My third graders have been enjoying reading Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner.  As we have read they have been journaling about how they would feel if they were Little Willy.  They have also been learning about dog sledding.  In order to increase their vocabulary we used a Kidspiration template that had them define the words and then write them in a sentence.  Each student did this individually, as we focused on writing a complete sentence and using new vocabulary.  Since then they have been encouraged to use the words in their daily journals, some students have even decided that they would like to grow up to be mushers.

Here are some samples from their journals:

 February 5,  2004
 Little Willy goes to the big church and races with Searchlight. They go so fast Little Willy almost fell off.  I would like to be a musher.  I would like to try it sometime.  Would you like to do it?  It might be Mrs. Peacock to take care of him or the people that take the farm.

February 5,  2004
 I would not like to race.  When Little Willy got home there was a man with a horse by his door.  I bet the man with the horse was the man grandfather owed money to.  Jesse says that he would not want to race because it might harm the dogs.  Bailey would feel scared to be a musher and to race.

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Download Kidspiration Activity File 1

Download Kidspiration Activity File 2