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Reading schedule · Grades 3–6

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 4 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A four-week plan for reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, one section a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 3–6, in class or at home.

Pacing

At the grammar stage (grades 3–6) short, regular readings work better than long ones. Many families read aloud together and ask children to tell back what they heard before talking about the questions. Each week covers one section; if a section feels long, take two weeks over it and keep the escape room for the end.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Week 1: Chapters 1–3

Read: Chapters 1–3

Alice follows a White Rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a hall of locked doors, where a bottle and a cake make her shrink and grow by turns. She cries a pool of tears, swims in it with a crowd of creatures, and they try to get dry with a dull history lesson and a race in which everybody wins.

Discussion questions

1. How does Alice feel about changing size so often?
2. Why do the creatures' ways of getting dry make no sense, and why is that funny?
3. What kind of girl is Alice, judging by the way she talks to herself?

Escape room: The Little Door (lockedlessons.com/rooms/alice-chapters-1-3/)

Week 2: Chapters 4–6

Read: Chapters 4–6

Sent on an errand by the White Rabbit, Alice grows so large that she gets stuck in his house, and Bill the Lizard is sent down the chimney. She meets the Caterpillar on his mushroom, is mistaken for a serpent by a Pigeon, and visits the Duchess's kitchen, where the baby turns into a pig and the Cheshire Cat grins.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Alice find it so hard to tell the Caterpillar who she is?
2. What is strange about the Duchess's kitchen?
3. What does the Cheshire Cat tell Alice about Wonderland?

Escape room: Pig and Pepper (lockedlessons.com/rooms/alice-chapters-4-6/)

Week 3: Chapters 7–9

Read: Chapters 7–9

Alice joins the Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse at a mad tea-party where it is always tea-time. She reaches the Queen's croquet-ground, where gardeners paint white roses red and the game is played with flamingos and hedgehogs, then walks with the Duchess and the Gryphon to meet the Mock Turtle by the sea.

Discussion questions

1. Why is the tea-party so frustrating for Alice?
2. What is the Queen of Hearts like, and why does nobody stand up to her?
3. Which character in this section would you least like to meet, and why?

Escape room: A Mad Tea-Party (lockedlessons.com/rooms/alice-chapters-7-9/)

Week 4: Chapters 10–12

Read: Chapters 10–12

The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle teach Alice the Lobster Quadrille and sing of beautiful soup. Then comes the trial of the Knave of Hearts for stealing the tarts, where the evidence is nonsense and Alice grows larger and larger until she stands up to the court and wakes from her dream.

Discussion questions

1. What is wrong with the way the trial is run?
2. Why does Alice stop being afraid of the court?
3. Did you guess that it was a dream, and does knowing change the story?

Escape room: Who Stole the Tarts? (lockedlessons.com/rooms/alice-chapters-10-12/)