Craft Lesson # 8: Babymouse: Our Hero

Advice Columns

Targeted age Group:
Second Grade

Introduction:
Being able to put events in order is called sequencing. Utilizing words like "First", "Then", and "Finally" can help sequence the events of a storyline. Comic strips are simply collections of pictures that tell a story through sequence. You have to follow the sequence of pictures in the correct order to understand the story.

How to teach it:
After reading Babymouse: Our Hero to the class I would tell them that we are going to make our own comic. The students get a sheet of paper that they will fold into fourths and in each forth draw a part of a short story with a beginning, two middle parts, and an end. They will write a narration for the story using the key sequence words like "First" "Then" "Next" and "Finally". They will cut up their comic on the fold lines and jumble up the four pieces. They will switch comics with a neighbor and try and put another student's comic together in the correct sequence.

Resources:

Holm, Jennifer and Matthew Holm. Babymouse: Our Hero. New York: Random House, 2005.

Children's Literature, Briefly. Chapter 15: Mulitcultural and International Books

Upon reading this chapter(and every other chapter in the book) I am compelled to say that I am so impressed with the text for this course. Tunnell and Jacobs have left nothing out; they have created a complete guide to children's literature for teachers!

This chapter discussing the importance of multicultural and international books was great. When I worked at the Child Development Lab here at Tech they emphasized multiculturalism through their wall decorations, language, and book collection. The children at the CDRC weren't afraid to bring up questions about differences because their questions were embraced and answered. Its when children learn from adult behavior that some things aren't to be talked about that they are confused and develop fear from uncertainty.

I will never forget the time my younger brother who was about four at the time questioned a cashier about the color of her skin. He had been looking at her while she was scanning our items and then said to her, "you black". Of course my mother and I apologized to the lady and "shhh-ed" him embarrassed that he had made such an obvious comment. But the lady replied that it was fine and proceeded to tell him that her skin color was very dark compared to his. She even showed him how the palms of her hands were different than his. Once she had confirmed that his conclusion about her being "black" was right he went on doing his own thing. Unlike my mother and I who tried to quiet him and suppress his insight for fear of offending the woman, she simply showed him in a very matter-of-fact way. He learned that people are different colors because she addressed his statement. If she hadn't done that he would have learned from our behavior to ignore differences and been fearful of acknowledging diversity. What I learned that day was it is better to embrace a child's curiousity about diversity and human differences in a postitive matter-of-fact way than it is to ignore them.

It is so important to represent all forms of diversity in your classroom in a subtle yet consistent way. To ignore differences between people will only encourage phobic and eventually hateful attitudes. By including multicultural and international books in your classroom collection you will be fostering awareness and acceptance of others; an indispensable lesson for children.

Babymouse

The idea of changing things up with a comic book was fun. It's illustrations and storyline were cute but I got lost reading it more than once. I got confused at times with what was going on because of the comic strip layout of the story. To make things worse the whole time I was reading it I was thinking to myself, "how am I going to use this book as a reference for a lesson?" As discussed in class some people are slow to warm up to comics if they didn't experience them as a child and I think I am one of those people. I loved the Archie comics when I was younger but they probably wouldn't hold my interest now. I can't put my finger on exactly why; I know it must do with the layout, maybe its just too chaotic for me.

Craft Lesson # 7: Stuart's Cape

Advice Columns

Targeted age Group:
Third Grade

Introduction:
Learning from our experiences is an important part of life. Being able to reflect on our own experiences and the experiences of others will help us in making future decisions. Giving recommendations for behavior based on observed or experienced events is also an important tool that will be learned in this lesson.

How to teach it:
I would have students read this book chapter by chapter in groups as a guided reading activity. At the end of each chapter they would have to write a piece of advice for an advice column just like Stuart does at the end of the book. Then after they have read the entire book they will have a complete advice column consisting of the student's opinions of what Stuart learned throughout the chapters.

Through this craft lesson the students are learning to derive meaning from events and then transform that meaning into advice. An example of a piece of advice they could derive from chapter one is, "If you let a dinosaur, a gorilla, and a horse into your room they will make a mess!" The advice can be funny since Stuart has many funny situations as long as the advice is derived from the chapter.

