Sixth graders just finished their first book clubs this year. The first semester we focused on informational texts, and I was ready to move to fiction. One group chose Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's book Halfway to the Sky – one of my favorites. This book is about a girl named, Dani who runs away from home in search of answers. She begins her journey at the beginning point of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain, Georgia. For their culminating project, they chose to make trail mix. Each group member was responsible for bringing an item for the mix, and then they presented their project to the class. Here is there rationale:
Jesse chose Cherrios to represent the tears on the trail. He also chose M & M’s to symbolize the rocks Dani stopped at to rest.
Austin chose peanuts because it represents the hard times between Dani and her mom disagreeing. Also, he chose marshmallows because they represent the little white flowers on the trail.
Samantha brought gummy bears to represent the hard times the characters had getting up the mountain because they are hard to chew. She also brought chocolate chips to represent all the sweet times in the story. She also brought
Grace brought pretzel sticks because they represent walking sticks. She also brought candy corn to represent the mountains they had to climb.
