[saraebeth]

I just won a class set of Holes on ebay and was wondering if it was a good book to start the year in 5th. I am new to 5th so i'm not sure and I haven't read it yet!

the thing with 1st grade books was it took literally minutes to read an entire book! I feel like I'm reading kid's novels all the time.

On that note, have you read most of the books that you have for the kids to read?

[SusanTeach]

I LOVE this book! I read it before the movie came out, and I was actually up until 1 am reading it (that's highly unusual for me).

The hardest thing about the book is that it switches back and forth from present day to 100 years before. I'm sure most (if not all) of the kids have seen the movie, but maybe not since it came out a few years ago now.

I think it's a great book to start off the year!

I read all the books that we do as a class (I take them home over the summer) ahead of time, but I definitely haven't read all the books in my class library.

[CLD]

i love this book too. last year was my first year teaching 5th grade. i used the book as a whole class literature circle. i wanted to do small lit circles but did a whole group one first. some kids had already read the book but i had them do it again since we were looking at it differently. when we finished the book we watched the movie...comparing the two. i even did HOLES trivia...like jeperdy. they loved it.

yes...a great book for 5th graders!!!

[ttbw]

I was thinking that someone told me there was a sequal to holes. Am I correct on this? If so do you know the name of it.

[nutmeg]

the author of Holes, also wrote There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. It's a great book to start the year. Before the movie came out, I started the school year off reading Holes as a read aloud.

[SusanTeach]

TTBW - There's a book called Small Steps that's about Armpit (a Holes character) as a "kind of" sequel to Holes (although I think it only talks about Armpit). My son read it in 5th grade and really liked it.

[whatever]

I loved the book and the movie--I think it would be okay-- plenty appropriate for the 5h grade--I think it could help to also break it up into Chapters or page sets (pg. 1-20, or 1-10 or whatever by the day or by the week.) I don't recall anything in there that was questionable but I don't always register little things.

[fourblocks5]

I also think it's a great book for 5th graders. I have used it as a read aloud - but I have kids rereading the book all year long. The flashback thing is a little confusing for kids at first, but it's a good teaching point. We watched the movie in class after we read the book , which the kids loved. I was surprised how many kids hadn't actually seen the movie.

I think the book - might have a few words that might produce a snicker, but it seems like most books do.

[Shelly]

I love this book too! I use it as my first read aloud and then we watch the movie too. I have my students do a huge venn diagram comparing the novel and the movie - they love this. It is also a great way to start the year with an appealing book and a movie treat so early in the year. We have popcorn and juice while watching it - the students and I just love this time, plus I too find some of them re-reading it throughout the year.

[lexteacher]

I am using this as my first novel study this year. I do several things that help to keep characters straight -
I make large orange stick-like men (like 2 feet X 4 feet) for each of the seven guys in tent D to put on my wall, as we learn information about each one we fill in the information on each stick man (name and nickname on the head). it really helps the lower readers to keep them straight and can spawn good discussion.
Secondly, I make a story line plot for each time period. I mark Stanley's story at Greenlake with a brown shovel, Kissin Kate's story with a peach, and Elya Yelnat's story with a pig. I have the kids plot out each story as they develop and we keep track in written form of the main events of each story line. Again, it really helps the lower readers follow the story.
I love this book and think it is really great for discussion about a lot of issues.

[lexteacher]

Oh, I forgot to say that Small Steps is a good read. We did it as a read aloud after Holes. I'm not sure that I will do that again this year. There is some language in it and it definately has a bunch of talk about one of the characters being a virgin. I dont' know, I just felt like I was doing a lot of editing as I was reading aloud to my kids. They loved it though, but definately liked Holes better.

[Shelly]

can you tell me more about how you do the story lines and how you do the written form? I really like your ideas but need some clarification for these two. Thanks a lot for sharing.

[lexteacher]

The story lines are basically a bulletin board. I talk about each of the three story lines and how they are from different time periods. We talk about the characters in the book that pertain to each story line. There is also a lot of discussion about how even though they are from different times, they are still very much connected.
Then, I assign student groups of students to plot out the main events in each story line as we read. They write them out, edit for clarity and then we create a sort of timeline for the characters in each time period. This is an ongoing project as we read the book.
I hope this clarifies. Please let me know if not.

[Shelly]

Thanks for the clarification it is clear now. Thanks so much for the new ideas, I am going to add them to my plans and my students are going to just love it!

[kellihenry]

We read Holes every year in 5th. All of the students love it. I got most of my comprehension questions/vocab lists from this site:
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/units/units_with_books.htm