Dolphin Tale

We have FINALLY started one of my favorite units of the year!  I always fight to get this one in because it is near and dear to my heart.  In writing we have started our shared research unit so for our classroom read aloud I am reading Dolphin Tale.  A former aide of mine brought me this book several years ago and I have been reading it ever since.  Each time I have read it, it has sparked the interest of my class.  The students really enjoy studying dolphins while reading this book so we better understand this amazing creature.  I was fortunate enough to visit the Clearwater Marine Hospital over Christmas this year so I have even more to share!  I am such a baby though.  I told the kiddos that this book gets me a tad emotional and I did cry when I met Winter in Florida.  It is truly an amazing story about survival and hope.  My plan is that we will finish the book before spring break.  I would like to show some of the documentary I picked up while I was down there.  I also have a few other fun things to show them that I just had to buy!
Our class is very close to a compliment party so I am planning to show the movie to them the two days we come before spring break.  I will need to send home a permission slip next week since the movie is PG.
If you and your student are already familiar with the story, please feel free to visit their website seewinter.com.  There are a lot of awesome resources including a live webcam of Winter and the other animals.  We have not made it to the end of the book yet so I do not want to spoil it for any of the kids.  We will visit the website as soon as we finish reading!