This week’s lesson is all about a little girl named Charlotte and her pet rock. Charlotte and the Rock is a PRECIOUS story…from the storyline to the illustrations and everything in between, this is one of my most favorites.
I’m using Charlotte and the Rock to reinforce the concept of making predictions. You can watch the full video lesson HERE:
I’ll use this printable as a reference for what it means to make a prediction.
This printable would be great for your kids to have on hand as you’re reading the story. While it can absolutely be used with any book you’re reading, we’ll use this to make a prediction about Dennis. In particular, we’ll stop on the page where Charlotte is in bed and Dennis can’t sleep. I’ll have the kids make a prediction about why Dennis can’t sleep and what they think will happen next. Then after reading that part of the story, they’ll compare their predictions to what really happened next.
These prediction cards are a great follow-up to this lesson and can be read aloud in a whole or small group setting. When prompting your kids to make predictions, also encourage them to justify their thinking (What part of the text led you to make this prediction? What schema do you have that makes you think this is something that could happen next?, etc.)
In addition to these scenario cards, this Predict and Connect game would be great to incorporate into small group or centers for partner practice (also a great home connection activity, too!). The directions are printed on the game board, but the basic idea is that they will read a scenario card and then find a picture on the game board that best represents a prediction of what will happen next. The first player to cover four pictures in a row, wins.
This story is a great springboard for discussing the concept of living vs. non-living and incorporate science concepts as well. Have your kids watch this living vs. non-living video and then complete the written activity as a follow-up.
In the story, Charlotte does a lot of different activities with her pet rock. They play games, read books, and even go swimming together! I thought it would be fun to take things a step further and create a play maze for her pet rock & integrate some STEM into the mix. This could be done simply with yarn/string OR Play Doh, a straw, and a marble. The idea here would be for the kids to use the yarn/string/Play Doh and create a maze path. This can be designed on a flat surface of any kind. To test the design, the kids would use a straw to blow the marble (aka: Dennis) through the maze. They can use this planning page to design their creation first and then make improvements after testing it.
Now that’s not all your kids can create! Encourage them to make their very own pet rock, too! They can use this planning page to design it first…
And then create their very own pet rock!
After creating their own pet rock, they can use this printable to tell you more about it.
Another great follow-up to this book would be to encourage your kids and their families to go on a Rock Scavenger Hunt at home! They can take this printable along with them and see how many rocks they can find.
If you’re looking for more book companion activities, check out these resources for some of my most favorite read alouds!
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