Finding Connections

As we keep reading The One and Only Ivan and Charlotte's Web more and more connections between the two books keep appearing.  Today we saw how in both books animal characters were trying to use human words to save another character.  I really have found a deeper appreciation for the two books as I have seen some of the similarities.

Students are working on comparing and contrasting the two books this week in their reader's notebook. It has been fun to see the comparisons that the students have found that I have not even thought of I have been reading.  I cannot wait to see how the two books work together as we keep reading.  I think we are still on pace to finish Charlotte's Web by next Friday.  I think this might be right around the time when we finish The One and Only Ivan.

We also kept working on inferences today.  We used to poems from Georgia Heard's book Creatures of the Earth, Sea, and Sky.  Both the poems were about animals.  I had cut out the names of the animals which forced us to infer the animals in the poems.  I was impressed again with the evidence that the students were using to support their inferences.  Tomorrow we are going to finish up talking about inferences (although we will constantly be reminding students to use these thinking strategies throughout the year) by looking at some art work and inferring what see in the paintings.

The class has also been working on creating their first writing projects.  Some students are writing poems, others are writing comic books, others are writing ABC Books, and some are writing personal narratives.  I love seeing how the students work through the writing process.

I will be collecting the students first draft tomorrow and giving the students comments on their project.  I love to comment on the writing during the writing process.  When I was a student teachers always gave me comments at the end of my work and too often at that point it was too late.  By collecting the writing and making comments students will be able to figure out exactly what I want them to work on for their final draft.  After I collect the first drafts we will take a week break from the writing project.  During that week we are going to be looking at some of my favorite books to figure out what the author's are doing in their books that we could borrow.

Hope you are enjoying your Wednesday.