Virginia is for Book Lovers Blog Hop

Welcome to the Virginia is for Book Lovers Blog Hop!

I love working with all of my Virginia Bloggy Buddies on such fun blog hops, and we have gotten together again to bring you a fun bunch of freebies, reading ideas, and giveaways!  We are all highlighting a book that we love to read aloud and sharing a freebie with you.  At the end of the hop, we are also giving away a copy of the book we are highlighting on our own blogs and another copy at the final stop where one winner will win a copy of EVERY book we are highlighting.

I love reading aloud with my students.  It gives me a chance to model fluent reading and use think alouds to teach a new skill or strategy.  One of my favorite authors to read aloud is Chris Van Allsberg.  Not only do his stories have a wonderful message to share with students, but the pictures help to tell those stories.

I spent the few days we were in school this week working on predictions with my students.  {We were going to focus on theme and main idea, but it snowed yet again here in Virginia!}  I read the book Just a Dream aloud to them and completed activities from my newest unit.

When I first started teaching 4th grade, this book was in our anthology.  Since I was a first year teacher with NO guidance, I used many stories from the anthology.    This one became an instant favorite.  Walter, who is careless with trash and such, thinks the future will be nothing but fun.  He goes to bed at night thinking about the future but dreams about a future with a world that has been misused ~ a hotel on Mt. Everest, no trees for new toothpicks, a smoggy Grand Canyon, and no fish in the sea.  When Walter wakes up, he changes his feelings for the future.

What is exciting is that this year is the 25th anniversary of this book!  It is timeless and relays an important message to everyone who reads it.

Before reading, we talked a little about the cover of the book.  I then gave my students this page to write a story impression.  Before reading the book, they had to think about the 8 words in the box and write a prediction for the book.  Here are examples of their predictions.

While reading, I stopped at intervals and had my students make predictions.  {This is in my full unit.}

Then after listening to the book, they used those same 8 words to write a summary of the book.  Here is an example of a summary one of the students wrote.

If you would like to see the entire Just a Dream Literacy Unit, you can click {here} or on the picture below. You can grab a sample from the preview file.

Hop on over to Nikki's blog Teaching in Progress to find out about one of her favorite books to read aloud, grab a freebie, and enter to win a copy of the book!  Click below to head on over!