I recently had the opportunity to work with Mrs. Sargent's fifth grade class on a collaborative writing project. Students were asked to write book reviews that would be published in Destiny. In August, I read King Hugo's Huge Ego by Chris Van Dusen to the class. This book is about a king who is very small (3'3") but loves to brag about himself and hear the subjects in his kingdom say great things about him. He never thinks about the effect that his words and actions have on the people around him. One day, King Hugo crosses paths with Tessa. After their encounter, which is not a pleasant one, strange things begin to happen to King Hugo. Will he be able to figure out what is causing these things to happen to him before it's too late?
Prior to reading the story, I talked to the students about opinions and what a book review is. I also played a video of a Reading Rainbow book review. In my opinion, those are some of the best book reviews for students. I wanted the students to understand what they would be doing once we were done reading the book.
Over the next several weeks, the students worked really hard creating and editing drafts of their writing until they were ready to publish them in Destiny. They worked so hard, and I am so proud of the work that they did. I enjoyed this project, and I hope to do more collaborations like this in the future!
See below for one of the reviews that was written. I love how her opinion of the book changed as we read more of it :-)
"KING HUGO’S HUGE EGO By Chris Van Dusen King Hugo huge ego was great book. This a good book for kids 5-10 because the book teaches kids not to brag. In my opinion if you brag to much that makes other people sad or even mad. Just like Tessa, a character in the book, when King Hugo kept bragging about himself to everyone. I did not like the book at the beginning because I thought the book was boring. However, the book got better and was funny! Tessa puts a spell on King Hugo and every time he brags his head gets bigger. You should check out this book I bet you’ll like it. I did!"