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Printable Version for your convenience!

Unit contents:

• This part deals with the End of the book, and involves launching a Balloon Journey
  
• Here's a Writing Activity involving the students' Favorite Parts
  
• This section is on the Main Characters and Quoting
  
• This portion is on Acting Out portions of the book
  
• This lesson is on Predicting with Charlotte's Web
  
• This part uses a Crossword Puzzle to learn Scientific Facts about Spiders
  
• This section is on Finding Spiders' Homes
  
• A similar section - Finding Where Spiders Live
  
• Here's More on Finding Where Spiders Live
  
• This portion is on writing Haiku Poems about Spiders
  
• Here students take on the roles of Arachnologists and Interview each other
  
• The Spider's Life Cycle is the subject of this lesson
  
• Graphing the Lengths of Spiders is the subject of this part
  
• More Graphing, this time with Facts about Spiders
  
• Here students Plot Facts about Spiders
  
• Another Math lesson, this one using Spider Math Problems
  
• This part involves doing Research on Spiders
  
• A fun activity for developing Spider Webs out of cold Spaghetti
  
• This portion is on Spiders' Venom
  
• A Writing Activity about Wilbur's First Day
  

Illinois State Goals:
1. Read with understanding and fluency
4. Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations
5. Use the language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information

Instructional Objective:
After reading the second selection from the book, students will, as a class, compile a list of things they have learned, or would like to learn about spiders. Students will choose one of these, and given various information sources, students will research and present their findings.

Supplies:
* Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
* dictionary
* encyclopedias
* informational books about spiders
* blackboard

Anticipatory Set:
* I will ask students to explain what we read about on the previous day.
* I will ask if they learned anything new about spiders in the previous reading.
* I will ask students to predict what they think might happen in today's piece of the book.

Activities:
1. We will have approximately 25-30 minutes of SSR in which students will read the second part of Charlotte's Web, pp. 32-65.
2. When the students have finished this piece, or the SSR is over, I will ask the students to give me examples of things that they learned about spiders from reading the book. I will also ask them for ideas of things they would like to learn more about. I will compile a list on the blackboard of all of the ideas given by the students.
3. Children will be instructed to pick one of these topics that really interests them. I will show the children a variety of books that they may use to find information about this topic. I will stress to students that they must find at least three facts about their topics. They should make sure that they find complete facts.
4. Students will be given time to use instructional aids to research their topics.
5. Students will break into groups and present their findings to their classmates.

Adaptations:
Cassie (LD)- She may listen to the book on cassette tape, following along in her own book.
She may discuss the three things she learned with me instead of writing them out. She will find only three facts to present to her group.

Closure:
* I will ask students to report any especially interesting information that they learned.
* I will present further interesting facts about spiders which they may not have touched upon and tell children to be thinking about these things as we continue our unit on spiders.

Evaluation:
I will collect students' lists of things they learned as well as the facts they researched. They will be evaluated by how in-depth they researched the topic, and how many facts they found.
(Students who didn't finish reading the selection may bring it home for homework).

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