Jan Brett Author Study- From Holiday books to Winter stories-- I started before the holiday break and will finish in January as part of the Winter unit!
Pull a variety of books by the author from the school library and local library! I even had to borrow from other teachers. Use this unit to introduce story elements: characters, setting, plot, solution story elements PDF
Introduction- What is an author? Introduce Jan Brett through a visual picture and display her books. Tie in the setting of her books to how she travels the world to learn about the setting. (The kids thought this was really cool). I had a large weekly reader with this information. You could easily just Google her to find pictures and information.
Books:
Day 1-I started with this book because earlier in the year we did a gingerbread man hunt to tour the school and read other versions of this story. This gave them background knowledge when starting the new book. Browse the book and teach the stories setting and characters before reading.
Tie in- writing: use the story elements to introduce writing narratives. They begin with a story map. We also made gingerbread homes
Day 2- Review story elements by reviewing the Gingerbread Baby By Jan Brett. Only discuss the characters and setting. Show them the cover to this story and have them predict the setting and characters for this story. Preview the book with a picture walk through and have them make predications about the what the setting would be like if they were there. Compare the setting of the 2 stories by making a T-chart on the board or by doing a Venn Diagram on the board.
Tie- in- Teach the "Reindeer Hokey Pokey" Reindeer poem/song, make Reindeer food, make a paper reindeer, and research reindeer---link National Geographic Kids
 |
| Reindeer Food- worksheet is from The Mailbox Magazine |
Day 3- This story is great for introducing plot (conflict) and solution. We reviewed the characters and setting but as I started to read we focused on the the conflict and solution. Stop several times to discuss what the trolls are doing and why. Before getting to the solution stop and send the kids to their seats. Have them draw/ write what they think will happen at the end of the story (solution). Brainstorm as a class first, work, then share answers. Finish the story.
 |
| Story elements map |
Tie in- Writing- Do a story element map on chart paper and draw/write out the elements to this story. This helps them to see how to create the parts in their stories- hint: have them write about real life, as it is way easier than writing made up stories.
Day 5- Once again the trolls make an appearance--which the kids love! Most of these stories have similar settings and characters, so it is easy for the kids to relate the stories. By this day the kids were begging me to read more Jan Brett Stories. They loved them and loved the illustrations. I explained that in her books she is the author and illustrator. When she writes she uses the story elements to guide her story. We put motions to these words- " The author does the writing (use hand and pretend to write), The illustrator does the pictures (use hand to pretend to draw) and the publisher makes the book (take both hands and close like a book)." Only add in the publisher if you have discussed previously.
Tie in- Graphing- Take the books that have read and graph the classes favorites. You could do this whole group or have the kids walk around the poll each other. Graph- favorite story
Tie in- chain link countdown to Christmas or to the holiday break. Could work in patterns by doing this project.
Other Books by Jan Brett for the Holidays- Jan Brett's Site
Winter stories:
The Mitten
Read The Mitten by Jan Brett and go over the story elements and beginning, middle and end of the story.
story elements PDF and BME or BME
This
unit also discuss winter animals which can tie into your science animal
standards. We also make an immersion board with winter animals and
writing. COMING SOON!
Activities to follow:
character masks . I read the stories several times in a week and do the various activities. At the end of the week we act out the story. I bring in a large fitted sheet as the mitten and the kids take turns being the different characters. They love acting out the end of the story. This is fun and it helps them understand the beginning, middle and end.
Sequence Sheet- Use
the characters in the story and sequence them according to their entry
into the mitten! Take a sentence strip and glue it to a mitten. Then
have them color the animals, cut and glue.mitten pattern, animals
'The Mitten' lacing and coloring activity:
I
give each student two mittens facing out so that the design is visible
on both sides. Then I punch holes along the outside edge except for the
bottom of the mitten where the hand goes in. Each student gets a piece
of yarn and has to lace the two sides of the mitten together. When they
have laced the whole mitten, I tie a knot at the end.
Leave
the bottom of the mitten open and give them animal pictures. have them
color and put on Popsicle sticks. As you read they can put the
characters in their mitten or act out the story in small groups. Reading A-Z has this book as a printable along with many worksheets.
Writing "M" words
Have
them browse magazines for pictures that start with "M". Then they will
glue them to their mitten and write the word. They could also stamp out
"M" words etc.
We also read The Hat by Jan Brett. You can compare the two stories. Or You can read The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt
Compare the different animals from the two stories The Mitten. You could easily do this in a venn Diagram or you could cut out 2 large mittens and animals from each story ( like above).
Another
option: make a large Venn Diagram. Create the venn diagram using string
and have the kids create the animals. Then make an immersion wall to
show their work. They could write too to describe the stories and
animals.
