Book of the Month

Book of the Month

Dream Weaver by Jonathan London

Reading strategies come from Strategies that Work, by Stephanie Harvey.

Pre –Reading Activities:

To get the children thinking about their prior knowledge relating to spiders, draw a graphic organizer like the one below, and have them tell you all the things they know about spiders and fill in their thinking on the legs of the spider. (Draw it so that you can put more than one thought in a leg.)

After this previewing activity, discuss the title of the book, and do some modeling of how to predict what the book will be about. Say, “I notice that the title of the book we are about to read is Dream Weaver. I see a yellow spider and what looks like a web that he is sitting in. I guess that why the title says “Weaver.” Spiders weave webs. But why do you think the title has the word “dream” in it? Look at the rest of the cover to help you answer that question. ( The students may mention that there is a moon and it is dark, suggesting that this book takes place at night, and dreams happen at night.) Why might the window be on the cover? ( Maybe the web is by the window of a house.)

Introducing Vocabulary:

First put the kids into cooperative groups of no more than 4. Have them complete a Frayer Diagram for the following vocabulary words and then share what they find with the class.

Words: nestled, creak, shimmers, tattered, crescent, invisible

(For Primary, choose two of the above words and use the following in your Frayer-“ Definition”, “Sentence”,” I think”.., and “Draw”.)

Strategies to Use While Reading:

Introduce the idea of “point of view.” Explain that “point of view” is how someone looks at or sees something. Example: A bird flying overhead sees the tops of the houses he flies over, but a bird on the ground sees everything from the front. So the flying bird would have a different point of view when it comes to how he sees the house than the bird on the ground.Explain that in this book, there are two points of view evident.

Setting the Purpose for Reading:

Ask the students to decide what the two points of view are in the story as you are reading and be ready to discuss it when the book ends.

Strategies to Use After Reading:

After reading the book: Give everyone a piece of paper and divide it in half. Next discuss the two points of view in the story. The boy’s and the spider’s . At the top of each half, write “boy’s point of view” and Spider’s point of view.

Point of View:

Boy’s- Spider looks so small compared to all around him, spider’s legs look like

threads, water droplet is small, his world is big

Spider’s- Boy’s face is huge, hiker walking by is like a giant, huge footprint,

the water droplet is like a forest pool, the snail looks like a giant,

leaf is big enough to hold several yellow spiders, a gentle wind

blows and the web is tossed like it is hurricane force, her world is

in the web

Another point of view activity that could be done after discussing the examples in the book would be to have the students draw a picture of something from the spider’s point of view. Show the example that is in the second picture in the book where the spider sees the boy’s big face. Ask “How would something else look from the spider’s point of view?

Making Connections:

Once you have read the book, children will immediately relate stories about spiders that they have heard, read or experienced. Explain that these are text to self connections. Some text to text connections may be made to books like Charlotte’s Web, where you can talk about Charlotte’s point of view, Wilbur’s point of view, and more.

Visualizing: In this book, the language used by the author is very vivid and descriptive. He uses similes and metaphors to make comparisons to things that help the children better visualize the setting.

First explain what a simile and metaphor are and post the examples so that the students can refer to them:

Simile – A comparison between two things using” like” or “as.“

Example: She is as tall as a giraffe.

Metaphor– A comparison between two things by speaking of one thing as it if were another.

Example: The lake was a mirror, reflecting the sun.

Re-read the book, and as you do, ask the children to listen for examples of simile and metaphor or give the examples and let them tell you if they are similes or metaphors.

Examples:

Simile Examples:

“her legs like threads”- compare the spider’s legs to threads.

“yellow spider’s web shimmers like wind across a pond.- compares the shimmering web to what it looks like when wind blows across a pond.

“ Yellow spider glows like the evening star,- Compares the yellow spider to shimmering of a yellow, evening star

” The evening star hangs like yellow spider on her invisible thread.

Compares the way that the spider hangs to being like an invisible thread

Metaphor examples:

“A raindrop on a fallen leaf is a forest pond.”- The raindrop is a pond

“A tiny snail oozes along. A giant! - The snail is a giant to the spider.

Special English Lesson To Include:

Dream Weaver is full of prepositional phrases and this is a great opportunity to teach them in context. A prepositional phrase is a phrase in a sentence that begins with a preposition. From the very first page, they appear: Here are the examples from the book!

In the soft earthon a fallen leafin your window

Beside the pathon a leaf

On the sparkling webbeneath her broken web

In these leavesin the last light

Near her tattered threadsover the sea

Beside the crescent moonin the moonlight

Down the mountain pathin the valley

Activity: Fold a piece of drawing paper so that you have eight boxes. Then in each box have the child illustrate a prepositional phrase from the story and write the phrase at the bottom of the box. There will be 8 different prepositional phrases illustrated when they are done. They then flip the paper over and draw the yellow spider and they write: “There was a yellow spider.”

So it would be like this on the front: Down a mountain path, in the valley, beside the path, in the leaves, beside the crescent moon, in the moonlight, on a fallen leaf, beneath her broken web, there was a yellow spider.

Spider Facts:

The final page of the book has many wonderful facts about spiders. Be sure to share them and recheck the graphic organizer from the beginning of the lesson to see what the kids did know before reading.