Chicks and Salsa

In the classroom/library:

GRADE LEVEL: First
SUBJECTS: Language Arts, Reading
OVERVIEW: The delivery of the lesson and booktalk will allow the first-grade students to enhance their experience of Southwestern cuisine and vocabulary from Mexico and the southwestern United States. They will gain an appreciation for fresh produce and the recipes that can be made by using them. Students will also discuss traditions common to the culture of Southwest.
PURPOSE: This lesson plan focuses on sequencing a series of events in a literary section that has been read aloud. The first-grade students will be able to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story. They will understand that the story takes place in an organized, sequential style. The students will also be able to retell the story using order words such as first, next, then and last.

Outcome
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
sequence a series of events based upon listening and viewing the book Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Paulette Bogan.

Standards - Arizona State Standards

Language Arts
Strand 1: Reading Process
Concept 6: Comprehension Strategies
Performance Objective 2: Relate information and events in a reading selection to life experiences and life experiences to text.

Strand 2: Comprehending Literary Text
Concept 1: Elements of Literature
Performance Objective 3: Sequence a series of events in a literary selection, heard or read.

ELL II
Grade 1-2 Comprehending Text
The student will analyze text for expression, enjoyment, and response to other related content areas.
1. Beginning: Identify basic sequences of events in stories read to him or her.
1. Early intermediate: Retell a simple story, placing events in sequence.
1. Intermediate: Retell a simple story, placing events in sequence and including details about the events, characters and settings.

Standards - from the AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner
Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.
2.1 Skills
2.1.2 Organize knowledge so that it is useful.
2.1.3. Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.
2.1.5 Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems.
2.3 Responsibilities
2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world.
2.3.2 Consider diverse and global perspectives in drawing conclusions.

Resources
* Children's picture book: Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Paulette Bogan
* Booktalk using PhotoStory
* Music by Patty Horn: "Chips and Salsa" from Nighttime in the Desert and Other Desert Songs
* Mambo music

Materials

* Student-Teacher Checklist for in class assignment. (pdf file)
* Pictures of farm animals or actual stuffed farm animals.
* Copy of sentence strips and poster board for each group.
* Glue sticks
* Copy of homework sheet for each student (pdf file). Home: pencil, paper, scissors, glue
* Chips and salsa for each student to sample

Process
1. Introductory Set
(Mambo music fills the air) The participating classroom teacher will enter the room shaking maracas and wearing a sombrero. (All supplied by the music teacher, even the mambo dance steps.) The teacher will then give her maracas to the teacher-librarian who will continue to shake them to the beat and dance the mambo. The classroom teacher will get a large bowl of chips and salsa and place them in front of the classroom. She will sample a few. The teacher-librarian will ask the class if this scene reminds them of any books that they have read lately. She will prompt discussion to recall events that took place in the story. Do you remember what recipe the chickens made? The ducks? The pigs? Who brought the sombrero to the fiesta?

2. Objectives - The students will be able to:
* listen to the teacher-librarian reread the story.
* identify events that take place in a literary selection.
* work within a group successfully to put the sequence of events in the correct order.
* retell the story using order words such as first, next, then and last.

3. Input
Begin with a discussion about the activities that took place during the previous booktalk and discuss student responses and artwork.

Instruct students that the story, Chicks and Salsa written by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Paulette Bogan, will be reread and that this time they should notice the events in the story and in what order they take place. Notice what words are used to transition to the next event in the story.

4. Modeling
The classroom teacher will use stuffed animals or color pictures that represent the characters in the story. The classroom teacher will recall from the book in the order the animals entered the story. She will place the animals in that order.

The classroom teacher will show six events on separate pieces of paper in a mixed up order:
* The animals at Nuthatcher Farm were tired of their food.
* The Chickens crept into the garden and took tomatoes and onions. They ate chips and salsa. The rooster said "Ole!"
* The ducks sipped into the garden and got cilantro and garlic. They ate guacamole and said, "Ole!"
* The pigs plodded into the garden and picked bean and chiles. They ate nachos and said, "Ole!"
* The animals wanted to have a fiesta but all their food was gone. The farmer and his wife took it to make tamales. The chickens, ducks and pigs ate their old food.
* The rooster found a new cook book and made crepes, a French food. Then he said, " Ooh, la la!"

