Howdy!
We just finished reading our Charlotte’s Web as a class before the end of the first nine weeks of school. I feel that this is the most beautiful read aloud ever. Year after year, my students absolutely love the characters and they love this sweet story of friendship and kindness.
We also created this great “some class” bulletin board. I wrote the kids’ names on little pieces of paper and let them pick one at random. Once they had picked one name, they wrote about the friend that they picked. Opinion writing from the heart!
We also completed this craftivity where we analyzed the characters of Wilbur and Charlotte. We also reviewed theme and author’s message with it!
You know how at the end of the story, Charlotte’s babies (the balloonists) fly away from the barn cellar? Well, I figured that we could have a STEM activity where we help the baby spiders land safely. We made parachutes using ribbon, Dixie cups, paper towels and other things.
They completed a STEM mat where they recorded their attempts and illustrated their prototypes.
At the end of the day I handed “Charlotte’s Web” awards. Just like Wilbur won a special prize at the fair, each student received a special award that tied them to a special character in the story.
Thanks for reading teacher friends, until next time!
In the past I have moved from read aloud to read aloud without any further ceremonies.
Really.
This year, and in the future, I want to celebrate every single read aloud and show my students how we can take a piece of literature and make it ours.
Last Thursday we celebrated in a big way and I really wanted to show you all what we did.
On the eve of Charlotte’s Web Day, I asked my classroom parents if they could come and help me get the spider web words and the “salutations” banner up.
While I was doing the read aloud, I went in depth about the vocabulary and the meaning of the words that Charlotte weaves to save Wilbur. So I felt it was just about right to hang the words around the classroom. Luckily we found some fake spider web to hang the words!
They wrote the most beautiful things about each other.
Made me cry.
After they wrote, they got to assemble a spider for each other as well.
I also made posters with memorable quotes for display. I had the classroom parent crying too.
Towards the end of the day we had spider eggs and Wilbur’s brew. Yum!!!
We had a grand time.
I cannot wait to finish our second read aloud and celebrate!
Just in case you are interested in doing these activities with your students, they are available in my site and my TPT store. They are perfect for any time of the year!
This is an amazing teacher resource! Thank you thank you thank you for sharing it. I adore how teachers truly walk what they talk by being sure sharers 🙂