Hi, friends!!
I am trying SO hard to get better at blogging all our adventures in Room 15! We just had our Charlotte's Web celebration yesterday, and it was EVERYTHING I hoped it would be!! It's just one of life's most beautiful things when your students' hard work comes together, and see them actually falling in love with a classic novel. I always have a few students each year that have seen the movie, but we dive right in and I never have any disappointed! Every novel deserves to be celebrated!
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| Four little piggies went to town.... |
Every day we read a chapter, and get busy! I found a gold mine on YouTube: E. B. White reading the novel, and my kids adored it! I asked, "Doesn't it sound like this brilliant author form "back in the day" sitting at a typewriter??" They all said, " Yeeeeees!!" We are studying story structure, character traits, and theme in great detail. The book study we used is available in my TPT store, and I'll link below. We list the characters through and then determine the main ones to list traits about. This is a great opportunity for your students to discuss ideas with each other. I always tell them to think about the actions and thoughts and words they showed throughout the chapter. As I was walking around one day, listening to the discussion, I heard one of my spirited girls tell her partner, " I disagree cause he really ain't shown us nothing this chapter!" We're working through grammar LOL! But, she was passionate about the fact that she believed this character didn't show us enough to list traits for. Is there a better character to enforce traits than Templeton?? They have a ch. trait list in their ELA IAN, and they refer to it when listing traits AND proof in their study.
I use Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) faithfully. If you are not familiar with it, look it up!! You will not be sorry! I will say, "Give me two strong character traits for _____! I clap twice and say "Teach!" They clap twice and say "OK!" and it's full speed ahead! We come back and record our answers.
We then work on our summaries. In the beginning we do this whole group, through discussion. Summarizing is a VERY difficult skill to teach! They want to tell you every little detail. This is where matchbook summaries come in beautifully. What are those?! I'm glad you asked....
Well, almost.
Students record a summary inside of the square, and draw an illustration on the cover. They must keep up with their squares in a Ziplock bag until the end of the novel. They work SO hard on these, and it provides the perfect balance of them being able to put their creative spin on each chapter. The illustrations are one of my favorite parts of the whole study. To see what each student thinks the most important part of the chapter was is so interesting.
The lapbooks are made from tapping two manila folders together. On one side of the cover, they redesign the cover of the novel. This is actually a choice on my choice board they keep in their ELA IAN. On the other side, they must cut out adjectives or character traits that describe them and glue onto a web, the same way Charlotte writes about Wilbur! If it's avaiable, we always compare the novel and the movie during our celebrations. They record on a Venn Diagram and glue onto the back. I have students from years past, who still come through and say, "Oh, which lapbook are you guys working on?? I still have mine." They are THAT proud of all this hard work!
We also do these activities throughout:
Pig informational writing, during the beginning. They are always SO surprised to find out how clever pigs actually are!
Spider research, usually around ch. 8-10. I mean, we could stay on that research foreva! Want to get your students writing....give them an animal to research! #canIhaveanothersheet
We formed interview questions for characters in the book, and used Kagan Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up to interview each other.
I put quotes from the novel around the room. The students went on a gallery walk, and had to record their favorite quote and explain what it meant to them. We do this toward the end, or I'll pull a few from upcoming chapters.
I also use these for our celebration day!
We do many writings along the way, but we work up to a triple whammy (WBT) to talk about Charlotte's three main character traits. Although, it can be used with any character. The heart in these papers just make me smile. They love these characters.
Once we are done reading, we start STEM!!! We do STEM after every novel as well! I purchased this unit, and man, it was awesome!! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Charlottes-Web-Storybook-STEM-Novel-3194056
I chose three projects my students could complete, and I tweaked it to meet our standards and grade. I'll be adding that to my store later.
They could build a parachute for Charlotte's daughters, construct a model of a ferris wheel and create a flipbook telling the history of the ride and explanation of their design, or create a booth for the fair. They fair booth was the most popular, but all were loved! I told them to look around their and bring boxes or anything they could use to build with. They came in with boxes, trinkets for prizes, stickers for tickets, I was blown away by their creativity! We watched this video the day before to get the ideas rolling!
They used Legos for the Ferris Wheel. Trying to make it round was a WONDERFUL group effort!! Your Lego loving engineer students will LOVE this project! They usually do not love writing, but when they construct the model first, they want to tell you every detail about their design!
The fair booth could be food or entertainment. They had to create a full business plan: slogan, customer service, tickets or money, menu, prizes. I just loved watching every, single minute of these two days!
As I read the last two chapters to my class, I thought I would be ok. I knew I would tear up like I usually do, but I have a crew this year. The kind of crew that makes you remember why you love teaching, that hang onto every word you say, that genuinely want to learn EVERYDAY. They have fallen in love with these characters, and it truly warms my heart. I did not hold it together well, and I did not have a dry eye in the room when Charlotte passed. They all said, "I knew it was coming, Mrs. Bolden, but I just wasn't ready!" I know boo, I know. It's like when you watch the same part on a movie, and you think "maybe they won't get kidnapped this time'. I told them great books should make you feel that way! Some kind of emotion, happiness, sadness, hope, wonder.....When we watched the movie everyone sucked in their breath when Charlotte passed with Wilbur there. They were all so happy that she didn't pass alone, like she did in the novel.
Then....
Celebration Day!!!
They came dressed as their favorite characters, and oh m gee, what a blast!! I was totally surprised by some of the choices!!! We ate fair food: caramel apples, popcorn fragments (From Templeton's night at the fair), and spider cupcakes. We compared the novel to the movie. They hung onto every word. They told me they now understand why I say the book is always better than the movie. Isn't that what we want the most?! For them to be swept up into a book and fall in love with the characters? As the movie ended with, "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both." they chimed in with "what's our next novel??"
I can't wait either, kiddos.
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| Templeton stuffed! So creative!! |
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| Ferns all dressed up for the fair! |
Thanks for hanging until the end!! I'm sorry it was a novel length post!! Another reason I should blog throughout!! I hope you and your students love these activities as much as we did!!
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