The Little Engine That Could

This week we have been reading The Little Engine That Could. Yesterday the students created story element charts to describe the characters, setting, problem, and solution of the story. (Fellow teachers, you can download the chart here for free.) Then, as a whole group, we retold the story on a Flow Map. Today the students created their own version of the Flow Map in small groups on train paper. After writing their retell, the students colored their train, cut it out, and ordered it on their sentence strip railroad track. Each group then read their retell to their classmates. Following this activity, the students made connections to the story. We brainstormed things that they once thought they could not do that they now can do. They wrote their connections on mini trains and placed them on their tracks.