Making Connections with Picture Books

My field this semester has been very different from anything I have ever experienced.  Up until this semester I have only worked with kindergarten students.  All of my 70 volunteer hours were in the same kindergarten class and then last semester I was placed with kindergarteners at West Utica Elementary. THIS semester I am in urban Detroit with third grade boys! Needless to say I had a bit of culture shock when I began.  Sadly I only have one week left, I truly believe that 30 hours is not enough for one semester.  As a future teacher, I would love to spend as much time as I could in the field and learning from experience rather than sitting in a classroom reading a textbook. As a student, I am so overwhelmed with the workload that I am glad the field is only 30 hours XD 

This past week my field teacher asked me to choose a book to read it the students and then we could have a discussion about it.  The book that I chose was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  This book was written in 1964 and the students still really enjoyed it! For those who've never read it, the boy and the tree were friends until the boy grew up.  The boy then only comes back to visit the tree when he needs something. Before long the tree has nothing left to give the boy.  All the tree ever wanted in return was that the boy was happy.

They all had very vocal opinions about how ungrateful they thought the boy was.  I was extremely impressed when the students starting making connections to other stories they had read.  All the teacher needed to say was can you think of any other stories where a character is ungrateful?  

Rumpelstiltskin is a classic fairytale in which a millers daughter marries the king and is then ordered to weave an entire room of thread into gold! A little creature enters and says he can spin the thread into gold. She keeps trading things for his help.  She finally has to offer his her first unborn child! When the king lets his wife out of the tower, they have a child. Rumpelstiltskin comes for his payment. They make a deal.  She must guess is name.  A service women overhears him bragging that she will NEVER guess his name!  When she does, Rumpelstiltskin is forced to leave.

The students connected the boy to the king.  The boy never said thank you for all the things the giving tree gave him.  The king never thanked his wife for all the work she did.  

Alexander, Who used to be rich last Sunday was an average kid.  He had two older brother who always had money! Alexander wanted to save up to buy a walkie-talkie. One day when his grandparents came they gave him one dollar! Alex tried so hard to save that dollar but things just kept happening.  By the end of the week Alexander has nothing left and didn't really learn anything.

The students connected the boy in the giving tree to Alexander because both of them wanted more. The boy kept coming back for more things from the tree and Alexander wanted more money.  In the end both of them ended up with nothing.

I hope these books give you some ideas about making connections and I would highly recommend all 3 of these books be in your classroom library! The students were really engaged in them and our discussions sparked some great higher level thinking.