Robert Munsch-a-Palooza!

So, as I promised, here is some more of the wonderful Robert Munsch study that my kiddos have been so enamored with this week!  If you've never used him for an author study, I HIGHLY recommend it!  The students LOVE him and can easily relate and describe him...see?

Yes, I love my Anchor Charts!!!

So, here are our "Studying Robert Munsch" folders we created back on Monday to keep all of our Author Study goodies in one place!  They're REALLY fancy...let me warn you...I spent a lot of time and money on them....(not really, though, at all)...Yes, they're just a sheet of paper, folded in half and written on. :)  Simple, yet effective!

Inside the folder, we have our Robert Munsch Online Author Study from Monday, a few story element 4 squares from Tuesday and Wednesday, a morning message "reflection" page, and then our Venn Diagram from today!

This week has led us to describe similarities and differences of several works by the same author.   While I think reading Robert Munsch books is great, and I think filling out a "4 square" of Robert Munsch's Story Elements serves a wonderful purpose, Comparing and Contrasting Robert Munsch's stories is, by far, my favorite part of this unit.  It definitely allows students to THINK!  (If you or your district is big on Bloom's, this lets students move past "understanding" the story elements and moves WAY up to "analyzing" by distinguishing between similarities and differences!) 

We start by creating a class list of similarities and differences in the 2 Robert Munsch books we read on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Today it took a little while to "warm up" the ideas, but once they started, they were flowing!  (I normally find that kids find more similarities, but today, differences seemed to be easier.  Go figure.)  This "fancy" list is just a plain, straight forward T-Chart.  We write together, me in my Reading Notebook, and the students in theirs.  They come up with the ideas, and we record together.

Finally, on to Independent Practice.  Students can use their fancy schmancy T-Charts to guide them as they fill out their own Venn Diagram on their own.  Here's an example!

Tomorrow, we will be reflecting about our Robert Munsch Author Study.  I have a little worksheet for my students to complete, with lots of open ended questions.  AND, here's my favorite part...A STUDENT IDEA!  IF we have time, we're going to write mini-biographies about Robert Munsch!  (*gasp*) How exciting that they have so much interest and motivation to actually want to CREATE their own assignments and add EXTRA work!  Woo-Hoo!  My students never cease to amaze me!

So that's it for today, I'm off to spend a little time putting together my whole Robert Munsch Pack for TpT.  If I happen to get it all together by this weekend, I'll be sure to give you guys a free preview (and most likely giveaway one or two free packs!) so keep checking in!!! (AND if you have any suggestions or thoughts to add, by all means, let me know!  If you add a useful, new suggestion to add to my pack, I will send you a free copy of the WHOLE pack once I have it finished!!!)

Happy Thursday!  The weekend's almost here!!!