Be The Illustrator

Today we read one of my favorite passages from Charlotte's Web  in which E.B. White describes a swing.  I read the passage aloud to the class and we talked about how authors help shape a picture in your mind to help you see the story.  We made a note about how Mr. White even makes his sentences feel like a swing, "then in again, then out again, then out, then in..."  We took some time during our reading stations today to try our hand at being the illustrator.  You child should be bringing home their illustration of this passage today.  This is a great talking point about listening and paying attention to the details in a story so we get a clear image of what's happening!!  

“Mr. Zuckerman had the best swing in the country.  It was a single long piece of heavy rope tied to the beam over the north doorway.  At the bottom end of the rope was a fat knot to sit on.  It was arranged so that you could swing without being pushed.  You climbed a ladder to the hayloft.  Then, holding the rope, you stood at the edge and looked down, and were scared and dizzy.  Then you straddles the knot, so that it acted as a seat.  Then you go up all your nerve, took a deep breath, and jumped.  For a second you seemed to be falling to the barn floor far below, but then suddenly the rope would begin to catch you, and you would said through the barn door going a mile a minute, with the wind whistling in your eyes and ears and hair.  Then you would zoom upward into the sky, and look up at the clouds and the rope would twist and you would twist and turn with the rope.  Then you would drop down, down, down, out of the sky and come sailing back into the barn almost into the hayloft, then sail out again (not quite so far this time), then in again (not quite so high), then out again, then in again, then out, then in; and then you’d jump off and fall down and let somebody else try it.”

-     E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web