I remember being in second grade and walking past the third-grade class sitting on the lawn listening to their teacher reading a book to them. They sat under this giant tree, and she quietly read to them Charlotte’s Web. The next year I got that teacher for school and we didn’t read Charlotte’s Web. A few years passed and I was a regular babysitter at our church, and on a regular basis the Charlotte’s Web cartoon was shown to the “older kids,” but I was often not in the room for an extended period of time, so I still didn’t see the Charlotte’s Web movie despite seeing random scenes from it. I got all the way up to being an adult with children and all I knew was the spider wrote words with her web, and it was sad in the end. Then I reviewed Apologia’s Readers in Residence and my kids read Charlotte’s Web. So, it wasn’t until my kids were a decade old and we read Charlotte’s Web for our book and a movie that I read Charlotte’s Web and finally had our Charlotte’s Web movie night.
It really is kind of shocking.
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Charlotte’s Web
Wilbur is a young pig growing up on a farm, and he really doesn’t want to die, well Charlotte the spider helps him by writing spectacular words in her web each day. Along the way she gave the readers some great vocabulary lessons, and it was a lot of fun to read, as a matter of fact, while we were reading it, Princess read it two or three times.
Charlotte’s Web book club
As I said, we were using the Reader’s in Residence Charlotte’s Web unit, for books with animals.
However, if you don’t want to commit to a year-long reading curriculum for your Charlotte’s Web book club, then I’ll recommend checking out either:
- Charlotte’s Web online book club– I’ve enjoyed her book clubs that we’ve done, and they always have some fun ideas beyond just
More 3rd grade books made into movies
Charlotte’s Web movie night snacks
I gave the kids a choice between watching the animated Charlotte’s Web or the live-action Charlotte’s Web, and they chose the live-action, so I still have not seen all of the animated Charlotte’s Web.
- pancakes and bacon- because that’s in the book
- slop- we did this family favorite, chicken in cream of mushroom soup
- mud- chocolate pudding and crumbled up chocolate cookies
- curly tails- curly fries for a pig
- Wilbur- sugar cookies decorated to look like a pig with red sweet tarts for the nose and mini chocolate chips for eyes
- web- sugar cookie with frosting in a web shape
the next portion is fair-inspired food:
- punch- sherbert and seven up
- root beer– the kids love getting root beer in bottles
we could have done some more fair-type food with corn dogs or other similar fun things, but we had a fair amount of food already
I find it amusing to have bacon for Charlotte’s Web, but it does make sense. I read the book (it was before A started to read on her own), and it’s lovely. I can see why it’s classic. Those pig cookies are cute!
Yeah, it’s one of those it’s a little weird to have, but I kind of liked it, especially as I’ve seen that in other children’s books over and over again as a child realizes the connection between the bacon they’re eating and Wilbur.
I think I need to read this book out loud to my kids. Some of them have read it and some haven’t.
Did you like the Dakota Fanning movie?
I did, it’s pretty true to the book, and everyone enjoyed it.