Compare, Contrast and more… Mini-Unit

To accompany the reading of The Three Little Tortillas

& The Gingerbread Man

Created by Laura Castro from http://mrscastrospanglishstyle.blogspot.com

Introduction to freebie This is a mini-unit meant to accompany the reading of The Runaway Tortilla and The Gingerbread Man. I formally introduced the strategy of comparing and contrasting through the study of these two texts. Included: • Lesson explanation and outline

• Translation of Spanish words included • Images from my classroom’s final products • Compare and Contrast tools:

• Venn Diagram for students • Venn Diagram with sample vocabulary for comparing

and contrasting for student reference • Differentiated Writing tools:

• This is designed to help the teacher differentiate this lesson and to allow all students to feel successful

• Explanation of craftivity • Tracer for gingerbread man included

• Extra activities • These can add more flavor to the lesson in general • Supplemental material to allow for students who

move more quickly to keep busy I hope that this mini-unit is as fun for you classroom as it was for mine! Please do leave feedback if you do use this product, it is VERY appreciated! You can see more of our work at: http://mrscastrospanglishstyle.blogspot.com/ ¡Feliz estudios! Laura Castro

Compare & Contrast For this activity you can choose any version of the Gingerbread Man. We used The Gingerbread Man by Barbara McClintock. We compared this traditional story with a spicier version – The Runaway Tortilla by Eric A. Kimmel. The stories share many common elements, but with some very fun changes. The Runaway Tortilla does have some Spanish words thrown in to spice things up – nothing very difficult, and the author usually makes a point of clarifying the word as well. If you have a student who speaks Spanish this is their moment to shine! Give that student/those students a chance to participate in the reading. **Warning – the tortilla does call the donkeys “jackasses”, in order to avoid the issue, I just replaced it and called them donkeys...my kids

never even noticed.**

Papagayo = Parrot Feliz = Happy Rio = River Grande = Big

Taquería = Restaurant (that sells tacos) Tía = Aunt Tío = Uncle

Señorita = Miss/Young Lady Arroyo = Stream

Señor = Mister/Man

Daily Breakdown of Unit This was a 4+ day lesson for my class. We partnered with a 1st grade class to complete this. I will share our daily breakdown as a reference, but don’t feel you have to follow it! • Day 1:

• Read The Gingerbread Man • Focus on the story elements! • Show students Venn Diagram – prep for next lesson

• Day 2: • Review Venn Diagram– get students ready by reviewing vocabulary

(same, different, similar, both, on has…but the other has…, etc.) • Read The Runaway Tortilla • Students are given post-it notes and write one difference, to be put

on one side of the Venn Diagram (i.e. “there is a tortilla” or “there is fox”)

• Students given post-it notes and write something the stories have in common.

• Day 3: • Quick review of progress so far. • Using the students’ post-its big ideas written on Venn Diagram for

students reference while writing. • Model writing prompt on easel. • Students begin writing. • Adults edit as they finish

• Day 4: • Students complete rough draft. • Begin final draft. • Students who can, trace over final draft in maker to make it look

“fancy”. • Begin craftivity –

• Gingerbread man to cut-out and color. • Paper plate to create the sassy tortilla.

• Put all together on construction paper foldable • Day 5:

• Give opportunity to students to finish any unfinished parts. • Inside flaps of foldable students write the titles of books and

illustrate with their choice of images…this was a last minute addition for us, because the foldable looked somewhat blah, this could be an extension of their compare and contrast and students are told to illustrate with differences of similarities, etc.

• Show off student work!

some examples from our classroom

Venn Diagram with student Post-it notes

Hallway showcase of student work

some examples from our classroom

Writing Activity &

Craftivity! Included: • Venn Diagram for students to complete. • Quick reference page of key words or vocabulary

to use when comparing and contrasting. • Cloze sentence writing prompt.

• Good for writers who struggle to come up with their own ideas, or emerging English writers.

• 4-Square organizer • For more confident writers.

• 3 final writing pages (to allow for different amounts of writing, and for each student to feel like they’ve completed a whole page!)

• Less Lines • Medium amount of lines • Most lines

• The Gingerbread Man tracer is from the website below. Their copyright policy does allow me to share him since this is a freebie, he is included.

http://www.kidzone.ws/thematic/gingerbread/glyph1b.htm

• For the toritlla we used appetizer-sized paper plates.

Com

pare & Contrast

The R

unaw

ay T

ortilla

The G

ingerbread Man

Both

Bo

th

Sam

e

Each

Sim

ilar

Alik

e

Com

pare & Contrast

Introduction

: Similarities

:

Differences

: Conclus

ion:

Do you

like

story o

f the Gingerbread Man?

Print on light brown construction paper. Find original at:

http://www.kidzone.ws/thematic/gingerbread/glyph1b.htm

Extra Activities I’ve included a few extra activities. These are designed to compliment the unit and/or provide something for your speedy students to do while you work with other students on their writing. Included: • Word search • Match the animal with it’s mode of

transportation. • Shapes word problems. • How many words can you make?

The Runaway Tortilla Wordsearch

Match ‘em up How did each character move in the story? Draw a line from the character to how it moved.

1. Tía Lupe and Tío Jose

2. Horned Toads

3. Donkeys

4. Jackrabbits

5. Rattlesnakes

6. Cowboys

7. Tortilla

slithered trotted rolled galloped scampered leaped ran

Name 3 other animals that scamper. Name 3 other animals that gallop.

Name the shape Sometimes Tortilla gets sad because unlike other shapes she has no sides, points or angles. When she’s feeling sad she draws herself as a different shape. 1. Read the problem 2. Draw Tortilla as described 3. Write the name of the shape

Tortilla has 4 sides. Each side is exactly the

same length. Each angle is exactly the same too. What shape is Tortilla?

While rolling Tortilla doesn’t always pay attention

to an important sign. It has 8 equal sides. What shape is Tortilla?

Tortilla thinks life might be more fun if she had

a point. She wants three points to be exact. What shape is Tortilla?

Tortilla wishes she had 4 sides, but she doesn’t

want them to be all the same. 2 sides are longer than the others, but the angles are all the

same. What shape is Tortilla?

Tortilla likes odd numbers. She also likes the

idea of being shaped like a house. What shape is Tortilla?

Tortilla decides she doesn’t like odd numbers

anymore…now she wants an even number of sides. She decides she wants the same number

of sides as cowboys that chased her. What shape is Tortilla?

How many words can you make? Use the title of the story to make as many words as you can.

The Runaway Tortilla 12.

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¡Muchas gracias!

Thank you so much for downloading this activity! I hope that it as fun and useful for

your classroom as it was for mine! If you have any questions, concerns or

suggestions please email me at: lschmitzy@gmail.com

Your feedback is very much appreciated, so

please do take a moment to let me know how this product worked for your classroom.

You can find more freebies, resources and fun

at my blog: http://mrscastrospanglishstyle.blogspot.com/

Be on the look out for more fun

activities on my TpT store! ¡Gracias!

Laura Castro