Finding Nemo

       Yesterday, my friend and I used several video clips from Nemo to help students think about the moral or lesson to a story.  This can be difficult with third graders, so we used a movie they were very familiar with, Nemo.  We use the following clips and had the students decide an overall moral they could apply to themselves.  It was quite impressive to see how their thinking changed from very concrete to more in depth later on.  Then as a class we decided which would be a good overall moral to the whole movie.  This works well in order to, YES, prep them for EOG testing.  The questions might ask students the moral of paragraph # or the moral to the whole story.  Click on the links to go directly to the video.  I hope you enjoy.

Nemo touches the boat against his fathers orders and is caught by a scuba diver.

Most of the kiddos could guess the obvious moral; You should obey your parents.  However a few others guessed be careful who you hang out with or don't listen to your friends if they are trying to get you to do something you don't want to do.

Marlin is upset because he has lost the mask and hope of getting his son back. 

One of the kids actually said the moral was to keep swimming.  Hmmmm.  A little more work still ahead of us.  Some of the other guesses:

Friends can cheer you up.

Friends can give you inspiration.

Friends can let you down.

There are so many clips to also use:

Bruce the shark: morals, don't judge people by how they look, stay focused on your goal, or you don't have to listen to your friends if you don't agree with them.

Crush lets squirt fly out of the EAC:  Crushes reaction is to chill and see what little man can do.

Morals: Some kids can rise to the occasion, relax

There are so many more...

Well party people, I have an 18month old who is not sleeping through the night.  So, I bid thee adieu. ~ Tara