by Taylor Halliday
| NOTE (from Donna): Last year, I discovered Natalie Babbitt’s novel The Search for Delicious and immediately saw the potential for use with GT students. What a treat it was for me when Gifted Intervention Specialist Taylor Halliday shared her excitement and enthusiasm for the study. Even more thrilling were the fun activities and projects Taylor added to extend lessons so that they worked with her schedule. And now she’s generously sharing these wonderful ideas with you. Thank you so much, Taylor! |
I just completed The Search for Delicious with my 3rd and 4th graders, and they absolutely LOVED the book! Each week, they couldn’t wait to see what would happen next! They loved the games “Long Live the King” and “Lingo,” and I loved that they were learning while having fun. We truly enjoyed this novel study!
I see my students every day, but the schedule varies depending on the day. Some days are super short (we do a Crypt-O-Word and a writing prompt on those days!) and some are longer. In my class, we typically worked on the novel on our longer days, when we had at least an hour to work.
I didn’t want to deviate too much from the amazing lessons in the novel study, so I adjusted the pacing of certain sections a bit. Rather than omit anything, I added a few things to extend some of the lessons. Here are some extensions that were perfect for this novel.
“ONE MAN BAND” Project ~ Sections 5 and 6
After learning about minstrels in sections 5 and 6 of the study, we talked about the evolution of minstrels and watched the Pixar short film “One Man Band.” The students then created their own one-man bands incorporating at least four different instruments that could be played simultaneously. This Science Buddies lesson helped get the students started as it guided them in making their own harmonicas.
In this slide deck, you can see the directions I gave the students along with a list of materials that I supplied them. If you’d like to make your own copy of the slides, use this link.
“WORDS OF WISDOM” Fortune Tellers ~ Sections 7 – 9
After reading about Gaylan’s encounter with the Woldweller, we discussed the type of advice and words of wisdom he would give in different situations. Then the students made paper fortune tellers with words of wisdom from the Woldweller, using delicious foods as the categories. Characters or other elements of the story would have made good categories, too. On the inside of each section, the students wrote inspiring quotes or wise advice. You can find directions for creating these paper fortune tellers HERE.
COOKIE JAR Template
In the novel unit, students are encouraged to collect “delicious language.” I created the handout shown below that directed students to write each phrase in quotes and cite the page number from the novel. They added these to their notebooks. Make your own copy HERE.
BREAKOUT ADVENTURE / ESCAPE ROOM
My students love breakouts, so I created this as a culminating activity. The premise is that students are challenged to “save the kingdom” using story elements and what they learned from the novel study (e.g. figurative language, sequencing, map skills). I’ve included instructions for doing this with physical kits from Breakout EDU, but you can also use the printables along with digital locks in Google Forms.
You can view and download this escape room HERE. I have truly appreciated the free resources and the Big Ideas for Little Scholars teacher community, so I want to offer this escape room here – FREE for a limited time. I hope to add it to my TPT store in the near future. If you think you might use this novel with your students, I encourage you to get it while it’s FREE!
DIGITAL DIVERGENT DICTIONARIES
This is one of the culminating activities suggested in the “Ending Well” section of the novel study. My students created their divergent dictionaries using Book Creator. To help and inspire them, I created a GT Enrichment Divergent Dictionary. You can read my teacher sample HERE and see a student sample HERE. If you have a Book Creator account, you can copy my teacher example to remix and make your own copy.
If you and your students read this novel, I can also share these fun page markers (bookmarks). You might also like to read my review of Donna’s novel study!
ENJOY!
OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS and POSTS by Taylor Halliday
Muggins! Math Game ~ “Aerobics for the Mind”
How Can I Impact the World in a Positive Way? ~ 5th Grade IMPACT Theme