What is Beautiful?

Last month, our kids adored the Book of the Month: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown.  Since this was their (and our) favorite Book of the Month, we had to bring it back for another activity in Reader's Workshop last week!

First, the students participated in a Word Splash about the word "beautiful."  (A Word Splash can either introduce or review a concept quickly.  On a poster, the teacher will write the word/phrase/concept and students provide feedback on anything they think of regarding that word.  The teacher writes the feedback around the concept, making it "splash" across the poster.)  Most of our students said a relative was beautiful, but we also had a few synonyms for beautiful.  Our favorite response?  Teagan said, "Time I spend with my Dad is beautiful."

Next, we introduced the students to a new book, Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth.  In the story, a young girl looks for something beautiful in her urban neighborhood.  In the end, the little girl creates something beautiful by cleaning up her stoop.

Next, the students compared and contrasted the two books in a Venn diagram.  The students worked in small groups to create their own Venn diagrams.  During Closing, we worked together to create a class Venn diagram on the board to display all of the groups' thoughts.  We also decided that the question, "What is Beautiful?" had many, many answers.