So, every year I do this lesson on inferences. It's my favorite lesson.
Have you ever heard of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick? If not, do yourself a favor and head over to Amazon and buy it right now. You're welcome. It'll change your life.
Anyways, the story goes a little something like this, Harris Burdick walks into this book publishing company and drops of some bizarre illustrations. He claims to have stories to go with each of them. The company loves them and wants to sign a deal, only Burdick never returns. As you can imagine, this gets the kids pretty pumped up.
Let me backtrack a minute. I start this lesson with a breathtaking game of Guess What's in My Bag? I add 6 predetermined items to my purse and call the students up one by one to pull them out and decide what they are and what do they tell them about me. (I did NOT come up with this part on my own... I have seen this idea all over Pinterest from other teachers!) This leads to some great real-life connections.
We them go right into a little Harris Burdick Scoot action... I have some of the illustrations posted around the room with the titles and samples from the stories by some of Chris Van Allsburg's famous author friends. Think Kate DiCamillo, Walter Dean Myers, Louis Sacher and Stephen King. I know...
Kids use their charts and clipboards to gather information. They then use this info to answer the writing prompt. It's all pretty simple and you would be surprised how well it helps the concept stick!
Just Desert is my favorite of all the illustrations AND the stories... The kids will want to hear all of the stories and they will harass you over it. I recommend sharing Just Desert, it's just the right amount of suspenseful without being too scary!
I have also used this as a creative writing activity, equally as fun!
If you're anxious to get started, check out the pack I made:
Head over to my shop to check it out!
Happy inferring!!!!
