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Amelia Bell 4514 Estonia Dr. Knoxville, TN 37918 253-19-3818 Whats New in Childrens Literature and Strategies for Using it in Your Program March 16, 2005 This seminar is a source of information on high quality, newly published Childrens literature and ways to use these books in the library program and in curriculum subject areas.

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Student population for this activity: Kindergarten students in three classes; 58 total students and three classroom teachers; each group included students from a variety of ability groups Subject: Little Red Hen: Linking Literature, Science and Math

A. Activity Description: It is a tradition at my school for kindergarten classes to hatch chicken eggs in the spring. This year, I wanted to use that classroom activity as a springboard for a fun learning experience in the library. I developed this lesson around a wonderful version of the Little Red Hen illustrated by Barry Downard. He uses photos of live animals enhanced with computer graphics that the kids love! First, I read the book to the students and then explain that we are going to be just like the Little Red Hen and bake some bread. We talk about all the steps she has to go through. Then, I tell them about a wonderful invention called a Bread Machine which will save us lots of time and work. I have students help me read the recipe and measure and mix the ingredients. We talk about all the math involved in cooking and how important it is to make sure your measurements are correct. We also discuss the best tools for measuring different ingredients. We discuss the science of how and why yeast is added to bread - that it is a living thing needing food (sugar), water, and heat to grow. While the machine kneads the dough, students create an accordion book showing the steps of making bread that the Little Red Hen had to use. They must sequence the steps correctly in their books and add a title and their own name as author. The library part of this activity lasts about one hour. The bread takes about 3 hours to make so I take the bread to their classrooms when it is done. This gives the teacher time to do other chicken activities in the room before the bread comes. B. Learning Objectives: Objective One (science curriculum) Students will understand chicken eggs are part of a life cycle. They will understand that living things need food, water, and heat to survive. Objective Two (language arts curriculum) Students will use create individual books and share completed work. Each student will create an accordion book sequencing the steps to make bread and share their completed work with other classmates. Students will learn the story of the Little Red Hen and that stories have morals sometimes to teach us lessons. Objective Three (library information curriculum) Students will begin to understand how to make connections between books and real life experiences. They will make and eat homemade bread just like the Little Red Hen. C. Appropriateness of Activities for Targeted Students: This unit is based on the Tennessee Curriculum standards for kindergarten in the areas of science, language arts, and library information so the learning objectives are appropriate for this group. The teaching strategies of teacher reading, group work, and individual outputs offer a varied approach to learning and adding the experience of making something to eat adds another way for students to Velcro the science and math concepts to their brains. D. Correlation of Activities to the Seminar: I love Judys ideas about using literature to teach

curriculum areas like science and math! Reading a great story sets a tone for learning that is fun and exciting. Students are ready to see how in the world I will tie it all together and make them into scientists or detectives or math whizzes. I also incorporated her idea of students as authors even though students did not have to actually write much at all during this project. They still each produced a book about bread. Creating a finished product that other people can understand makes kindergarteners feel very capable. E. Student Evaluation and Assessment: Participation and group behavior will be the main areas we will monitor. Informal assessment will consist of teacher observation, question and answer monitoring for understanding as the project is being done. F. Self-Evaluation: This project worked well! The kindergarten teachers and I cooperate well together and the students had a ball while learning too! I would like to stretch this into a two session project and include several versions of the Little Red Hen story that the children could compare and contrast.