Egg fight? Corn fight? Snakes in the wash?

 

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash
Welcome back to Karen and Whitney's blog! This week we will be discussing a fantasy fictional piece. The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble is the book we chose.  It has an engaging plot for children because they can’t wait to see what unruly thing will happen next on the farm. They are not sure if the boa will be caught once he got loose. This book has a lot of action with little dialogue. It has a fun cliffhanger ending where Jimmy gets one of the pig’s as a new pet.We found this book to be a fun way to teach cause and effect. We found this book to be exciting and we enjoyed it, hope you will too!

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash is about a little girl's field trip experience. She tells her mother how it was sort of boring until the cow starting crying because a hay stack fell on him, because the farmer ran into it, because of the pigs on the bus, because they were hungry and the kids used their corn to throw at each other after they ran out of eggs, which caused the farmers wife to scream because the boa was eating her wash! In the end Jimmy left in such a hurry that the boa got left behind, but lucky for him a pig never made it off the bus.

What makes this a fictional story??

• Type- This story is fantasy fiction because it contains elements that are not real in our world. Examples: "The cow was crying" and the pigs jumping on the bus to eat their lunches.
• Plot- The plot in this story is conflict/resolution. The reason is because it contains person to person conflict between the students (throwing things at each other).
• Theme- The theme proves to be another reason this story is fiction. It is not directly stated. However, we can read and find that their are hidden morals that teach telling the truth and understanding the situation before jumping to conclusions.
• Setting- The setting in this fiction literature is detailed. It is on a farm with the farmer, his wife, and animals. They are on the farm during a school field trip.
• Point of View- This story is told in third person. It is third person because the little girl is telling the story in her imaginative point of view about the school field trip to the farm.
  

 Karen’s thoughts:
I think this book offers children a humorous side of a third party’s point of view of what might have truly been a boring field trip to the farm. The little girl uses a great sense of imagination when telling her mom about her day. This gives the story a fabulous plot and keeps the story interesting. The author does a great job at keeping the reader guessing what silly thing the children or animals will do next. There is an interesting picture at the end of the book where the farmer’s wife is knitting a long tube while the boa is curled up happily in front of the fire. This would be an excellent picture to share with the students and have them continue writing their version of the ending of the story. All of the components of the story could really happen….with one exception – cows don’t cry! Have you ever been on such an exciting field trip? There are so many possibilities in teaching with this book. It would be great to teach younger students about which animals belong or don’t belong on a farm. It has such a defined beginning, middle, and ending which could make it fun for retelling, sequencing, or reader’s theater. You could also teach students about playing together and it’s not nice to throw things at each other. You could discuss your expectations and rules before taking a field trip. Pets could be another topic.

Whitney’s thoughts:
I felt like this book was entertaining and fun for students. Most people read about a snake and are scared, like myself; however, this book gives readers a different opinion of a snake. When the pigs are on a bus eating the children’s lunch and a cow is crying you can bet it’s an interesting book. I would also want to show my students a hidden moral message. This message is that you need to know the full details before jumping to conclusions. If you have the wrong impression, you can make the wrong decision about what to do. In the book the children were in the hen house and a chicken laid an egg. When it laid the egg, it landed on Jenny’s head. She assumed that one of the other children threw it at her and in return threw one back. Because she did not know the full details, and assumed, she started an “egg fight”. I would make sure to point out it is always best to understand what happen and how it happen before just reacting, a life lesson not only for children but also for adults.

Before you leave please check out this smart board game....https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-vfpaed7O-cMzQzMDM1ZjYtOGRiYS00NzY1LTg0ZWYtY2JhNmQwMWE3ZTY0/edit?usp=drive_web&urp=http://pitnerm.blogspot.com/2011/12/day-jimmys-boa