Archive for the 'Folktales' Category

The Hinky Pink An Old Tale Retold by Megan McDonald

Schema:  favorite colors, pastas, princesses Text-to-Text Connections:  books with a mischievous fairy or sprite. The term “hudgin” is not very common so “hobgoblin or sprite” might be a better term to use in explaining what it is. Text-to-text connection: “glass slipper” for Cinderella, locked in tower-other princess stories such as Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel.  The [...]

Willa and the Wind by Janice M. Del Negro

Schema: windy days Personification: The wind takes on human traits and speaks in this tale. Cause and Effect: Because the wind blows the sisters’ cornmeal away, the effect is that Willa is determined to get it back or get something in return. Characterization: Willa is a strong woman character.  She can be described as fearless [...]

Precious and the Boo Hag by Patricia McKissack

Schema: stories that teach a lesson, folktale, stranger danger The story is written as a modern day folktale featuring the Boo Hag from the Gullah culture of South Carolina.  The Boo Hag is a legendary spirit or shape-shifter that wants to live in another person’s body, or it is also described as  riding a person [...]

Can’t Catch Me by John Hassett

Schema: ice from the fridge, icebergs Text-to-text Connections: Gingerbread Man stories, stories where characters are being chased Compare and Contrast: the animals that want to eat or cool off with the ice cube to characters in other versions of the Gingerbread Man.  Compare the whale with the fox in the original story. Sequencing: Sequence from [...]

Tortuga in Trouble by Ann Whitford Paul

Schema: turtles, desert settings, Grandma’s house looks like a sand dome Text-to-text connection: other retellings of Little Red Riding Hood Predicting: What do you predict the animals will do in order to save the turtles from the coyote? Cause and Effect: Because Tortuga’s friends made the noise at Tortuga’s grandmother’s house, the effect is that [...]

Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley

Schema: folktales, purpose of folktales Author’s purpose: the original author’s purpose may have been to illustrate what happens when we don’t think ahead or make a plan Drawing Conclusions: What conclusion do you think Henny Penny came to, and what evidence from the story supports it? Because the fox sneezed, the effect is that the [...]

The Three Little Tamales by Eric A. Kimmel

Schema: Three Little other stories, food Text-to-text connection: The Three Little Pigs, Texas town of Laredo, the Spanish terms, Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. Sequencing: In both stories, the events follow a similar sequence, with the third house in each one being the strongest Compare and Contrast: How is the ending of this story [...]

Carmine: a Little More Red by Melissa Sweet

Schema: Little Red Riding Synonyms: Each page has a focus word printed large at the top of each page, and the word is used in context.  Ask students to give you a synonym for some of the words as you read. Carmine writes a haiku about her grandmother.  Students may connect with writing their own [...]

The Emperor and the Kite by Jane Yolen

Schema: kite flying; emperor is like a president or ruler Text-to-Self Connection: being a 4th grader, flying a kite, wanting father’s love and attention Poetry: Haiku; 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables, but originally a Japanese poetic form about nature Mental Images: Try to make a mental of image of the wind troubling the waters [...]

Epossumondas Saves the Day by Coleen Salley

Schema: Louisianna, bayou, folktale, baking soda Colloquialisms: swaney, scoot over, sody sallyraytus, lickety-split, dillydally, Catawampus, hissy fit, soppin’ mad, nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs, skedaddled, flabbergasted, thumpin’ gizzards, patootie, gooder ‘n’ grits After you say each of these colloquialisms as you are reading, have students repeat them right after [...]