My Side of the Mountain Novel Study Project, Survival Guide Research & Writing

Bring Sam Gribley’s wilderness adventures into your classroom with this My Side of the Mountain Novel Study Project! Students combine details from the novel with their own research to create an illustrated 8-page survival guide explaining important wilderness survival skills.

This printable research and informational writing project gives students a clear purpose for reading, gathering facts, and explaining their ideas. As they imagine living in the wilderness like Sam, students investigate survival challenges and create a guide that teaches another reader what they have learned.

What’s Included

✅ Student project directions

✅ Two-page survival guide outline with guiding questions

✅ Research graphic organizers

✅ Sources recording page

✅ Survival guide cover and topic pages with space for writing and illustrations

✅ Essential Survival Gear & Skills page

✅ Wilderness-themed coloring page

✅ 100-point quick grading rubric

What Students Will Research and Write About

• Finding or building shelter

• Finding and obtaining safe water

• Making and using fire safely

• Finding and preparing food

• Wildlife and staying safe

• Navigation and finding your way

• Essential survival gear and skills

Students develop detailed explanations and add illustrations, diagrams, or labeled pictures to help readers understand their ideas. They also select five useful survival items or skills and explain which ONE item they would choose if they could take only one into the wilderness.

Skills Students Practice

• Connecting information from a novel with nonfiction research

• Gathering and organizing information from multiple sources

• Recording research sources

• Informational and explanatory writing

• Supporting choices with relevant details

• Creating diagrams and labeled illustrations

• Organizing writing for a specific audience

• Writing complete sentences with appropriate grammar and spelling

Why Teachers Will Love This Project

The project outline and research organizers help students move from gathering information to creating a finished survival guide. Topic pages provide space for both written explanations and visuals, while the included rubric makes expectations clear and supports grading.

Use this My Side of the Mountain Activity as a culminating novel study project, literature extension, research assignment, or cross-curricular ELA and science activity.

It gives students an engaging way to apply what they learn from Jean Craighead George’s novel while practicing purposeful informational writing.

Give your students a reason to research, explain, and illustrate Sam’s world—one survival skill at a time!