I wasn't too sure what I was getting into when I picked up Swim! Swim! to read to a group of first graders. I wasn't sure if they would get it, since it is written similar to a graphic novel layout. However, they were rolling on the floor laughing by the time we finished this book.
Lerch is lonely and wants someone to be friends with, so he asks all the things around him to be his friend. This book has a great surprise ending and is definitely entertaining.
Classroom Ideas:
1. This is a great book to use to discuss speech bubbles and why/how they are used. There are great pages where more than one character is talking so the speech bubble actually represents two voices.
2. To adults it may be obvious where Lerch is at, but this is a great time to point out how we infer from a book. Is he in a fishbowl or in a lake? How do you know? This is a good way to explicitly point out inferring.
Classroom Ideas:
1. This is a great book to use to discuss speech bubbles and why/how they are used. There are great pages where more than one character is talking so the speech bubble actually represents two voices.
2. To adults it may be obvious where Lerch is at, but this is a great time to point out how we infer from a book. Is he in a fishbowl or in a lake? How do you know? This is a good way to explicitly point out inferring.
