Literature Circle Launch

To begin this Literature Circles Unit, the teacher will read the tall tale of Kana, the Hawaiian Giant. This tall tale was found in the following resource that the teacher may wish to order:

Teaching Tall Tales by Tracy West (Pub. by Scholastic in 1998)

Before this story is read, the teacher should tell the class that this story is an example of a Tall Tale. Have them think of characteristics of this story while they are listening to it that may make it a Tall Tale. After this tall tale is read the class will work in small groups to work on one of the following activities that are both provided in the above resource.

Activity #1: Forty-foot-tall Kana ate forty times more than what a normal man would at. Have the students imagine that Kana is coming over for breakfast. Give them the list of ingredients below showing a typical breakfast for one person. Challenge the students to figure out how much of each item to buy to feed Kana, and write out a shopping list. Encourage them to convert some of the measurements to larger sizes containers for easy carrying. For example, instead of buying 40 pints of milk, it would be easier to buy 5 gallons. The ingredients are as follows:

Ingredients:

1 mango

1 cup of milk

1 pint of pineapple juice

3 eggs

2 muffins

6 ounces of cereal

Activity #2: Kana was told to use his special shrinking and stretching abilities in an emergency. But what if he could use his powers all the time? Ask students to imagine that they have Kana's special stretching and shrinking powers. How would they use them? Have them write a short story describing their adventures. To get them started, suggest several situations such as: they could stretch to reach things off of high shelves, dunk basketballs, or look for birds' nests; they could shrink to get an ant's eye view of the word, or to spy on others without being seen.

After the book has been read and the activity done, tell the class that they will begin working on a unit on Tall Tales. Have a discussion on the characteristics of books and stories that are Tall Tales and what characteristics make up this genre. this is where the class should have a discussion on the characteristics of the Kana Tall Tale that they were thinking of while they were listening to the story. Have students think of other Tall Tales that they may have heard when they were younger. After passing out each child's book and having them meet with their literature circles group, have them look at the covers of their books and make a few predictions by examining the cover and the title.