1.14.2011

Play by play.

This afternoon, as a treat, we watched a video of Leo Lionni’s classic Inch By Inch. It is a simple story of an inchworm that loves to measure anything - a robin’s tail, a flamingo’s neck, a toucan’s beak. Then one day a nightingale threatens to eat him if he cannot measure his song.

As we sat listening to the story unfold, David, sitting right in front of me, offered a quiet play by play of the entire tale.

“Hmmm, I’ve never known any kind of worm to be friends with a bird. How peculiar.”

“Hmmm, a heron. I wonder if it’s a blue heron?”

“Wow, that bird certainly has long legs, I wonder if it can run fast…”

“Look at the beak on that bird, that inchworm surely isn’t safe.”

“Now how do you expect that poor worm to measure a song? Impossible!”

“That is one sneaky inchworm. I like it. Two thumbs up!”

When the video ended, I asked David to stand up.

“Can I give you a hug?” I asked him.

He looked a little surprised.

“That was an awesome play by play,” I explained as we hugged.

“Yeah, I’m good at noticing stuff,” he said and walked back to his place.

It was an awesome way to end the day and week.

1 comment:

Karen Greenberg said...

My 5th graders could take a few lessons from David. One of the hardest things to get my group to do is to make predictions and use clues to help make them better readers. It sounds like David may not have any trouble with this when he is in 5th grade!