Saturday, October 5, 2013

The Good Ship Crocodile by J Patrick Lewis and Monique Felix

If you're looking for a new friendship book, this one may have to be it.  I picked it up last weekend and read it with my students on Friday.  It was the perfect book to begin with "What do you think this book will be about?"  One of my little kiddos used the picture right away to help her as I read the name of the title, saying...I think the crocodile is going to be like a ship and help the animals. Yay, I thought she is beginning to think!
We read about Snout and the animals that live in the river. These animals who are afraid of the rising water. We read about Sparkle and the fireflies that he helps find land. We read about the monkeys, the frogs and the families of insects and animals that Snout carefully helps across the river. One of my student begins to wonder if he will eat these animals. We all wonder what the tension will be as darkness falls we discover Snout is lost after working his way up the river.  How will he get home?
One student guesses that the fireflies will help him and then we read about Sparkle's light guiding his way home.

This book has a great message I will tap back into for partner work so we can talk about collaborating. I will use it for noticing facial expressions in our illustration study and because it has little text, maybe someone will grab it to read on their own.  It gave us lots to talk about this Friday.