Perky piglet finds friendship with spelling spider

In the wake of a new seating chart at school, your daughter now finds herself next to the nerdy boy who eats peanut butter and spinach sandwiches. At first she thinks they could not possibly have anything in common. But during reading time, she sees he's mesmerized by mystery novels—her favorite genre. Before you know it, they've started a Detective Club at school, working to solve classroom crimes.

Finding joy in unlikely friendships is the lesson in the film Charlotte's Web, now available on home video. After watching the movie, get caught up in a great family discussion, using our talking points below. Then do our family activity, “Wacky Web,” to bring the big-screen lesson to life!

The movie features Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay), a runt piglet who is saved from the axe by the farmer's lively and passionate daughter, Fern (Dakota Fanning). Unable to find a pal to play with in the barn, Wilbur grows lonely. He also grows fearful, as he learns he will likely end up on dinner plates by winter.

Wilbur's luck changes when an eloquent spider named Charlotte (voice of Julia Roberts) befriends him. While the other barnyard animals find Charlotte scary and repulsive, Wilbur sees beauty in her inner being. Charlotte promises her newfound friend that she will do everything in her power to make sure Wilbur doesn't become a slab of bacon.

Using all of her might, Charlotte spins words in her web—words describing the wonderful things about her pig pal Wilbur. The townspeople believe the words are a miracle and drive miles and miles to see Wilbur. But are Charlotte 's wonderful web works enough to save Wilbur from the chopping block?

Talk Together

Of the people in your family, who would be most likely to befriend a spider? What do you think Wilbur liked about Charlotte that the other animals just couldn't appreciate?

Now take turns describing some people at school or work who you usually avoid—whether it's the drama queen, or the gadget-loving guy who speaks a technical language you don't understand. Together, brainstorm some questions you can ask that person so that you can discover at least one thing you have in common.

Think of some of the friends you have who are quite different from you. How do your differences make your friendship special? What similarities do you have? What words would you weave in a web to describe them?

Play Together: Wacky Web
Get silly spinning your own web words!

You will need:
• A ball of string or yarn

Choose someone in your family to represent each day of the week. (You can choose someone twice if you don't have seven people in your family.)

At dinnertime each day, use the ball of string to weave a word that best represents the selected person's wonderful inner qualities, just like Charlotte did with the words “radiant” and “humble.”

You can anchor the string on anything that's on your dinner table, such as utensils, a napkin ring, or a ketchup bottle. Your family will learn, just like Charlotte , to spin some insight into other people's personalities.

copyright © 2007 Cinematters