Archive for the 'Cause and Effect' Category

Hansel and Diesel by David Gordon

Schema: diesel trucks, Hansel and Gretel
Compare and Contrast: Use a graphic organizer such as the Venn Diagram,  http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer, to compare with the fairytale, Hansel and Gretel,  by James Marshall.
Personification:  The truck rigs are given personalities and speak as human characters.
Reader’s Theater: This story would lend itself well to a reader’s theater presentation.  Students could ad [...]

Nubs The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle

Schema: Marines, miracles
Author’s purpose: The author is sharing his journey with Nubs because it is a miracle that he was able to get the dog from there back to his home in San Diego.
Because Nubs did not give up on finding Major Dennis, the effect is that Major Dennis did not give up on him.
Characterization: [...]

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson

Schema:  sticks, playing with sticks
Text-to-Text Connections: Over in the Meadow, an old rhyme about the animals in a meadow; the rhyme goes something like, “over in the meadow in the sand and the sun lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one…”  See the lyrics at:  http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/overinthemeadowlyrics.htm
Also a connection with the Gingerbread Man [...]

Here Comes Darrell by Leda Schubert

Schema: people you know that are always helping others
Sequencing: the book goes through each season
Setting: Vermont
Characterization: Make a graphic organizer to show Darrell’s characteristics.
With Tommy he takes the time to let him play like he is driving his truck
With The Barretts he gives the firewood to them even though they can not pay him now.
He [...]

Growing Up With Tamales Los Tamales de Ana by Gwendolyn Zepeda

Schema: making tamales, looking forward to getting to do the things your older brothers and sisters are doing
Text-to-Self connections: helping mother, wishing to be older
Sequencing: The book begins when Ana is 6, and she goes through each part of the book with her age increasing.
Math: numbers are added by 2’s throughout the story
Mental Images: The [...]

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 the last animal [...]

Charlie Needs a Cloak by Tomie De Paola & Red Berry Wool by Robyn Harbert Eversole

Schema: sheep, wool, sweaters, cloaks, the invisible cloak in the Harry Potter stories
Text-to-Text Connections: These two books make a big connection in that they both talk about how wool is used to create a garment.  Charlie shares more technical information about the process.  Red Berry shows how the words used to create fabric can [...]

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 Coyote is frightened [...]

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 animals were expelled [...]

Always in Trouble by Corinne Demas

Schema: following rules
Text-to-text connections: Pinkerton Behave by Steven Kellogg, Chewy Louie by Howie Schneider
Text-to-self connections: ask students to share the bad behavior of their dogs or pets
Sequencing and Organizational Strategy: The book follows the days of the week as Toby either behaves or misbehaves.
Cause and Effect: Because Toby misbehaves, the effect is his owners send [...]