Weslandia

From watching an episode of Reading Rainbow, I learned about the fabulous book Weslandia by Paul Fleischman.

This book is great for Fundamental Needs of Humans (Montessori ages 6-9) and 3rd grade in Waldorf (Fibers & Clothing, Housebuilding, Currency, etc.).

It would also be an amazing way to introduce the 8th grade math block Number Bases in Waldorf. Octal!

I also think that if you are tasked with helping your child transition into public school, this book would be great for explaining and practicing text connections.

Text - Text

Text - Self

Text - World

I think this routine is being explicitly taught because they are finding that students don't automatically THINK about what they are reading. They are largely reading because something was assigned to them, and they are expecting to fill in comprehension questions at the end, and so they aren't actively connecting what they are reading to anything else. It's seen as a bite-size activity to fill in time. What we want is children making meaning from what they read. And so the Text Connections worksheet was born.

Text to Text connection: what other book does this book remind you of?

Movies and TV shows and so on also count as texts in my mind. Sometimes kids can't connect books to other books, so you have to begin with a story they saw as opposed to a story they read.

Text to Self connection: what from your life does this book remind you of?

This is something that actually happened to you, like this book reminds me of the time I lost my first tooth because I also wasn't sure if the Tooth Fairy would come.

Text to World connection: what world event does this book remind you of?

This is something that actually happened in real life but it didn't happen to you personally. This is the hardest for children because it requires them to know about either history or current events.

Because Weslandia is so rich, it is as easy one to find Text to World connections for. He literally invents an entire new civilization based on this new plant, so anything that a child knows about history at all will come into play. Try it and see what you think!

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