ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES
See the barbs on a cholla spine...
The photographs in the book let you see the spines very well--but not the barbs. To see the barbs, you need a microscope--your camera just can't do it. That said, if you have the right equipment, you can hook a camera up to a microscope, take a bunch of photos, and then use a computer to combine the photos together. By doing that, Nebarnix created a really neat photo that lets you see just how many tiny barbs are on a single spine. He (or she) shared the photo on this Wikipedia page.
Coloring pages

- Download "Choy" to print and color in.
- Download "Don't hug the cactus" to print and color in.
Make it! Do it! (Warning: this might get messy!)
- You know some desert creatures will eat broken off cholla joints (the branches are usually called joints). How do they get around those spines? Could you do it? Get some pretzels (the straight kind that looks like a little stick) and something soft and edible. Bonus points if it is juicy and green inside, but bananas, mochi, marshmallows, anything like that should work. Push the pretzels into the food until it looks like a well-armored cacti arm. Now, no hands allowed. Just using your mouth, can you get past all the pretzel-spines? Consider a competition with a couple friends--and a photographer to document it!
- A cholla's spines and barbs have a lot of different purposes. One of the purposes the book doesn't mention is transportation. The joints are made to break off really easily so that if an animal brushes up against them, they will break off. The barbs make sure that they stay stuck to the animal they touched. Conduct an experiment where you try creating different spine and barb systems and then brushing up against them. Which one sticks the best? How far can you travel before each one gets loose? (Supplies you might consider: Velcro, glue, used chewing gum...okay, maybe not that last one because that would be germy and gross, but use your imagination!)
- Identify some other plants that grow by cloning and then grow one for a bit. Strawberries are a great potential candidate. Can you keep the plant alive long enough for it to replicate itself?
Pre-reading and post-reading activities...

Teachers, if you are reading this book with a mixed-level class, a quick pre-reading activity is having your students highlight the familiar words (if they won't know many words) or unfamiliar words (if you anticipate them knowing most). Have them hold their worksheets up where you can see them - by scanning the room you can get a rough idea of which words (and how many of them) are unfamiliar to your students.
You can also make your own class word cloud after reading the book. Team up to add all the words you remember from the book to Wordle and then click go. You can use your creation to review by having students remind you why each word was listed--what was the connection of each word to life in the desert or Cactus Choy?
Download the handout in the picture--it has all of the words from the story on it in ABC order. You can write any instructions you want to give in the box that Choy is holding have students use it for a particular purpose--to highlight a new word they learned, for example.
You can also make your own class word cloud after reading the book. Team up to add all the words you remember from the book to Wordle and then click go. You can use your creation to review by having students remind you why each word was listed--what was the connection of each word to life in the desert or Cactus Choy?
Download the handout in the picture--it has all of the words from the story on it in ABC order. You can write any instructions you want to give in the box that Choy is holding have students use it for a particular purpose--to highlight a new word they learned, for example.