Literature Connections: Fairy Tales

Here are some more literature connections to the Kindergarten Common Core Standard for Measurement.  We are still working with K.MD.1 and K.MD.2.

I will be honest with you, I often have a hard time finding a "good" version of fairy tales.  One that will be appropriate to read to a two-year old as well a a Kindergartener.  But I am sure most of you do not have to deal with teaching that varied of an age group, so it's not a problem for most.  I find that fairy tales can be inappropriate in their language for today's generation.   So I most often ad lib while reading, giving my own interpretation of the story, which is what a fairy tale is anyway, right?

For each fairy tale I retell, I have a set of flannelboard or magnetic story pieces to go along with each.  This way I can retell the story on the board, and when I have a version with good illustrations, I can show it after telling that portion.  Plus, it prevents the little smart-alecs who can read from yelling out "that's not what the story says Ms. Kathy!" LOL

Fairy Tale: The Three Billy Goats Gruff

For this fairy tale, the CCS connection is with the different sized goats.  I use this tale to discuss ordinal numbers - which size goat went first, second and third? We reinforce our positional vocabulary with over and under the bridge.

My public library has TONS of versions of the story, as I am sure does yours.  This way you can pick the version you like the best.

The resource I use is: Early Childhood Units for Favorite Tales

This links you to the book on Amazon; I got it as part of a set of 3 or 4 similar books at some point in the past.  Maybe at a book fair? Can't remember.

I claim no ownership of the following images nor do I profit from the posting of them here.

Using patterns from this book I made a slightly larger set of the characters from the story for my white board.  By attaching a small piece of magnet tape, I am ready to go.




Here are my story pieces.

Not the best picture but you get the idea.  After we have told and retold the story, the kids have had a chance to participate in the retelling, and we have practiced using our math vocabulary words, the students get their own set of characters.  Depending on their age, they either get a "coloring" sheet, where they practice following directions like "color the first goat gray."  Getting a bunch of assessments done at once.  I can walk around and jot down a quick note for the kids who struggled with the request.  The older kids get the chance to cut out the pieces and make their own grassy fields for the goats to go from and to.

This is pretty old; it was in my "redo" pile for this school year. :)  All images came from the above shown curriculum book.  I also have one with just a bridge; we can retell the story in other ways with different animals/characters.  This is saved for a workstation.  I forgot something important to mention - the above book also comes with a MINI-BOOK for the students to color and put together.  If you missed my blog post on using "book boxes" you can find it here: Book Boxes

Enjoy!  Kathy