The Busy Beaver

Name: The Busy Beaver
Author: Nicholas Oldland

A story that explores responsibility and opens a conversation with your child.

★★★★★ Loved by families

Read the Guiding Questions Find this book →

♥ This book teaches: Responsibility. owning your choices and their consequences.

Before, During & After Reading

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Definition: doing what needs to be done without complaining. In short: Do what needs to be done.

Summary: The Busy Beaver gets so busy he fails to think things through. The result is that Beaver makes a lot of mistakes that affect others and even himself - he accidentally chews a tree that lands on him and puts him in the hospital. While he’s recovering, he takes time to think about how to be more responsible. Busy Beaver apologizes to his friends for being so careless, makes efforts to fix his mistakes, and applies what he’s learned by being more focused on helping others in the forest. Lesson Objectives:

Students reflect on how their actions affect others, and become more self-aware, thoughtful, and responsible in their words and actions.

Guiding Questions:

Share what you know about beavers. If you don’t know much, find out more - where do they live, why are they called “busy” animals, what’s a beaver dam?
What is Busy Beaver’s problem?
Is he aware in the beginning of the story of how his actions affect other animals?
What happens to Busy Beaver that lands him in the hospital?
When Busy Beaver has to sit still in the hospital, he notices some mistakes he made. When he gets out of the hospital, what does he do to make up for his mistakes?
Are the other animals happy at first when Busy Beaver gets out of the hospital?
What does the word “careless” mean? Can you give an example in the story about Beaver’s careless actions?
What are some of Beaver’s ideas about being more responsible?
Think about a time when you said or did something that you wish you hadn’t done. Did you do something to make up for the mistake? Why or why not?
Ask a family member, teacher, or friend the question in #9.

🌿 Virtue Connection: Responsibility means owning what is yours, including your choices.

About the Story.

This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library, a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.