Into the Story: A Cross-Curricular Lesson

For this lesson I hoped to use a story in a different way than the students had previously experienced. As part of a class at UBC we had done several exercises with the ‘into the story’ theme and found them very enjoyable and powerful, thus I decided to give it a try in a kindergarten classroom.

To begin, I had them stand up and pretend to be little mice but when I opened the book to move the story forward most of them sat down. At this point it became clear that they were used to sitting while someone was reading a book, due to this I had the students sit throughout the rest of the lesson. Having them participate in some actions was fun; the actions were a mixture of ones I provided and ones they created. For example, I showed them how to hold their strawberry in one hand and cut it in half with the other but they showed me how they would guard their strawberry: some turned over and pretended it was under them, some put it in their pocket, some placed it behind themselves. Some parts became a verbal exercise over the actions as well – when asked how they would disguise their strawberry it was easier to share what they would do (these were answers like hide it under a blanket and use a ‘shinkerator’ on it, put it in a spiderman costume, and put in it a tomato costume to trick the bear). Integrating myself into the book resulted in the students giving me interesting looks. Every time the book mentioned the bear sniffing for strawberries I took on this role, some found it amusing while others looked a little confused as to if they were supposed to copy this action or just view it.

At the end I had them review some of the actions we did throughout the story to emphasize that it was different from how they are usually read stories. I used the word ‘drama’ a couple times but the new term seemed to be unnecessary to introduce to them considering it was their first time participating in a story like this. For next time I think it would be better to begin to read the book, like their routine, and ask them to participate in actions as we move through the book. Overall, it seemed enjoyable, and I would do it again.