L. Frank Baum was born May 15, 1856 in New York. He is best known for the book he published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, an American fairy tale. I read this book to my boys when Elijah was in first or second grade. A few months later we went to a play, The Marvelous Land of Oz, and a homeschool program where the instructor (a true lover of all things Oz) informed Elijah that there were multiple books in the series. She even teased him with pieces of the future plots. 

Elijah persistently asked me to buy the books for him, and over time we collected the entire series; they are some of my fantasy-loving boy's favorites.

We encourage you to read the book, if you haven't ever done so. It's a different experience than watching the movie. After you read the book, you can celebrate Baum's birthday with our (yes, Elijah helped with this!) Wizard of Oz Printable Pack.

The pack includes lots of different activities: a notebooking page to record research about Baum, a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the book with the movie, a favorite character graph, an Oz book challenge, pages of copywork, create a character, learning about the fantasy genre, and a word search. 

I also have a pin board ~ Journey to Oz where you can find more ideas to dig deeper into this book. 

Be sure to check out other Birthday Lessons in May to celebrate Elijah McKoy, Robert E. Peary, Johannes Brahms, Sir James M. Barrie, Justinian the Great, Gabriel D. Fahrenheit, Wild Bill Hickock, and Patrick Henry.