Wise Guys Reading Review and Activity: Al Capone Does My Shirts

 Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Summary

Imagine you and your family lived on Alcatraz Island in the early 1900s with all the criminals locked up just yards from your house. And one of those criminals happens to be Al Capone! This story is about a boy named Moose and how his family moves onto Alcatraz Island because of his dad's job. Now you think that would be enough of an adventure, but the warden's daughter, Piper, is more trouble than Moose can handle. She is constantly scheming up new ideas to get in touch with the famous criminals behind the prison walls. And it all comes to a big mess when Moose's sister, Natalie, is not accepted into a special school and Moose's mom is beside herself. Will Moose and Piper be able to help Natalie get into the special school? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Activity Related to the Story

We have created a free game board that would be an excellent review for the students after reading the book. This activity comes with the game board that we print out on card stock in color ink and then laminate so we can use year after year. Also included are the game cards. We copy those onto card stock as well, and then cut them out. The only materials that you will need to provide are the game pieces to move around the board (you can even have the students make them out of paper) and dice. Students enjoy reviewing the story in this fun way.

Extensive Reading Activity Guide

We also have a 50 page activity guide and answer key that goes along with the story. Our student love to do these guides because it provides them with fun activities related to the book. They are also challenged to search for answers in the book and to use reading strategies such as: summarizing, predicting, connecting, visualizing and so much more. The guide is easy to use and includes an answer key that is a tremendous help for the teacher.

We hope you take the time to read this book and hopefully use it in your classroom too!

For more great reading comprehension guides on other great books click here.