The Tortoise and The Hare

It is so crazy to think that we are only two months away from the last day of classes! I am so thrilled!!! In my class we finally started reading fables! I love love love fables! They are so amazing but it is really hard for the children to fully comprehend what the lesson is. In order for them to start understanding the whole concept of fables I wanted them to become really familiar with the fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, what to do ???? I came up with the idea of stick puppets, yes! I had some left over popsicle sticks from Christmas (they are bigger than the regular ones) so why not use them? I printed several copies of the two main characters of the story, I found the images online and then I put them in a word document (I like to save paper, in my school printing is VERY limited). I divided them up before giving each child their pair. I gave them the option of cutting them out or cut around the line, of course they decided to cut them carefully around the LINE! They love cutting and actually they have gotten so good at it! Nothing compared to those little ones I had at the beginning of the year!

The Tortoise and the Hare

After they cut their two main characters they were free to color their own pictures and stick them to their two popsicle sticks. They were so excited to have their two little characters actually IN their hands! 

Cutting out! 

Our Characters!!!!

I love writing, therefore I love making them write! I have been teaching sequence so I had saved a graphic organizer (I am obsessed with Graphic Organizers!) I made my own and is in my store if you would like to get it, is FREE!  Sequence Graphic Organizer  

I used the graphic organizers with my small groups it took me two days to work with my four groups, I did not want to rush and they children had a blast retelling the story, when it was time to write they did the writing ON THEIR OWN! I was so proud! It was like the puppets gave them magical writing powers! I was not expecting this to go as well since I came up with it in such a short period of time! 

I bet I left some details out so if you have any questions or concerns just write me!!! 

Happy Spring Break!