Tall Tales

This week in reading, we have been focusing on tall tales.

 My students are absolutely engrossed in the unit. They love laughing at the hyperbole and imagining the lives of these tall tale characters. I took a trip to the public library this week to get "a few" tall tales books. I find that although the students get a good feel from the tall tales in their reading anthology, I want them to get to experience many writing styles of all the wonderful authors out there! My trip to the library for "a few" books turned into me struggling down the library stairs with a stack 10+ books high. What can I say, I got carried away. I was even able to snag a few different DVD's to cater to my visual learners. 

The kids begged me each day to read another one. I love seeing them excited about learning! I made sure to place all of the books across the whiteboard and they were certainly the hot commodity to read during silent reading. They were so disappointed to see them go at the end of the week when they were due back at the library. My little bookworms love to read. 

So to conclude our wonderful unit on tall tales, I wanted them to write their very own! Keeping in mind the hyperbole usage, character traits, and setting of the tall tales we read, my writers got to work. What they came up with was amazing. To make this experience even more exciting, I put an emphasis on the tall part of tall tales.

 I brought in receipt paper from a local restaurant (as a side note, all restaurant depot stores carry this tape) and created two clouds. We wrote our tall tales on this very skinny paper, henceforth creating some very tall tales. I love how they turned out! 

The students were hovered around the bulletin board in the hallway laughing at the hyperboles their peers had incorporated into their writing. It was certainly a hit with my class!