Happy Wednesday!
For the next two weeks, we are sharing our favorite books we use to wrap up the year- you can share book club books, read-alouds, whatever! You can also share activities that go along with the book- please link up blog posts though, and not product links so we can read about and see them in action! The link-up will be open this week and next week. Since next week is my last week of school, it will be the last Workshop Wednesday for a little while… :o)
I was lucky enough to get a class set of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in a Donors Choose project, and we are currently wrapping up our year with it!
My kids are loving it! They got mad at me yesterday when we only got to read one chapter… (we’ve been reading two a day to get it done… only seven days left…! EEK!) We are reading it as a class as an extended text, and we are using Where the Wild Things Learn’s AMAZING product to go with it! Why I love doing this book at the end of the year is because of this product- it has almost EVERY standard we learned included in it!
Last year, I also used her product as I read the book to them and it was good, but not really what I wanted since we pretty much had to do everything together because they didn’t have a copy of the text on their own… now that they all have a copy in their hands, they can really dive in to find evidence to support their thinking as they complete their Fantastic Folder. It’s awesome! (But, if you don’t have extra copies, it’s still doable- just much more guided.) We still read it together- I read aloud and they follow along- but they have consistent access to the book for the activities.
My kids’ folders aren’t as colorful as Amelia’s because we are low on the paper supply at the end of the year… but it’s still pretty! :o)
Before we read, I have my students define the words on the vocabulary foldable that they will see in the upcoming chapters by finding them in the dictionary. You could easily have them define using context clues as you read, too.
Then we read a couple of chapters and work on some of the pieces (many of them are add-as-you-go) in our Fantastic Folder…
…then we watch JUST that part of the animated movie so they can connect visually, as well as compare the book to the movie! (Since the newer version is rated PG for intensity, we don’t watch that one, although I’m sure the parents would probably give permission…) We have a copy of the movie in our school library, but here is the movie on YouTube! You know you want to watch the whole thing right now… LOL It’s so cheesy, but my kids have actually really gotten into it!
Do you need a reason to watch movies in class?? Go read my friend Erin’s post from I’m Lovin’ Lit! :o)
So what books do you love to use to wrap up your school year?
