Last fall, I presented at a librarians' conference about ideas for teaching our state readers' choice books in the library. It was wildly successful with well over 100 attendees.
I made the decision at the start of the school year not to teach the books until later in the year, which meant that all the lesson ideas I presented were just theoretical. I
hoped they would work.
This past week, I've been doing
Harry and Horsie with the students, and the first extension activity, with students plotting a number of points between home and Saturn in a line with their friends, was fine. The kids really thought, though, that China was further away than the moon. I guess in their little world it is--we can at least SEE the moon!
The second time I read it, I decided to have the kids raise their hands when they heard a "space" word. This worked well, and we matched pictures to these terms (I had pre-chosen pictures for the words).
The third time I read it, though, I just wasn't feeling like either of those activities was very literary or meaningful. So, literally as I was reading the book, I realized that the text is perfect for teaching beginning, middle, and end! The class and I took a little field trip to the work room and got some dark blue bulletin board paper (their idea), and we gathered in groups and illustrated the paper with details from the beginning (in Harry's room--lots of bubbles with toys in them); the middle (outer space--lots of planets, stars, cars racing around on Saturn's rings); and the end (a combination of the crescent moon and Harry's house--you should see Horsie hanging from the moon!).
PERFECT!!! I will take some pictures when I get back to school on Monday with closeups of the cutest parts.
Sorry to all those VEMA people who didn't get my best ideas for this VRC book. Sometimes, you have to be in the middle of it to get the really good ideas!
