The WONDERFUL Inference of Oz

Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved "The Wizard of Oz" the movie...I mean, who doesn't, right? Well, if you don't, don't tell me. You need your hiney spanked.

Each year at Christmas, my Mimi and Papaw would get my sister and I a collectible Wizard of Oz memorabilia set. They would sit pretty, collect dust on our dressers and sometimes I'd secretly play with them even though I wasn't supposed to. Ooops.

One of my favorite pieces they gave us were the Wizard of Oz stuffed dolls. I actually took them to school, and displayed them during the unit, but forgot to get a picture of them to show you. I will have to do that soon, because I love them so much and they remind me of when I was just a tiny tot myself.

Ok...moving on...back to now when I have dust collecting on my shelves at home for no reason at all, other than I just hate dusting.

So, last week we dove right into this beloved story.

I must say, there were literally some days when the little muffins were so excited to read this story, they could barely contain themselves and they had a hard time planting their hineys on the carpet. Whew. Like. It was nuts. {Is it weird now that I'm *complaining* how they were too excited about a story?!? Women.}

Anyways, this is the abridged copy that I used...

This version was perfect for my 3rd graders. The pictures were beautifully engaging and whimsical. They aided in making inferences, as well as building the students' background knowledge because, let's face it, I had literally 4 days to to do this unit and there was no way I could read the entire book, even though I wanted to terribly.

My teacher partners did not have this version, so I had two other abridged chapter books (the Junior Classics that you find in the Target $1 bins from time and time again?? Yes...those). These chapter books worked fine, also. D and H would read excerpts (like I did) as we focused on each character daily.

Pretty much any abridged version will work just fine for this unit.


Anyways, here's kind of the breakdown of the lessons and sample activities we completed with this unit. I did not use all worksheets in this pack, but next year I've decided I'm making a two week unit out of this because it was so fun and the kids LOVED it!! (But, thanks to district assessments, we must move on. Boo, hiss district assessments!)

Also, these characters tied in great with our Writer's Workshop last week! We were focusing on (and still are) fictional narratives, and adding good descriptions. So, whatever character we focused on in Reading Mini Lesson, I would bring back up again for Writer's Workshop Mini Lesson (and by the way, I must pat myself on the back *ah-hum*...they were true mini-lessons of 10 minutes!!! GO LINDSAY! It's your birthday!), and we'd discuss physical traits, personality traits, and feelings. It was a great tie-in and the kid's transferred their learning from reading into writing which is always an exciting thing!!

So, I hoped you enjoyed this show and tell!

As always, the first person to comment and leave their email below, will receive this pack all for 'yo little self!

Have a wonderful week, and remember, there's No Place Like Home, unless of course you need a vacation and then that's an awesome place to be, too!

Until then,