The End of the Book ... Sigh ...

This week we finished our novel study on The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau ... well almost ... we still have a few things to tie up early next week.  We loved the book so much, we're going to read the sequel next:  The People of Sparks.  There are 4 books in the series, and I've purchased them all for the class.

To celebrate, we watched the movie today.  Since there are so many differences between the book and the movie, I knew we had to do a compare and contrast activity.

I gave the students Venn diagrams to jot down their ideas while they were watching the movie this afternoon.  When we finished the movie, the students got into groups to discuss the information they had written down.  They did a GREAT job of noting all the similarities and differences.  

I gave each group cardstock strips of paper to write down their findings so each group could create a large, interactive Venn diagram (we used hula hoops to make the Venn diagrams).  LOVED the conversations that were going on.  :)  This was one happy teacher.  When they were finished they had to present their Venn Diagrams to the class.  Just look at all this thinking!!!  (Oh ... I forgot to mention my FAVOURITE part of the day ... when the students ALL decided that the book was so much better than the movie!!!!).

One of the activities I'm super excited to finish up next week is our 3D setting mural / bulletin board for the novel - we've been working hard on it, and we're almost done.  I can't wait to share it with you when we finish, but here's a sneak peek at what we've done so far ...

T.G.I.F!!!

Jen