We had an amazing time on Wednesday when our class teamed up with the second graders for an exciting experience: watching The Wild Robot movie at the movie theater! As part of our author study of Peter Brown, we have been reading the book in class. The book contained some tricky vocabulary, great imagery, and gave us opportunities to discuss many literary elements such as characters, setting, conflict, and word choice. We had paused just before the final chapters, leaving the students on a cliff hanger eager to discover the ending through the movie. On Wednesday we traveled to AMC for a private viewing of the film, complete with popcorn and a drink! Yum! Students began discussing the similarities, differences and other observations about the film compared to the book before we even got off of the shuttle back at school!
After returning to the classroom we finished reading the book. The students were ready to compare both versions, so we began to explore Venn diagrams as a tool for organizing their thoughts. For many, this was their first time using a Venn diagram, and they loved seeing how the book and movie shared similarities. Students noticed that some important scenes and characters were not featured at all in the movie version, and that the ending was quite different. (Shhhh… I won’t spoil it here!)
Earlier in the week, students created posters to represent their favorite parts of the book. These posters became a great way for them to visualize and express what resonated most with them, from Roz’s journey of survival to the beautiful, wild setting of the island. The posters reflected each student’s unique connection to the story and set the stage for deeper discussions.
This experience was a wonderful opportunity for students to explore the book deeply, think critically, analyze how stories can change when adapted into different audiences, and make connections to a text. We look forward to continuing to explore The Wild Robot more, along with other texts by Peter Brown! Thank you AMC for having us and thank you to the second grade class for joining us!
