The Wonderful World of WORDS!

When you were younger, did you ever cut out letters or words from magazines to "write" a note to a friend? I used to do it all the time! It was one of my favorite things to do! 


These kind of notes were the BEST! 
  

Which brings me to my next question:

 Have you ever read the book Max's Words by Kate Banks?? If not you MUST!!  There are endless options for extension activities for ANY GRADE! Below, I will share one that I did with my kindergarteners! 

In the story, Max's brothers collect stamps and coins. Max wants a collection of his own, so he decides to start collecting words. He notices that when his brothers rearrange their collections, they still are the same, but when he rearranges his words, it makes can make a big difference. Max then starts to build a story with his words. 

I have always wanted to do an extension activity with this book but just never took the time until this year! One of the teachers on my team and I decided to have our kiddos build their own story using words! Below, I will share with you a snapshot of our FIVE DAY lesson plans for Max's Words. This plan can be done with a whole class or in smaller groups. It works better with a smaller group (one of our groups had 13 and the other group had 17 students).

Day One: 
(Before day one, make sure you have cut out a collection of your own words from magazines, newspapers or other media and have them in a bag/folder ready to share on day one)
Pre-Reading:
Discussion what a collection is.
Does anyone have a collection? I so, what do they collect?
Why is the collection important to them?

Read: Max's Words

Post-Reading:
What problem did Max have in the story?
What did Max collect? Why?
How was his collection different from his brothers' collections?
Share your collection of words with the class. (I kept my collection of words in the pocket chart for students to manipulate and build sentences/stories during their choice/center time)  
 
 Day Two:  Build a Story
Remind students that stories have

• a beginning, middle and end.
•  characters
• setting

Have students come up with a topic to write about giving them the starter: Once upon a time...
Each student will come up with a sentence to help tell the story. Remind them that the story needs to flow...what happened first, then, next...
As each student adds to the story, write their sentence down. (you type it, write it on a sentence strip, or on chart paper)
Read the class story to students.

Day Three: 
Re-read class made story
Give students their sentence and have them write it and illustrate it using pencil (remind students to use detail in their illustrations). 
Teacher will send home a note and a baggie with each student explaining the activity and that students will need to cut out the words for their sentence.


Day Four:
Re-read class story
Students edit their writing and/or illustrations 
Make final copies and color their pictures.
Glue their cut up words on the top of their page.  
(Prep for Day 5: Design a cover, assemble pages in the correct order and make a copy of the book for each student)


Day Five: Share Day!!!!!
Students practice reading their book
Share with friends in other groups!
(since one of the teachers on my team and I both did this activity, we were able to combine our groups and share our stories in groups of 2 or 3 students.) 

And there you have it! This is just ONE of many extension activities that can be done with this book but it is one that we had LOADS of fun with!  Below are some pictures! 

 

 

If you would like a template for the writing page and the family letters click HERE!