For The Invention of Hugo Cabret, we are writing responses in our reading journals. I am using the book as a read-aloud and it is leading the best discussions in class. My students have also mastered making inferences about the characters! 

One of my students wrote these predictions for the story:

We also drew the automaton, the mechanical man, from the story. The pictures are actually quite amazing! 

To encourage more deep thinking, I had students write questions for the main character in the story. Some of them were rather profound! My kids loved sharing their questions aloud. Hearing the variety of questions was pretty exciting for me.

Another assignment we recently completed was a journal entry from the perspective of Hugo, our protagonist. I challenged students to try to empathize with him. How would they feel going through all of his hardships? What would go through their minds? 

Lastly, we did a fun fall activity! I brought in a unique squash (a red kuri squash), which resembles a pumpkin. I passed it around and had the kids write one simile, one metaphor, and one hyperbole about the squash. They were really awesome. One of my favorite metaphors was, "The squash is a bright, orange sunset."  

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