For our book I chose Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. In this
story several different animals enter the cave during the winter and
have a party while bear snores on. Eventually Bear wakes up to join
the party only to have everyone else there fall asleep after
partying so long. During our second of several readings of the book
the students noticed how the different animals enter the cave in
different ways. Some enter boldly, others shyly, according to their
personalities. They often make a comment as they enter and most
bring something to the party to eat or enjoy. We made a comparison
chart of the different animals in the story, how they each entered,
what they said, and what each one contributed to the party.
I
asked my students to each create a page for an electronic class book
(Kid Pix slide show), encouraging them to think about the
personality of their chosen animal and how it would enter. I wanted
them to use interesting verbs that would help the reader visualize
the scene as the animal entered the cave. I also asked them to think
about what the animal might bring to the party, again thinking about
the animal and what it might have that it could bring. Last I asked
them to think of something the animal might say as it joined the
party.
To complete their assignment I first had them use a Kidspiration
activity for their prewriting task. This took just a few minutes.
They then went to a template of Bear's cave that I had made on Kid
Pix where they stamped their animal (and whatever else they wanted
to add), created a speech bubble, and wrote about how their animal
entered the cave, and what was brought to the party. (Note: They had
the option of creating their own cave for Bear but I didn't want
them to be stressing over that when I had already asked them to
include so much else on their "book" page. No one chose to do their
own cave. If I had had more time I would have had them create the
cave one week and add the rest the next.
Template
Student Example
Click on
Image to View Full Size
Download Kidspiration File
