Because of Winn-Dixie Literary Celebration

I choose different chapter books to read to my classes during the school year. Some I have kept in the rotation. Some I have quickly removed once seeing the glazed over looks in my students eyes. Each and every year though, Because of Winn Dixie always ends up being one of my students' favorites! They clap with excitement when they see me reach for the book and they groan with frustration when I stop after two chapters. Many of my students flock to our school library to check out this book in order to follow along with me in class as I read it aloud. So...as the old saying goes..."If it ain't broke, don't fix it." 

Because of the trending popularity of this story in my class, I decided to surprise my students with a party to resemble the one had in the book. I replicated all of the foods and beverages served in the chapter including Dump punch, Otis' pickles, Littmus lozenges, and Opal's egg salad sandwiches. I also mixed in a few others to include peanut butter sandwiches (since Winn Dixie loved PB so much) and animal crackers to represent Gertrude's Pet Store. 

We snacked on our food, drank our Gloria Dump punch, and watched the movie version of the book. As we watched, I had students compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. They also worked in centers to complete a pamphlet that I had created based on certain chapters and characters in the book. 

We even decorated our classroom with the tree from Gloria's backyard and turned our classroom library into the Herman W. Block Memorial Library. Each student identified a mistake they have made in the past that they regretted or felt bad about and wrote about it on the bottle outline that I made for them. We hung them all from the tree and talked about why we thought Gloria chose to do that in the story. 

Needless to say, my students were 100% engaged on this day and still continue to get this book from the library to read it over again at home or during independent reading time in class. There is no better sight to a teacher than students truly loving to read! :D