Teaching Kindergarteners to Recall Events in a Story

I like to draw and creating these posters was a labor of love!  So glad my friend Sarah J. has requested these!

If you give a teacher a Common Core standard, she will wonder, "How can I teach this?"  After she raises the question, she will look online to see what other teachers have done.  And after she looks online, she will find goodbyekindergarten ....and, hopefully, read on!

Our first author study in kindergarten this year was of Mo Willems. Mo is both an author and an illustrator.  I have selected the If You Give A...series by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond as our second author study for a couple of reasons.  One of those reasons is that there are two different people who composed the books, one who is the author and the other who is the illustrator.  To help children understand the different roles of the two creators, I have the children use props and a song before reading each book.

The "illustrator" is holding a paint palette but a box of watercolors would work, as well.
The "author" is holding a keyboard but a notebook and pencil would also work.

The song (origin unknown; it might be my own!) is to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.

For many children,  a few musical dramatizations solidifies the roles of author and illustrator.

In an earlier post, I wrote about using Mo Willems' books to teach about character and setting. You can read that post by clicking here. This post is about teaching the concepts of an event, a series of events, and what is meant by recalling.  By this time of year, kindergarteners have worked on the standard of asking a question about an unfamiliar word so hands should certainly shoot up in the air when you share this vocabulary-laden objective:

Do your students use Talking Mirrors? See my post on Whole Brain Teaching.

It's a fun, effective way to teach new vocabulary using words and gestures.  Students hold up their arms as if holding a mirror with two hands, blow on it to shine it up, then repeat whatever you say and do. So...

• "Talking mirrors, everybody.  An event...is something that happens.Click here to see American Sign Language for "an event."
• "Talking mirrors, everybody.  A series of events is...an event and another event and another event and another."  (Repeat the sign language for "event" while moving your hands from left to right.)
• "Talking mirrors, everybody.  Recalling is...the same as remembering."  (Tap the side of your head as if remembering.)

After mirroring my definitions, the children turn and mirror the definitions with their partners.

If you are familiar with Laura Numeroff books, each one is about a series of events where one thing leads to another.  Many teachers use these books to teach cause and effect.  I have trouble doing this because, to my way of thinking, cause and effect is more of a logical construct.  There is nothing logical about giving a mouse a cookie!  Even if I substitute "child" for "mouse," it's not a sure thing that a child will ask for milk to go with her cookie.  She might prefer juice or water, be lactose-intolerant, or want nothing!  The events are just author Numeroff's creative associations.

Nonetheless, children love hearing these stories and will try very hard to recall the many events in the order they happened.  I have purchased a picture set on TpT for each of the five Laura Numeroff books that I read aloud in class.  After reading a book, I distribute the pictures to the students.  As you can see from the picture below, I have cut a large shape reminiscent of a key detail in each story (eg: a cookie, a pancake, a muffin, etc.) and displayed it beside each book's poster.

The class works together to recall the events in the order they happen.  Although we glue the pictures to the cut-out shape, I just cut them apart each year and reuse them.

I read If You Give a Pig a Pancake last because I purchased a picture set that is smaller and meant to be completed by individual students.  At this midpoint in the year, some students are able to accomplish the recalling and sequencing of events independently but most will need what the standard says, ie; prompting and support.

Now that my kindergarteners have some understanding of each of the story elements (character, setting, and major events) we will move on to another author study in which we discuss all three elements plus problem and solution.  I hope you will want to read my next post on how I use the work of the great Ezra Jack Keats, author and illustrator of The Snowy Day, and many other  highly-acclaimed picture books.