Title – Rocks & Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (Critique)

By – Renee Dye

Subject – Science, Language Artrs

Grade Level – 1-2

Objective: To Investigate the importance of minerals, rocks, ores, and energy. To realize there are different types of rocks.

SOL 4.8c (Science)

Procedure:

Read the story “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble”

Have each child bring in a sample rock.

Have various rock books at each table.

Have them find their rock in the book

Write a report on their particular type of rock. SOL 4.9 a,b,c,d, (English)

Present their report orally to the class.

Observation:

Each child will be evaluated on effort and knowledge of their sample.

Critique of

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

By William Steig

Sylvester Duncan collected rocks all the time. It was his hobby. One day he found a shiny, red perfect pebble. It was raining that day and as he picked it up he said, ‘I wish it would stop raining”, and it did. He was amazed! He headed home to tell his parents when he ran up on a lion, he was so terrified he wished he were a rock. The pebble landed on the ground next to him, but he could not touch it. This left him being a rock on Strawberry Hill for many seasons. One day his mom and dad decided to try to be happy again, they went for a picnic on Strawberry Hill. Sylvester’s father found the beautiful pebble, he said, “Sylvester would have loved this rock”. They laid it on top of Sylveser, as he heard his parents he was wishing he were a donkey again. Since the pebble was on his back his wish came true. They were all very happy.

This was a very good book. It could be used for different things in your classroom. It could be used to teach a lesson, for example be careful what you wish for. It could be used to inspire writing, although I would use it to begin a science lesson on different types of rocks. I would give this book an A+.

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Renee Dye

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