Toy Boat for First Graders

This week I focused on a book titled Toy Boat by Randall de Séve for my first grade students. In this story a boy creates a toy boat out of material he found at home. The boy loves this toy boat and takes it everywhere he goes. But the toy boat becomes restless with his new home and longs for an adventure on the nearby lake. The author takes us through some troubling times for the toy boat as he discovers that being at home with the boy is the best place for him to be.

I choose to use this book as a close read because it uses some language that can be hard for students to understand. Also because the author sets up this story to really make us think about where we belong in the world. The words I picked that would be hard for my students were blustery, humble, quiver and spied. As we came across these words, we highlighted them and tried to use context clues to figure out what they mean.

My students fell absolutely in love with this book! They made great connections to their favorite toys and how they would feel if they lost that toy. Talking about where they belonged in the world was a little more challenging for the students to think about. It's hard for students to imagine their life without everything they have now. We did eventually get to the point of being satisfied with what they have and not always wanting more.

Here is a list of text dependent questions I asked as we read the book the second time:
1. What was the boat made from?
2. How does the boy feel about the boat? How do you know?
3. How are the other boats treating the toy boat? How do you think that makes the toy boat feel?
4. What is different about the fishing boat from the other boats?
5. Why does the author say, "It knew just where it wanted to be?"
6. Do you think the toy boat was good or bad? Use words from the story to help explain your thinking.

As a culminating activity, they responded to the prompt: The perfect place for me is...

Stay tuned, I'm hoping to post some pictures of their responses when we get that far.