answer:  They wanted to make Merchant Thomas give them the key to his warehouse.

     E.  Author's Purpose:  To Describe

Character Sketcher

    Your job today is to find an interesting character that you can discuss with your group.  You will need to find three words that describe your character.  For each word, character trait, you will give the proof/example (page number and paragraph).
    Next you will tell one of your character's goals, or what the character wants to do in this section.  Then you will look for one of the character's problems in the section and the solution or possible solution to the problem.
    Finally you will make a character map and illustrate your character.

Character Traits:

Sarah

1.  mature-(p1 lines 3-4)  she acts like an adult by taking care of her younger sister and telling her what to do

2.  wise-(p 36 lines 6 to the end of the page)  she gives the grown-ups an idea about how to get Merchant Thomas

3.  opinionated-(p 20 last two lines)  she tells Merchant Thomas what she thinks of him

Goal:

To get sugar so that her mother can make jam.

Problem:

Merchant Thomas is hiding supplies so that he can sell them at a higher price to Sarah's family and others.

Solution:

Sarah suggest that they have a coffee party to teach Merchant Thomas a lesson.

Word Wizard

    Your job today is to pick four words in this section that are special words. You will need to write down the word and where you found it in the story (page and lines).  You will also need to write down a definition of each word, the sentence using your word, and make up your own sentence using the word.  Some words to choose are:

1.  A.  shillings-(p 16 lines 5-6)

     B.  "Seven shillings a pound,"  said Merchant Thomas.

     C.  shillings-type of money, like coins

     D.  noun

     E.  The new toy that I wanted to buy cost ten shillings.

2.  A.  merchant-(p 7 lines 1-3)

     B.  "Let's go to Merchant Smith's shop," said Emma.

     C.  merchant-a person who sells goods

     D.  noun

     E.  Merchant John has the best prices in town.

Artful Artist

    Your job is to think about the different events in the story, such as when Merchant Thomas would not sell Sarah the sugar.  Develop a creative way to respond to each of the events that happened in the story.

  An example of what you can do to respond to the events is to make up a skit that you can perform to go along with an event in the story.