Novel Unit - Charlotte's Web

Hi Renee,
I taught first grade for 7 years and we did a Charlotte's Web unit every year. I don't know what grade you teach, but here are some suggestions:

1) Make giant spiders - the body is a circle about the size of the bottom of a coffee can and the legs are long strips that are accordian folded. Add google eyes.
2) Make marble webs - put a piece of white paper in the lid of a xerox paper box. Add a few drops of white paint. Put a marble in the box and let students roll the marble around by rotating the box. You end up with what looks like a web. Then you can add a small spider.
3) How the pig got a curly tail writing - ask students to write, answering the question. Then, I would have them recopy it on what looked like the backside of a pig. We'd add a pipecleaner and the kids would twist it around their pencil. I always displayed these at open house and they were very cute.
4)Pigtionary - make a dictionary with "pig" words. We made this in a pig-shaped booklet. We came up with the words as a group and then the kids illustrated in their books - ex: pigtunias (for the flower petunias - we'd draw flowers with pig heads), pigtatochips, etc.
5)Friendship writing - anything to do with friendship can be tied in to this story

Hope this helps. If you are trying to come up with a unit, let me know - I have other ideas!

Denise
5th grade teacher

Make a extra large web on poster board or on your board. Fill it with Charlotte's baby spiders, with each class member writing a remark about what was so special about Charlotte or what a true friend happens to be. You can make pipe cleaner spiders, paper spiders or buy spiders in a dollar store or attach the spiders to small parachute balloons just like the spiders sailed away from the farm. Do you remember their words as they left the farm?

Linda

We do CW in my fourth grade class - it's my favorite! We create a Vegetarian Cookbook (save Wilbur, eat your greens) - the kids bring in their favorite meatless recipes, type them on the computer and illustrate them. A big hit every year!

We also have a pet fair (during the county fair chapter), and students parents bring in the kids' pets. The students fill out info forms on the breed, care, etc., and then we invite the other classes to come outside and view our pets and ask ???s. We allow those students without pets to be judges, and they award ribbons for special categories like "most furry" etc. This is a blast!

Hope you enjoy the book as much as we did! Email me if you need specifics!

My third grade read the book because the high school put on the play. We did various character activities but we also did a barn, the kids had an outline of the barn, I read them the barn paragraph and they drew the barn. One group made their own medals for Wilbur, Charlotte, and Templeton. The same group also drew maps of Templeton's lair.

My second graders also loved this read aloud. As a follow up the kids drew webs on blue construction paper (with pencil) and "wove" a word Charlotte would choose for them onto the web. We glued string along the pencil lines of the web to look like silk. Then the kids wrote an explanation telling why the word they chose fit them. We watched the animated video and I told the kids (I teach in school with 99% poverty) that I would treat them to see the new movie in the theater this summer. I plan to send out postcards telling the date, time and location. I will pay for the kids' tickets and popcorn if an adult can get them to the theater and pick them up.

I have done many of the activities listed. I have also had my students do an ABC of the book. They had to think of a word for each letter of the alphabet from the book and draw a picture to illustrate the word.

I've always used this book as a friendship themed text. What about a writing prompt where students pick characters that were good friends in the story and show how by pulling examples from the text. (or this could be done verbally in a literature circle) If students do the obvious (Charlotte, Wilbur, Fern) you could ask them how they feel about other characters in the story. They could also write about a good friendship they have with someone.

Each year while reading Charlotte's Web, I have my students pretend to be Charlotte. They have to select one adjective not used in the novel that would describe Wilbur and help save him from being killed. Using a shoebox and "spider web" (available around Halloween), they spin their own webs placing their selected adjective inside. They cover the inside of the shoebox with black paper first! Then, they write a paragraph justifying why they selected the adjective. I take their picture with our digital camera, and they insert their picture into a Word document including their paragraph. They absolutely love this! Also, we put Charlotte into the webs (black spider rings). I have third graders, but I bet fifth graders would enjoy this as well! E-mail me if you have further questions and I'll send you a picture of one of the finished products.

I was just working on that and grading the results today. First, I have students write topic sentences. We divide the paper into three parts and write Name it! Verb it! and Finish it! at the top of each column.

