The Wild Robot Reading Activities

The Wild Robot is a great novel to teach in a 2nd-3rd grade classroom! The Wild Robot reading activities can be engaging and fun for students! It also integrates well into the science curriculum! In this post, I will show you activities that you can do while teaching this novel to your students. 

If you have never done a novel study before, I suggest reading this post first with ideas on how to teach a novel study in your classroom. 

Why read The Wild Robot in 3rd Grade?

The Wild Robot is highly engaging to students at this grade level. It goes through the life of a robot who gets abandoned on an island and has to learn to survive with the animals on the island. The robot learns adaptations to survive until it is eventually brought back to its original home. This is a great way to discuss adaptations, what students think the future will look like, how to be kind and thoughtful, and so many more lessons! This novel is also great because your high readers will have a great interest in the topic, but the lower readers can comprehend the novel, as well. 

The Wild Robot Reading Activities 

Introduction Day

On the first day, we do Wild Robot reading activities before we actually read. Some ideas include…

• Watching this book commercial to get students interested in the topic
• Have students do a “book walk,” which means they read the back cover, go quickly through the book, and you might even let them read the first page! Then, they create predictions and even questions that they have about the novel. 
• Have students complete this weather writing activity! (This will take more than a few days), but the novel starts out with a hurricane, so learning about a hurricane beforehand would be valuable!
• Do a quick write. Have students write an answer to one of the following questions: What do you think it would be like to be dropped off in the wilderness to survive? How would you feel? What would you do to survive? 

Integration Activities

There are so many Wild Robot reading activities that integrate into other subjects! One great way is to integrate science! In the earlier chapters, you can have students create adaptations for the robot to adapt to live in the environment. You can do a STEM project where students create their own house for Roz and her friends to survive in. These are two great ways to integrate, but the novel provides for many science integrations when it comes to adaptations, animal survival instincts, and animal life cycles! 

Vocabulary

The vocabulary throughout this novel is wonderful! I personally pick three words every few chapters for students to learn and focus on. Then, we do activities throughout the novel to practice these words.

Here are some ideas on activities you can do with the words you choose:

• Find the word in the novel and use it in a new context or sentence
• Create a quiz with the words that can be given to another student
• Draw a picture of how the word is used in the novel
• Create silly sentences using the characters in the story and the vocabulary word

Quizzes/Tests

Throughout the novel, I like to give many quizzes to check for understanding. I typically will do a quiz every three days. The quizzes are short and have only a few questions. But this way, I can ensure students comprehend what we are reading. You can also do these quizzes with partners or as homework to make it more engaging since you do them often. 

Final Project Ideas

After reading the novel, doing a project is a great Wild Robot activity to wrap it up and also show understanding of the novel. Some ideas include…

• Write the Next Book- There is a sequel to this novel, so students could write the next book! You could have them just write the first chapter of the next novel and then read it and compare.
• Book Commercial- Have students plan and film a commercial to showcase the book.
• Board Game- Have students create a board game to review questions for the novel

Want to teach the novel to be no-prep and engaging? Well then, just grab the entire unit here, ready to go!