Hi Parents,
For the next two weeks our Kindergarten and Primary Grades will be studying a favourite children’s author, Patricia Polacco. For those who are unaware of her books, she is a talented, imaginative (and prolific) writer who blends storytelling and artistic skills to create books for kids from 4 to 12. Some of her tales are spun in a true-to life fashion, while others assume fantasy of fairy tale qualities. Whatever direction they take, Polacco’s stories inspire readers to appreciate family heritage, examine personal attitudes and find reason to hope, dream and reach for the stars! In Patricia Polacco’s books, family roots are important. Her own fondest memories were of sitting around an open stove, eating apples and popping corn while listening to her parents and grandparents tell glorious stories about the past. Although she was born in Michigan her family was from the Ukraine, Russia and Soviet Georgia. In her books, Patricia seems to get great satisfaction from seeing different cultures come together in mutual understanding.
In this unit that primarily explores both language and social studies, kids will be learning (at individual levels) about the countries and cultures in each book. All children will find places on the world map, and our older groups will also be making maps of geographic topography. They’ll organize a family tree of characters in the stories – and relate it to their own family. Kids will be keeping a “Quilt of Books” with each child decorating a square to represent the narrative. They will also create a “Book of Knowledge” to record (and illustrate) new vocabulary and information about different cultures and traditions (and for example: make a “white cap” to wear as a symbol of their accomplishments at a ceremony.) Kids will sort Polacco’s books into fact or fiction. She describes several incredible incidents in her books (including a meteor landing in her yard) and as we read them, kids can pretend they’re journalists in search of the story behind one of these events. Then they can tell their own “Incredible Tales” in a “newspaper article”, tape recorded “broadcasts” or in a magazine format. In art, they will be making character posters, puppets to retell and dramatize the story, Dancing Goat decorations, Merry –Go Round mobiles, and Babushka scarves as well as paper Pysanky eggs. In science, we will be exploring emotions, thunderstorms and hatching geese, learning the differences between chickens and peacocks and doing experiments to determine how many bees it takes to make a small jar of honey etc. In addition to their individual math and reading programs, kids will augment their learning in measurement and graphs with a “Meteor Math” beanbag toss game as well as a number of outdoor activities such as the “Egg-Throw Extravaganza” and the Babushka Guessing Game”. We also plan to try some “different” foods mentioned in the books.
Most of Patricia Polacco’s books are available at your local library so pick them up and have a read... or have a grandparent tell a good story. It should be fun!
For the next two weeks our Kindergarten and Primary Grades will be studying a favourite children’s author, Patricia Polacco. For those who are unaware of her books, she is a talented, imaginative (and prolific) writer who blends storytelling and artistic skills to create books for kids from 4 to 12. Some of her tales are spun in a true-to life fashion, while others assume fantasy of fairy tale qualities. Whatever direction they take, Polacco’s stories inspire readers to appreciate family heritage, examine personal attitudes and find reason to hope, dream and reach for the stars! In Patricia Polacco’s books, family roots are important. Her own fondest memories were of sitting around an open stove, eating apples and popping corn while listening to her parents and grandparents tell glorious stories about the past. Although she was born in Michigan her family was from the Ukraine, Russia and Soviet Georgia. In her books, Patricia seems to get great satisfaction from seeing different cultures come together in mutual understanding.
In this unit that primarily explores both language and social studies, kids will be learning (at individual levels) about the countries and cultures in each book. All children will find places on the world map, and our older groups will also be making maps of geographic topography. They’ll organize a family tree of characters in the stories – and relate it to their own family. Kids will be keeping a “Quilt of Books” with each child decorating a square to represent the narrative. They will also create a “Book of Knowledge” to record (and illustrate) new vocabulary and information about different cultures and traditions (and for example: make a “white cap” to wear as a symbol of their accomplishments at a ceremony.) Kids will sort Polacco’s books into fact or fiction. She describes several incredible incidents in her books (including a meteor landing in her yard) and as we read them, kids can pretend they’re journalists in search of the story behind one of these events. Then they can tell their own “Incredible Tales” in a “newspaper article”, tape recorded “broadcasts” or in a magazine format. In art, they will be making character posters, puppets to retell and dramatize the story, Dancing Goat decorations, Merry –Go Round mobiles, and Babushka scarves as well as paper Pysanky eggs. In science, we will be exploring emotions, thunderstorms and hatching geese, learning the differences between chickens and peacocks and doing experiments to determine how many bees it takes to make a small jar of honey etc. In addition to their individual math and reading programs, kids will augment their learning in measurement and graphs with a “Meteor Math” beanbag toss game as well as a number of outdoor activities such as the “Egg-Throw Extravaganza” and the Babushka Guessing Game”. We also plan to try some “different” foods mentioned in the books.
Most of Patricia Polacco’s books are available at your local library so pick them up and have a read... or have a grandparent tell a good story. It should be fun!