After the students have made an advice column based on Stuart's experiences they can make their own advice column. Their advice column can be directed toward the second graders who will enter into third grade soon. They can give them advice on how to be successful in third grade. This would probably be best to do as a class activity and then the column could be posted outside the third grade classroom for the second graders to see.

Resources:

Pennypacker, Sara. Stuart's Cape. Illus. Martin Matje. Cambridge, NY: Scholastic Inc., 2002.

Children's Literature, Briefly. Chapter 14: Informational Books

As discussed in the beginning of the chapter, informational books do tend to meet negative responses. It is true that some informational books are boring and are only utilized when writing a paper. The authors make a good point about the five elements that can make an informational book good. I loved the suggestion for teachers to pick up an informational book and thumb through it for only three minutes and see if it catches your own attention before expecting it to catch the attention of an elementary school student. That is a great rule of thumb for teaching; if it doesn't spark your interest it probably won't for your students.

I really liked the quote on page 176 that stated, "good informational books teach the same way good classroom teacher teach: They examine a subject, think about things, make discoveries, and then share a personal view of what they have learned." The best teachers I had growing up were the ones that knew all the facts, delivered it in a way that interested the class, and then let students do their own personal research. Just like the book states, "lay a groundwork for wanting further knowledge". For me, this chapter was about defining good elements of informational books and then realizing that as teachers we are a metaphoric informational book. We must teach information in a way that is compelling, attractive, and fascinating.

Craft Lesson # 6: Sidewalk Circus

Shadows and Sun Clocks

Targeted age Group:
Second Grade

Introduction:
In the book, Sidewalk Circus, shadows play a very important role in understanding the textless story. In older times people utilized shadows as a way to tell time through sun dials or sun clocks. These ancient clocks tell time by the postion of a shadow which is cast by the sun.

How to teach it:
I would start the lesson by reading/showing the book to the class and reminding them to pay close attention to the changing shadows. After we have gone through the book I would begin a class discussion about what shadows are. I would get input from the class and then explain that shadows can play an important role in telling time.

Then I would have the class make their own sun clocks in groups of five. I have found a diagram for making sun dials that I would print out and give to each group.
(The diagram is at the bottom of this blog entry) Each group would also be given a compass and pencil in order to create the sun clock. They begin by going outside on a sunny day and laying the sun clock worksheet on the ground with the arrow that represents their city facing north. (They have to use their compass to navigate which direction is north.) They they stand the pencil up in the middle of the sun clock diagram on the days date to reveal what time it is.

This is a fun way to learn about both shadows, time, working as a team, and being outside.

Resources:

Fleischman, Paul. Sidewalk Circus. Illus. Kevin Hawkes. Cambridge, MA: Candlewich Press, 2004.

Diagram found at the website:www.proteacher.com

Stuart's Cape

This was such a fun read for me. I loved the story because it blurred the line between imagination and reality. It never directly stated whether the situations in the story were were actually happening or was made up by Stuart's imagination; you had to decide for yourself. My favorite character was his crazy Aunt Bubbles who was so silly to think that the clouds were talking to her and that they were hungry for pound cake. She was a fun character because she played along with what Stewart was doing while his parents simply dismissed his ideas and even took his cape away to be disposed of.

I liked the way that Stuart thought and said things, for example on page 17 at the beginning of the chapter it says, "Stuart woke up on the ceiling. 'Good,' he said, remembering not to act surprised. 'I can fly." He talks so nonchalant and matter-of-fact that it was comical to me as I was reading. Another example is when One-Tooth, his cat, is snoring in the trash collector's car and Stuart realizes that cats don't make that sound and concludes that "of course! One-Tooth had traded places with the trash Man!" There were many more instances that I enjoyed throughout the book of Stuarts entertaining reasoning.

The illustrations in the book were so fun. I love on page 46 when Stuart imagines that he is an ant instead of himself. The illustration was really cute, it was an ant's body but with Stuart's head! Overall this book was really cute, had a funny story, and really captured the imagination of a third grade boy.

Pennypacker, Sara. Stuart's Cape. Illus. Martin Matje. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc., 2002.