The teacher-librarian will instruct the students that they will be working in groups using 6 pre-made sentence strips from events in the story and put them in order on a poster board by recalling what events took place in sequential order from the story.

When the teachers have made sure that the poster is correct, the students will be given glue sticks to adhere the strips. Then, the students will be asked to retell the story to each other using the order words: first, next, then and last.

5. Check for Understanding
The class will work in groups and will use copies of the sentence strips to put them in order on a poster board.

The class will use sequencing words (first, next, then, last) to retell the story in their groups.

Both teachers will look for understanding and the correct sequential order. Teachers will prompt the kids to be animated in the retelling by stressing the exclamation words. Teachers will use the checklist created for the group assignment to score each students mastery level.

All students will be actively participating in a group, recognizing the characters in the story and the order in which they take place in the story.

6. Guided Practice
Walk around the entire area and watch to see if the students are working together and reading the sentences. Be patient as they make mistakes and self correct themselves and each other. Remind them that the animals in the story had to work together to fiesta! Ask the students, "Does that make sense to you? Is that how you remember the story? Is that the event that happened before/after?" Listen for the use of sequence words as they retell the story.

The classroom teacher will model the sequence worksheet that will be assigned as homework for language arts. The practice will take place at home.

7. Independent Practice - or Homework
Complete sequence worksheet individually. The worksheet will have the same phrases from the group lesson. The take home phrases will also have pictures of the animals along with the phrase. The students will cut out the phrases and glue them in the correct order on a separate piece of paper. They will be instructed to read aloud the finished project to someone at home using sequencing words (first, next, then, and last).

8. Closure
Review with students that we have learned about Southwestern cuisine and the vegetables that make up these recipes. Talk again about all the foods the animals and farmers created. Discuss how the story was developed by putting the events in order. Lead into a brief introduction about another story Chato's Kitchen by Gary Soto, illustrated by Susan Guevara that also explores animals enjoying and cooking Southwestern cuisine.

Celebrate their studies by listening and dancing to mambo music and the song "Chips and Salsa" by Patty Horn.

Invite any willing students to sample the chips and salsa.

Assessment

Did the students put order of events in correct sequence as a group and in their homework assignment? Did students use sequencing words when retelling the story in groups? See student-teacher checklist. (pdf file)

Extensions/Modifications

Students will read literature that from a variety of cultures that explains or tells a story of celebrations. Students will learn the term "tradition." Discuss how families teach their children and other family members traditions and how to celebrate certain events. Students will interview family members about a family celebration. Students and families will share with the class recipes that are traditionally made during their celebration.

Art Extension:
Students respond to the story by discussing vegetables that are grown in the farmer's garden. Introduce the word cuisine and identify types of Southwestern cuisine. Then take the children to a bulletin board of a garden full of blank vegetable outlines. Instruct the children to each take a vegetable and then fill it in with a torn paper collage from a color of choice. Have students orally share their response to the questions:

What vegetable did you choose from the Fiesta Garden and what recipe would you make using that vegetable? Where would you share your cuisine?

The finished projects are then put back on the bulletin board. Students can bring recipes from home of Southwestern Cuisine to post on the bulletin board as well.

Additional Literature for a Unit on Celebrations

Suggested Titles:
Chato's Kitchen by Gary Soto, illustrated by Susan Guevara
Sing Down the Rain by Judi Moreillon, illustrated by Michael Chiago
Dancing with the Indians by Angela Shelf Medearis, illustrated by Samuel Byrd
Little Runner of the Long House by Betty Baker, illustrated by Arnold Lobel
Jafta and the Wedding by Hugh Lewin, illustrated by Lisa Kopper
Muslim Child: Understanding Islam through Stories and Poems by Rukhsana Khan, illustrated by Patty Gallinger
Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu
Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition by by Sally M. Hunter, photographs by Joe Allen
Dumpling Soup by Jama Kim Rattigan, illustrated by Lillian Hsu-Flanders
Luka's Quilt written and illustrated by Georgia Gubak
Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu

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