“This is Matilda, and this is Matilda’s dad,” begins this fun book by Lizzy Stewart. Matilda and her dad set out to look for treasure one day. It’s an adventure, for sure. Matilda gets frustrated by her dad’s fun-loving but disorganized approach to the treasure hunt…even though he points out… Continue reading
Snails are mollusks, and they are very different from most of the animals we’ve written about here at FreshPlans. For one thing, you can easily bring snails into your classroom. Get some live snails to observe. Snail food will keep your snails in the pink. Create a terrarium for your… Continue reading
South Africa is a diverse country in the Southern Hemisphere, so Christmas falls in the summer. Schools are closed for a month, businesses often close for a month as well, and many people go camping. Just as in Australia, Christmas in South Africa is often spent on the beach. Christmas… Continue reading
One of my favorite Thanksgiving books is Eileen Spinelli’s The Perfect Thanksgiving. JoAnn Adinolfi illustrated it with bright colors and primitive drawings with mixed media collage. It is the story of two different Thanksgiving celebrations: the perfect holiday of Abigail Archer, and the imperfect one of the narrator. “Abigail Archer’s father… Continue reading
“The Princess and the Pea” is another tale by Hans Christian Andersen, though he himself said that it was a story he remembered from his childhood. The Brothers Grimm included a similar story in one of their collections in the 1840s, but removed it when they found that Andersen had… Continue reading
Many cultures have trickster tales: stories about a clever person or animal who plots to play tricks on others. Sometimes the tricksters have an undercurrent of danger, sometimes they’re mean, sometimes they’re foolish, and sometimes they’re just funny. Anansi the Spider, Jack of stories like “Jack the Giant-Killer,” and Coyote… Continue reading
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! has become our traditional graduation keepsake, but it’s great for any age. It’s an encouragement for life, beginning with “Congratulations! Today is your day” and ending with, “Kid, you’ll move mountains!” In between, the book alternates between the elation of, “Wherever you go, you’ll top… Continue reading
The story of The Blind Men and the Elephant is a simple one: a group of unsighted men have their first encounter with an elephant. Since they approach the beast from different perspectives, they all end up with different impressions of the elephant. The man who feels the elephant’s side… Continue reading
Everyone needs to study plants at some point. Here are lesson plan ideas for elementary students. K-2 Tops & Bottoms is a very fun book by Janet Stevens. I sort of want to read the whole story to you, and I think you’ll feel the same when you see the… Continue reading
“The Ugly Duckling” is not a fairy tale, since there are no magical elements, and it is not a folk tale, since we know that it was written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1844. It is probably best described as a fable– that is, a story that makes a point… Continue reading
