Another fabulous story for tangram shapes

I read this story to the class after we had read Grandfather Tang's Story. This story went well with the strand for structures in the science curriculum. The class was already familiar with the Three Little Pigs; in fact,I always included this story as one of the picture books for integrating language and science.

This is the story of three other little pigs who meet a wolf. Each pig is given seven magic shapes by an animal. Two pigs choose unwisely and are eaten by the wolf. The last pig (a girl!) makes a better choice.There are eight different shapes in the story.

Every class loved this story. Afterwards, each student used his own set of plastic tangram shapes to reproduce the shapes in the story. Then each student reproduced one shape with construction paper, and then told the story of the shape he chose.

The Key to Your Primary Music Program: List of songs with lesson plans

I want to post the list of songs that we published in our Primary book so that you can see the variety of songs in the book. I must stress that you should not be fooled by the apparent simplicity of the songs. They are all from the public domain, and have stood the test of time. These songs were selected because they are suitable for use when teaching the skills that are required in the curriculum. As your students become more skilled in singing on key, you can choose other songs for themes and seasons.

I have written about our two music books in more detail in previous posts. You can also check out our website.

Click on the image to enlarge and print.

The Key to your Junior Music Program: List of songs with lesson plans

I have referred to this book in a previous post. The songs are all public domain, and they have stood the test of time. These are songs that my sister (my co-author) taught her grade 4, 5 and 6 classes over her many years as a music teacher in Ontario. Check the list and consider buying our book from our website.

Click on image to enlarge and print.

Alexander Mackenzie: the first European to reach the Pacific by land.

As part of my February Heritage studies for grade one, I would read the story,"A Dog Came,Too" by Ainslie Manson. It is illustrated in beautiful detailed watercolours by Ann Blades.

This is the true story of a dog that accompanied him and his guides and voyageurs on their trek overland to the Pacific Ocean.

When I taught this story, I would have the class imagine a trip without maps, and no roads. Because all children love animals, they loved this story. I must warn you that it is difficult to read to the class even though it has a happy ending!

Grandfather Tang's Story (told with tangrams)

I described tangrams in my February 9, 2009 post.Tangrams are ancient Chinese puzzles which are comprised of seven pieces, or "tans".

This story is about two fox fairies. In Chinese folklore, they are believed to have supernatural powers of transformation.

Before I read this story to the class, I enlarged the tangrams and made the shapes from construction paper. I then glued each shape onto cartridge paper and laminated the sheets. As I read the story,I held up the new animal shape for the students to guess the next transformation. They really enjoyed the challengeand the story!

The class then worked with a set of tangrams to duplicate the shapes.

I found that integrating stories with math concepts was rewarding for both my class and myself.