FUN STUFF FOR TEACHERS
IN THE CLASSROOM | SCHOOL & LIBRARY VISITS
Frank Asch Books in the Classroom
This section is for those who use the works of Frank Asch in the classroom to share your wonderful ideas. In order to encourage this practice we will be giving a piece of original artwork from one of Mr. Asch's books for any suggestions we use on this website. Please send your submissions via email and be sure to write the word "teachers" in the subject box.
Every year after sharing all 45 of the Frank Asch books in my collection, we spend about a week integrating some of these books into Math, writing and art.
One activity that worked real well was cross grade grouping of first graders with fifth graders. One 1st and one 5th grader teamed together to create a diorama of one of Frank's Bear stories, and gave an oral report.
Integrating Popcorn into Mathematics in both first grade and kindergarten, a cardboard house was made by the teacher and filled with styrofoam "popcorn", and the children had to estimate how many "kernels" were in the house. Then they counted the "kernels " to compare their answers to the exact number.
Also in Kindergarten and First grade, graphing was used to record their favorite main character ( which for 3 years has been won by "The Last Puppy")
Writing skills were developed in Kindergarten in creating their own "accordian " books, "Just Like __________" , based on Frank's Just Like Daddy.
In Second Grade, writing skills were further developed as the children chose 2 animals that they thought were usually enemies and wrote their own "Here Comes the _____" stories, based on Frank and Vladimir's Here Comes the Cat.
In Kindergarten, after hearing Moongame ,the children's imagination and art skills were developed by posing the question "Where is the moon hiding?" The children had to come up with new places for the moon to hide. They were given a yellow circle of construction paper, and had to hide it in their picture. They also had to answer the question in writing.
Also in Kindergarten to foster further reading, a class book of opposites was created using Little Fish, Big Fish and Short Train, Long Train as examples. Each group of 6 children did 3 pages of the big book, working in partners.
Karen Burdorff -- Elizabeth Lane Elementary, Matthews, NC
