Fantastic Mr. Fox

Continuing on with Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox…

When poor Mr. Fox’s tail is shot off, his child thinks it will grow back by itself. The Third Graders weren’t all sure if it would or could. We are going to have to do some research to find out the answer to this question. We also had some discussion about whether or not Mr. Fox was right to steal chickens and ducks for his family to eat. One child compared him to Robin Hood, but I think we decided that really, as appealing a character as he may be, the fox is actually a thief!

I have directions for three styles of origami foxes. We tried one today.

 

Earl the Squirrel

Squirrels here, squirrels there…squirrels and acorns everywhere! I asked the PreK if they have been noticing the boldness of our local squirrels and they told me that they have a squirrel looking in their window when the teachers read them a story!

We read Earl the Squirrel by Don Freeman (of Corduroy fame) – the story of a young squirrel whose mother insists he find an acorn all by himself. He succeeds after a bull, who is angered by Earl’s red scarf, shakes an oak tree so hard that Earl and hundreds of acorns come tumbling down.

I had planned on taking the children on a short acorn collecting walk, but found that the walkway right outside the library door was covered with acorns this morning. I collected some and set out yellow, orange. and brown paint for some printing exploration.

Since the children were heading out for outdoor play straight from the library, I gave them some bags for collecting their own acorns.

Perhaps we will read The Story of Ferdinand next week…