James and the Giant Peach

This is a little late but in my 2nd-3rd grade movie-bookclub last year we read the book James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Since the reading levels of the kids were all over the place I read the story too them which they followed along in the book. We spent a lot of time discussing literary elements of the story and new vocabulary. When you work with ELA kiddos, the more discussion and exposure to the English language the better. We would spend half of the class reading the story and half of the class watching the movie. It was amazing to see the lightbulbs go off when kids noticed the similarities and differences between the two. As a project, the very first week each student created a peach. We mailed a photo of our class, the peaches, and a letter to many friends and family around the country. Thank you to everyone who participated! The idea was to see the peaches travel the country and learn about its adventures. My friends and family were wonderful. Everyone sent the peaches back with photos of the peach at a variety of places in their home town as well as a letter. Some even sent extra goodies for the class. We tracked where the peaches traveled on a large map. It was a great project and very simple to do. The peaches are simply circles with orange, yellow, and peach tissue paper glued on. Allow 4-5 weeks from when you send the peaches out to get them all returned.