The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau

Recently I read The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino to our second graders. It is a really great book that they like. In their classrooms they have been talking about visualizing and this is a super book to reinforce that strategy. After reading the book they practiced being communicators by writing a letter to the author. It is a hard concept to write to the author of a biography. I did much explaining that we were not writing to Jacques Cousteau, especially since he is dead!  They did a fabulous job on their letters. They made connections, told Mr. Y their favorite parts in the book, and ask him questions. And we are anxiously awaiting his reply!

 

This student wanted to look back through the book as she was writing her letter. Reading this book kicks off our semester long unit on research, mainly focusing on Jacques Cousteau and his life.