Article
Illustrated by Shannon Wright
Mini Graphic Novel,

Pine School Pals: The Obstacle Course

Meet the Pine School second-grade class. Today Ben and Zoey have a problem. Find out what    happens in The Obstacle Course!

By Laine Falk
From the March / April 2025 Issue

Learning Objective:Students will practice finding the problem and solution in a fiction story.

Lexile® measure: 320L
Featured Skill: Use Visuals, Main Idea,
Topic: Social-emotional learning,
Common Core Standards
  • Social and Life Skills
    Speaking Up for Oneself
  • Common Core Standards
    RL.2.1 Key details RL.2.3 Describe how characters respond to events RL.2.5 Story structure RL.2.7 Use information from illustrations to understand characters, setting, and plot RL.2.10 Read grade-2-appropriate stories SL.2 Participate in conversations about grade-2 texts
TEKS Standards
  • Health
    (3) Mental health and wellness—social and emotional health. The student identifies and applies strategies to develop socio-emotional health, self-regulation, and healthy relationships. The student is expected to: (A) communicate needs, wants, and emotions in healthy ways; (D) explain the effect of peer influence on an individual’s social and emotional health; (F) describe and demonstrate respectful ways to communicate with family members, peers, teachers, and others

Magazine View
See Student View
Think and Read

As you read, think about what Zoey and Ben could have done differently. 

Pine School Pals:
The Obstacle Course

Front row: Niki, Sara, Ben, Ava, Riley, Tate
Back row: Ms. Perez, Nora, Theo, Jack, Jun, Zoey, Malik
 

By Laine Falk

video (1)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (2)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
video (1)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (2) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Small group; whole group; independent reading

Pairings and Text Connections

This comic is part of a series. Students can look at past print issues or go online to read about the Pine School Pals’ other adventures!

Before-Reading Resources

  • Text Preview Bookmarks 
    (5 minutes) Kids can cut out the fiction bookmark and use it to preview the text.

Suggested Reading Focus

Reading fluency, performance (30 minutes)

  • Have students read the mini graphic novel aloud in small groups. You can assign different students different roles. The characters are all listed on the first page to make this easy.
  • After students have practiced with their small groups, they can perform their “play“ for the rest of the class (while reading from the magazine—they don’t have to memorize their parts). 
  • Then you can discuss the story. What was the problem in the story? What was the solution?

After-Reading Skills Practice

(15 minutes for each activity)

  • Problem and Solution: This activity helps students reflect on the structure of the comic they have just read.
  • Video: Show students the video “What’s in a Comic?” to help them understand features of comics, like speech bubbles, thought bubbles, and more.

Text-to-Speech