The Tale of Despereaux

The students read The Tale of Despereaux as a whole group.  Upon completion of the book, the class was given an assignment to create a mobile.

Instead of the usual "coat hanger" type mobile, students were asked to search the outdoors, ie a park, their backyard, for 3 tree branches.  They were also told to ask their parents for a thread spool.  Then with string they constructed their mobile.

The students first had to create a contrast list representing the three worlds in Despereaux's life, The Rat World, The Human World, and The Mouse World.  They displayed their list in the form of symbols from each world, and wrote a brief explanation how the symbol related to that world on the back of the drawing.  The mobiles were very creative and demonstrated an understanding of the different settings in the story and how the setting molded the character.  The mobiles really turned out wonderful!