Wanda Petronski, a little Polish girl in an American school, is laughed at because she always wears a faded blue dress, until her classmates learn a lesson.

The Hundred Dresses

In winning a medal she is no longer there to receive, a tight-lipped little Polish girl teaches her classmates a lesson.

"The authors of the musical version of The Hundred Dresses have rewritten the musical as a one-act straight play that's perfect for competition! Wanda Petronski, a second-grader, lives way up in a shabby house in Boggins Heights, and she doesn't have any friends. Every day she wears a faded blue dress, but she tells her classmates that she has a hundred dresses at home of all fabrics and colors. Soon Maddie, Peggy, Jack and their classmates make a game of teasing Wanda about her hundred dresses until one day she disappears from school, leaving just an empty seat where she once sat. As feelings of guilt overtake the children, Maddie and the others decide they must find out what happened to Wanda and make amends for the way they treated her. But is it too late? Bullying, friendship and forgiveness are all touched upon in this beloved Newbery Honor Book by Eleanor Estes."--

A Literature of The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Suggests activities to accompany the reading of The hundred dresses by Eleanor Estes.

The Hundred Dresses [by] Eleanor Estes

Bring to light the hardships of bullying. Offer a unique viewpoint on the hardships, perseverance and acceptance experienced by a young girl. Bring to the forefront topics for discussion about treating each other in a kindly manner. Students share their impressions of people based on where they live and how they dress to get them into the right mindset prior to reading the story. Find details in the story that set a serious tone when Miss Mason reads the note from Wanda's father. Use context clues to write the meanings of the underlined vocabulary words from the book. Predict how Wanda might react to Peggy and Maddie's visit after she moved. Recreate a scene from the novel into a play, and present it to the class. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: The Hundred Dresses is a Newbery Honor winning story about a young girl who is teased and mocked by her classmates. Wanda Petronski is different from the rest of the children in her class. She is poor and friendless, and is seated in the worse seat in the classroom. Constantly teased and mocked by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day, Wanda claims to own 100 dresses. This obvious lie causes her peers to mock her even more, resulting in her father's decision to move her to a different school. Before she leaves, she enters a drawing contest where she designs 100 different dresses. She moves away before realizing she has won the contest and the respect of her classmates.

The Hundred Dresses - Literature Kit Gr. 3-4

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