Egg Salad Sandwiches and Pickles?

If you read the title of this post to your child, they would immediately start telling you all about the book we just finished, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Two of the major themes in the book are friendship, and compassion and forgiveness.  In the book, Winn-Dixie (India Opal’s dog), helps her make friends after her and her father move to a new town. Throughout the book, India Opal accepts people despite what they may have been or done in the past.  Her compassion and forgiveness for others is what allows her to make so many wonderful, new, and different friends.  This book has sparked many conversations in our classroom about ourselves as friends and what qualities in friends are important to us.

Each student will be choosing a project based on the book to complete individually. They will be given time in class this week to plan and prepare materials needed to complete the project.  Then, it will be up to them to follow through with their plan at home.  This will be their homework all next week, along with their 30 minutes of reading time.  Please encourage them to work on their project a little bit each night so that they aren’t pressured to complete it at the last minute.  It will be due Friday, November 21.

Here’s a fun little board I created using Thinglink.  A very cool tool that mashes images, videos, and links into one neat display.  You can mouse over the book jacket and click on the icons to watch the movie trailer, which we will see in class this week, watch a cute cartoon about friendship, and an interview with the author of the book.