Henry's Freedom Box, a picture book by Ellen Levine, tells the true story of Henry "Box" Brown, an enslaved man who mailed himself to the North in a wooden crate to gain freedom. The book is a popular choice for educators, particularly during Black History Month and when teaching about the Underground Railroad. While the source materials do not contain information about consumer free samples, promotional offers, or product trials, they do detail a variety of free educational resources and activity guides designed to complement the book. These resources are primarily available to teachers and parents to enhance student learning and engagement.
Educational Resources and Activity Guides
Educators have developed a wide range of materials to support the use of Henry's Freedom Box in the classroom. These resources focus on reading comprehension, social studies integration, and hands-on learning activities.
Teacher-Created Lesson Plans and Unit Studies
Several sources describe comprehensive lesson plans and unit studies. One resource is part of a "Starts With a Story" collection, which includes over 550 picture book companions. For Henry's Freedom Box, this collection provides interactive read-aloud lesson plans that come with reading comprehension questions, sample student responses, 30 writing prompts, teaching ideas for grammar skills, and social-emotional learning discussion topics (Source [2]).
Another source details a unit study that addresses both English Language Arts standards and standards related to the Underground Railroad, slavery, and the Civil War. The unit includes: * Before Reading Activities: A schema builder and a vocabulary organizer. * During Reading Activities: Note-taking for sequencing events, visualization exercises, and question task cards using the Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy. * After Reading Activities: A quiz, written response prompts, and a lapbook project to serve as a culminating activity (Source [6]).
A close reading guide is also available, designed as a week-long lesson plan aligned with Common Core State Standards for 4th grade. This guide provides focus questions for each re-reading of the text and includes examples of evidence from the text to help teachers guide students toward a deeper understanding (Source [5]).
Digital and Printable Activity Packets
Many of the available resources offer both printable PDF versions and digital formats suitable for platforms like Google Slides™. These packets are described as "no-prep activities" that teachers can use as follow-ups to reading the book. Activities often include: * Story summaries. * Comprehension questions. * Graphic organizers. * Craft projects.
One resource offers a "full day of plans" that includes an activity for reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and a craft. A free sample of this full-day plan is available, which can be used digitally with Google Slides™ through a Google Classroom™ account (Source [4], Source [5]).
Specific Skill-Focused Activities
Beyond full lesson plans, individual activities are available that target specific educational skills. These are often highlighted in blog posts and on educational marketplaces.
- Inferencing and Summarizing: One blog post suggests using Henry's Freedom Box to teach inferencing and summarizing/retelling skills. It also recommends activities for sentence generation and expansion (Source [3]).
- Comprehension Questions and Projects: A set of resources includes 11 short-answer, multi-layered comprehension questions, 6 project challenges, and a picture comparison activity. This specific book is noted as a 2008 Caldecott Honor Book (Source [5]).
- Hands-On Experience: To help students connect with the story, one educator suggests bringing in a box for children to sit in for a few minutes. Afterward, students reflect on the experience and write about what Henry's journey may have been like. This is supplemented with a "freebie" available on the educator's blog (Source [1]).
Accessing Free Educational Materials
The free resources for Henry's Freedom Box are primarily distributed through educational blogs, teacher-created marketplaces, and specialized educational websites.
- Educational Blogs: Several blog posts serve as hubs for these materials. They often provide a brief overview of the book and link to free downloadable "freebies" or to paid resources on platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers. For example, one blog post links to a free book companion for story retelling (Source [1], Source [3]).
- Teachers Pay Teachers: This platform is frequently mentioned as a source for both free and paid materials. Search results show a variety of activity packets, lesson plans, and unit studies related to the book (Source [5]).
- Educational Websites: Sites like "Comprehension Connection" and "Jodi Durgin's Kajabi site" offer detailed descriptions of their units and the specific skills they target, such as schema building, vocabulary, and sequencing (Source [2], Source [6]).
Conclusion
The available materials focus exclusively on providing educational support for the book Henry's Freedom Box. There is no information in the provided sources regarding consumer free samples, product trials, or promotional offers. The "freebies" mentioned are educational resources intended for classroom or home-school use, such as lesson plans, activity sheets, and project guides. These materials are designed to help teachers and parents facilitate discussions and activities around the book's historical themes and literary elements.