Title: The Polar Express
Author: Chris Van Allsburg is a winner of the Caldecott Medal twice. Once for The Polar Express and once for his book Jumanji. For both of these stories he was the author and the illustrator. Both Caldecott winning books were made into movies which was a great honor. He has also written many other books throughout his career.
Genre: Fiction
Grades: K-4
Subject Area: Holiday
Summary: On the night before Christmas a little boy is unsure if Santa is real or not. When he tries to go to sleep he hears a noise out in front of his house. The hops on the train and is in for a wild ride. They go through a magical experience. When they arrive at the north pole Santa chooses the little boy to get the first gift of Christmas. After that night the little boy always believes in the magic of Christmas.
Pre Reading Activity: We are going to talk about bells. I will first ring a bell and ask the kids if everyone one can hear it. I will have different sized bells and ring them or have the children ring them. I will ask the kids to explain how the different bells sound different. Then we will talk about why different bells can sound so different.
Post Reading Activity: Put the the main events of the story on sentence strips and ask the students to put the story in order. Allow the students to work in groups or with a partner. After they put the story in the right order give them a ticket. Which will have to be turned in, in order to watch the movie The Polar Express the next day.
I love this book! I never thought about what I would do in it in class- and I like your idea of sequencing, and having a ticket to watch the movie. Cute!
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