I really love Curious George and take any advantage to read any of the books. This week to go with our zoo unit I read "Curious George Feeds the Animals" and we made a map of beginning, middle, and end as a class. I take the map down before the children begin, I tell them they have to use their own brain and not mine. I then had the children make their own story map, they started with the title of the book then beginning, middle and end on a different page. This took a lot of time but it turned out really well and the children worked hard on their writing and illustrations.
I work really had all year to get the children to not copy so I say they have to use their own brain and not their friends. I wasn't sure how well it was working until we did this a little girl said "look I am using my own brain" and she was so proud because she was doing her work. Days like this make me truly love my job.
