Jane Jerrard (1)

Beauty and the Beast is about a young woman that at first was forced to go and live with a beast because her father had stolen one single rose from the beast's garden. When the young woman lived with the beast she became very fond of him but missed her family. She asked the beast if she could go visit her family and he said yes. He gave her a ring that if she turned it, she would be home with her family and if she turned it again she would be back with the beast. When she returned home although she was enjoying her family she missed the beast. He was very ugly but spoke to her so gently and treated her so well. She saw that the beast was ill in the ring that he had given her and she missed him so that she returned to the beast and when she told the beast that she loved him, after a flash of light he became a very handsome prince. She had broken the spell and they married shortly after and lived happily ever after.

I really liked this story because it teaches children that you can not judge a book by its cover. Although something or someone might look horribly, you never know whats underneath. I think this story is an excellent story for young children that might think that they are different and that no one cares about them. Also I think that this story is great because it lets them use their imagination.

One extension idea that you can use in a classroom is to use the rose and have your students wright the importance of the rose in the story. Another extension idea for younger children that you can do with this story is make a maze with beauty on side and beast on the other and have them help beauty find her way back to the beast. Another extension idea is to have them draw a picture of a person that they care about and explain why they care of about them.… (altro)

Jack and the Beanstalk is a well known fantasy or can even be considered a fairy tale. In this story a boy named Jack and his mother loose all their income and have to sell their cow for food. Jack takes the cow to town to sell but on his way meets an old man that offers him five magic beans for the cow. Jack takes it and his mom when he returns his furious and throws the beans out the window. When Jack wakes up the next morning there is a beanstalk that reaches past the sky. He climbs the beanstalk and reaches a giant castle. The wife of the giant lets him in without the knowledge of the giant and when the giant goes to sleep the first time he steals gold coins. Eventually Jack runs out of coins so he returns up the beanstalk. He goes up the beanstalk again and the wife welcomes him in again because he discusses himself. When the giant goes to sleep he steals a chicken that lays golden eggs. Jack longed for an adventure so he went up the beanstalk one more time. He steals a golden magical harp but this time is discovered by the giant. As the giant chases him he rushes down the beanstalk and when he gets home he chops the beanstalk down along with the giant. Jack and the mother live happily ever after.

I like this book just because it uses the imagination. Although you know that this can never happen it makes you think. It also shows that although you may be having hard times something can always come your way to change that. The pictures in this book go along with this story very well and it would be easy for a child to understand.

One extension idea that you could do to go with this book is to have child the children make a beanstalk or another object out of construction paper from the book. You could have the children use their imagination and built their own item from the story. Another extension idea is to have the children put the story in sequences. For example have them tell you what happened first, second and then third and so on. One more extension idea is to have your students plant their own bean and see what happens and then talk about the process of growing something.… (altro)

Summary: three little piggies built houses, one of straw, another of sticks, and finally one with bricks. When the straw and sticks blew over, the last with bricks still stands where it was made. The tricky wolf tries to lure the pig out, turnip farms, apples, and the fair. When the wolf failed for the last time, he ventures down the chimney to land in a boiling pot of water.

Reflection: it's a classic, my nephews love this book and often try to replicate the book with boxes we have around the house. I remember one of them asking "why doesn't the wolf stop" and it got me to wonder how he thought of that at 3? So I asked him why he thought the wolf didn't stop and he said "maybe the wolf wanted to be friends". New plot twist!

Extension: I think this would be a fun classroom activity! Make three little houses in the room, and have the children pick a house. Since it's going to be an outside activity we can see which house stands the winds of Oklahoma on a windy day.… (altro)