Category: Personal Resource

Whether students have read this book before or have never heard of the Gruffalo, this is a lesson that is designed to keep students engaged during its entirety.

Teachers, use your discretion with your class in what methods would fit the students best. Attached is an image bank from the picture book: ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler.

Print out the images and cut them so that they are all individual pictures. You may do this for each group that will be working together. I recommend putting students into groups of 2-4.

Once students have the images in front of them. The objection will be explained. All groups must organize their images into a timeline, explaining how they believe the story runs its course. Whether they are true to the original story or not will not matter. When all groups are finished, they will gallery walk around the class, looking at other students timelines. Each group will then explain their reasoning behind the timeline that they created.

Students will be assessed on the making of their timeline; not how accurate it is to the original, but if they have a clear Beginning, Middle, and End.

Students may also do a written portion, describing their storyline in their own words. Here, teachers may assess spelling, grammar, and structure.

If students are ELL students, or students that may have an IEP, then the assessment of creating the physical timeline maybe the assessment itself.

Again, the objection is for students to create their own story from the images provided.

After all groups have presented in their own form, the class will read the true storyline of the book: ‘The Gruffalo’.

Online book link: https://online.flipbuilder.com/rslc/tadp/

Attached are the images that are used in this lesson.

This activity surrounds itself on the creation of a main character. When discussing story timelines, it is important to include all aspects of the story. Building from the basics, creating your main character is a great first step.

Students will pick their character from the three provided and give them a name, age, and provide some characteristics about them.

Ex: This is Mabel. She is 9. Mabel likes to have her hair in a ponytail because she loves playing sports like soccer, baseball and tennis.

These points can be provided verbally, written, or visually (including drawings around their character to describe them).

Once students finish building their character, they will then be able to start their story timeline of what ‘A Day in the Life’ of their character looks like.

Assessment is done through verbal, written, or visual based work depending on teacher’s decision for student.

Below are the characters that students may choose from. These characters were created by the Autism Parenting Magazine.

This activity is a purely tactile activity that engages students in a 3D creation of a story timeline.

A book will be chosen for this activity by the teacher… any book out there. The lesson will be surrounded by the book.

The teacher will pick small scriptures from the book that they believe to have good imagery. Those scriptures will be printed out onto little slips of paper for students to read off.

Students will be put into groups up to 3.

After groups are organized, each one will be given the scripture slip. Using materials, such as the loose parts kit, that is demonstrated in the images provided. Students will create the scene out of the given blocks. This may also be done with any sort of materials from the classroom (blocks, toys, office supplies, paper etc.).

Once the scene has been created. Each group will pair with another and share what they have created.

Assessment will be on their creativity in their creation and their collaboration in their efforts.

After sharing amongst everyone, the teacher will read the original chosen story to the class.

This is a chance for students to learn and be in nature simultaneously!

Choosing a route nearby, the class will head out on a nature walk all together. Before doing so the teacher will explain the objection of the walk. Prompts will be given throughout the walk.

The prompts will explain what students should be looking for from objects found along their walk. The objects cannot be broken off any living organisms (trees, flowers, grass, etc.), and may not be bigger than students’ hands. They are carrying everything with them, which means if it is too heavy to carry, then it is not the object for them.

Prompts:

“Can you spot something that you are able to give a name to right away?” (a rock, stick, leaf etc.)

“Can you see something that your new friend is intrigued to? A tool for them, something to play with, maybe something that is related to them?”

“Think about your new friend. What do they enjoy doing? Where do they like to be when they want to relax? Do they have friends they like hanging out with? Is there anything that they really don’t like?”

“Pick one more thing that you think goes along with you are your new friend.”

Forming a circle, the students will individually share who they have found on the walk. Students are allowed to pass their turn if not feeling up for it.

After students walk back to class with their objects that are being brought to life, students will be given a piece of paper to draw a scene of their new friend’s life.

Below the picture students will write a sentence explaining what is going on in the scene.

Assessment will be done through the sharing of who their new friend is orally, written and by illustration.

=> Later lesson potential could be the creation of a story. Students will create 3-5 scenes within a story timeline, showcasing their found friend as their main character.

Students may do this in illustration form, written form, or using building blocks from the classroom.

Within this resource bank are activities that can be placed within lessons that involve many different forms of learning. The objection is for students to tell their OWN stories using the images and materials provided. These activities are designed to adapt to multiple different types of learners and should be understood as approaching the student for where they are at. Teachers may decide if these would be a verbal, written, or visual based assessment, depending on where their students are within their learning. These are only a few to the many ideas that are out there, but the goal is for resources to be more accessible in one place. I have created these from being inspired by social stories, sequence storytelling, and loose parts approaches. I would like to continue to add to this bank of resources as I move through my education and career to further resource sharing between teachers. These activities are designed to be compatible with assessing ELL students and students with various needs and potential IEPs. I appreciate you reading the why behind these resources, I hope you enjoy them!

Lesson shortcuts I have created:

Nature Storytelling, Loose parts Storytelling, Character Building Lesson, Gruffalo Lesson .

Resources used:

Social Stories for Autistic Children – The Ultimate Guide

Story Sequencing

Social Stories For School | Free Library