What jumped out at me the most from the book George was the idea of kindness and the impact it can make. Sometimes it comes from peers around you but other times that most important type of kindness is the one wishing yourself. If you are struggling with anything it can be hard to see those great qualities within you which is where I go the idea of the kindness spider from.

In charlottes web it focused a lot on single words and important qualities. My make was to create a spider with eight legs.. one leg that defined an important and valuable characteristic of mine. I listed characteristics of mine and placed the defining ones on each spider limb.

I feel like this activity could help students look within themselves and find their redeeming qualities even when they don’t feel at their best. I attached my spider which has 8 words that I feel describe myself.

George by Alex Gino is a unique story, unlike any of the children literature I have ever read. The main character of the story is George and when people look at George they see a young boy in 4th grade. But “George” is keeping a secret from everyone and no one truly knows who he is.. because she is a girl and her name is Melissa. She desperately wanted to play the part of Charlotte in the schools play of Charlottes Web but was not given the part because she didn’t resemble a girl on the outside. Heartbroken and frustrated, Melissa eventually opens up to her best friend Kelly and they devise a plan for her to star in the play.

This is a beautiful story that can help many children who are struggling with understanding who they really are. The LGBTQ community is immensely underrepresented in literature (especially children and YA) and it was so nice to read a story that could help young children connect. This book, however, does touch on subjects that some parents might find unsettling. If I were to ever recommend this book it would have to depend on the district and setting I were teaching at. This is also a good way for someone who does not identify within the LGBTQ community to gain some insight on these struggles that others go through and perhaps encourage them to be more kind and compassionate to those who might seem different.

One of my favorite features of A Series of Unfortunate Events is the clever way that Lemony Snickets  introduces vocabulary. I think the simplest way to check for understanding of the vocabulary would be to use a crossword! In that sense the students would not feel like they were being quizzed but they would need to know the vocabulary in order to complete it. I had some difficulty finding a site that actually allowed me to make it for free without signing up for some sort of subscription but it turned out alright!

Download (PDF, 24KB)

When I read that A Series of Unfortunate Events was a part of our reading list I was honestly so excited! I can always pinpoint the moment I really began to love to read as the day my 3rd grade teacher handed me The Bad Beginning. I read every book up until The Carnivorous Carnival and I eventually read all 13 books of the series as they were released throughout the years.

The Bad Beginning tells the dark story of the Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire who are orphaned after a fire kills their parents and destroys their home. They are sent to live with their closest living relative, whom they have never met, Count Olaf. He is a monstrous and vile man who’s only goal is to make the children’s life worse and ultimately get his hand on the Baudelaire fortune. The rest of the series continues after a failed plan causes him to lose custody, but he is as persistent as he is evil. Although it is quite a dark series I think many kids would enjoy the mysteries that slowly unravel throughout it. This is probably a book I wouldn’t recommend to students who I know have lost a parent/s or are in the foster system since it can hit close to home. My favorite thing about the series is that it also gives a sense of empowerment to the children and they aren’t seen as weak dumb kids. All 3 Baudelaire children are smart and unique in their own way and choose to see the light at the end of the very long and very dark tunnel they are in. Because the series has been so popular among children there a hundreds of teaching resources available to teachers. The first that comes to mind would be a lesson incorporating engineering, a specialty of Violet Baudelaire. But there are many options available online that explore a wide range of topic.

There were two main take aways that I got from reading Millers text. The first is that I’m going to start taking a book with me everywhere I go (and I already started)! I took a book with me to the hair salon this weekend and was able to finish a good chunk of my book in my long 5 hours there. I chose to take one of my books instead of a children’s book because of the extended time I knew I would have available to read. The second point that stood out to me about Millers text was the importance of building a reading community between the students where they can share and discuss what they have been reading. This type of community creates exposure allows students to find new books or authors that they may have not found otherwise. But there is a  problem interfering with the building of a community. Many of the children who are struggling with reading are often pulled out between this silent reading time into remedial reading. This removes the child from the community and hinders them from creating the connections that the rest of the students are making during this time. The importance of a reading community should be stressed and children should be allowed to participate to fullest extent possible.