Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students are continuing to learn about Aesop’s fables.
The man, the boy and the donkey || Short story for kids
Song “A man, a boy and a donkey” – Children’s music video
Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students are learning about Spring, the life cycle of the frog and the fable, “The exploding frog” (aka “The frog and the ox”).
The life cycle of a frog
Life cycle of a frog
Panama frogs serenade females – The trials of life – BBC
The mystery of the red-eyed tree frog
Here are the links we have used in previous years:
ianmclean.edublogs.org/2011/10/18/frogs-frogs-frogs-life-cycles-fables/.
Aesop: biography of a great thinker
Following their investigations into variations on Aesop’s fable of The exploding frog (aka The bull and the bullfrog, aka The frog and the ox), plus Sally Murphy & Simon Bosch’s picture book, The floatingest frog, students in Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 are learning about factual information on frogs in science & technology.
Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 students are studying fables this term. These Youtube videos will support the reading.
The magic fish, or The fisherman and his wife, is often categorised as a Grimm’s fairy tale, but it also has an obvious moral.
The fisherman and his wife
Two parodies of the same tale:
The magic fish – Fractured Fairy Tales
Fractured Fairy Tales – The fisherman and his wife
Aesop: biography of a great thinker
The town mouse and the country mouse – Aesop’s fables
City mouse and country mouse
Мышь vs. Печенька (Mouse vs Biscuit)
After reading several versions of the famous Aesop’s fable, the students created their own interpretation of “City Mouse & Country Mouse” as a PhotoPeach slideshow. A combined effort of brainstorming, storyboarding, set creation, photographing, and joint construction of text!
City Mouse & Country Mouse
Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 students are studying fables this term and every second week, we are concentrating on gathering factual information on one of the animals/concepts featured in the fable.
These Youtube videos will be useful for “Fish”:
How do fish live under water?
Setting up a goldfish aquarium
How the seahorse got its shape — by Nature Video
Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 are studying fables this term. We found this great short video, with accompanying song, on Youtube:
Song: “A Man, a Boy and a Donkey” – Children’s Music Video
And here’s an award-winning music video version, by Derek Sonic Thunders, of Craig Smith’s “Wonky donkey” picture book and song:
Wonkey donkey song unofficial music video
Last term’s Stage 1 book rappers are doing an extension activity with me during our Literacy time: investigating claymation (stop motion) video presentations using a kit from the local post office, “Make your own haunted house movie” by Nancy Hall (Hinkler Books, 2010). We have already storyboarded our Halloween story, but have now checked out a few claymation fable videos on Youtube:
The story of the boy who cried wolf – claymation
Bugs and books 2008
Taking a break from stocktaking for a moment, I wanted to share some digital stories my Early Stage 1 bloggers made over the last few days. These Kinder students, plus a K-2 Language Support class, have continued coming to the library for their regular PSP literacy sessions – what to do now the book rap is over?! – and we’ve been able to extend their Term 4 class learning about fables. They have enjoyed incorporating ideas from Stage 2’s digital stories, which were support material during the recent Bear and Chook books rap.
As you will see from the two Powerpoints, first we read many versions of each Aesop’s fable, then spent time in the playground with mud-map storyboards, the library toy collection, some hastily-made props, and my trusty iPhone. After I uploaded the photos into Keynote (Mac) templates at home, I converted them to Powerpoint format and brought them back to school on a memory stick. The students then viewed their photos again on the IWB, and then we jointly constructed new text during Circle Time (talking & listening). Then some editing after feedback from other audiences – and uploaded to our school blog site.
If time allows, we may try to do The lion & the mouse next week. (Update! We did it – click on the title!)
This is my third consecutive year working with Early Stage 1 students on fables. The students who created our first batch on a wiki in 2007 (at penrithpslibrary.pbworks.com still talk about them!
Aesop: biography of a great thinker