Name it should be specific, In chapter 2 of Charlotte's Web,the author

Verb: Describes

Finish it: a hilarious scene where Wilbur goes to the county fair.

Now, have students jot down 5 phrases to describe the chapter or scene.

Wrap it up by rewriting the topic sentence, making sentences out of the phrases and rewriting in cursive. Tah-dah! a nice, concise summary.

You could do Charlotte's Web and decorate your room with spider webs on the ceiling with plastic spiders in them. Also, you could blow up pictures from the book (not sure about copyright though) and have the kids color them.We also had a feast with buttermilk pancakes. I'm sure there are many things you could do with this book.Just a few ideas. Good luck!

We have a lesson in our third grade guide using Charlotte's Web. I think it was on vivid imagery. There is a part in the book, I believe it describes the inside of the barn.
What I did was read the part of the barn to the students. I informed them that they were going to close their eyes and picture the barn in their heads. I read the part aloud a few times and then had the students draw a picture of the barn from what they heard. (I also displayed the part on an overhead for the students to review or reread).
After they had completed their pictures, we came back together and discussed how they knew what to draw in their pictures. We also made a list of descriptive words.

Hope this helps. This is just one thing to do with the book.

I have assembled a journal type book called Wilbur's Woes. The children read a chapter and then complete journal activities nightly. I do not have it on the computer but would be happy to mail a copy to you.
I do have comprehension questions that I can email to you over every three chapters. I have the students complete these in class for a grade.
One activity that I do is send the children home on a Templeton hunt to find a great word for Charlotte to weave in her web. then I have the children take a coffee filter and flatten it out,. We draw with ablack marker an orb web on it. I have them glue a spider (confetti I purchase at Halloween) on the web along with the word. Wepost these outside. Some years we vote on the best word, Have the students write a paragraph tellin why they selected the word.

We always start the year reading Charlotte's Web (3rd grade). We live in an area that annually hosts the oldest agricultural fair in the country. I was thinking it would be fun to go visit on a field trip and focus our attention on the pig exhibits. I was thinking I could easily tie in math ahead of time with schedules and money (we do time and money to start the year). I also thought maybe we could do some kind of writing project while we are there.

Any ideas?

In Charlotte's Web, the characters go to a country fair. Perhaps your students can design a cultural fair? Charlotte uses words like "Amazing" and "Stupendous"--students could design an advertisement for Wibur using words that are new to them. There are many animals in the book--would it be possible to ask a language teacher to visit the classroom and teach a short lesson on the animal names in another language, or ask students what they can share with their classmates.

Both. My example had a stuffed animal (pig), a plastic spider, and a little doll figurine to rmeind me of Fern. I put in a notepad piece of paper that looked like a barn, I tore a piece of a newspaper to remind me of Templeton going to the dump to look for words, a coffee filter to represent the spider web and a blue ribbon to remind me of Wilbur going to the fair and earning a special prize. Oh, I almost forgot, I had a toy piece of bacon (from a play food set) to remind me that the problem of the story was Wilbur was going to be killed for food. I do this regularly with books and the children love it! They are so creative!

An acrostic using the word FRIEND
Learn the parts of a spider:
abdomen,back part, contains glands to make silk
eyes, 8, 6, 4 or 2
fangs, sharp hollow teeth
legs, covered in hair and used a sense organs
cephalothorax, front, brain and stomack
pedipalps, feelers to find food and water
spinnerets, tubes at back of abdomen. Spiders push the silk out of tubes with its feet

Give them a simple outline of a barn and fill with animals. draw or cut out
What words might Charlotte choose for the other animals?
Let them taste buttermilk.
Use a piggy bank outline as a mat and work money problems on it using paper coins.
Black construx paper and teach how to draw a web with chalk.

How about making stick puppets and retelling the story in a puppet show?
You can also pair it with nonfiction texts and read about pigs, spiders and farm life. In the past, we saw the Theaterworks production of CW and it was quite good. You can check out their website to see if they are coming to your neighborhood. Also, Dakota Fanning is starring in the new release this fall or winter. You might want to look that up on a movie website. One year I thought about having kids make a quiz book for Charlottes Web. THey could write questions that kids should be able to answer if they read the book. Then pass out copies for everyone. You can do crossword puzzles & word searches, paper machet and murals.....well, hope this helps.