Stellaluna Story Structure

This past week we learned all about story structure with Stellaluna. My students loved this story and made wonderful connections through reading throughout the week. Any printable shown were from Rooted in Reading. 

We read Stellaluna a few times during the week but they loved listening to the story. There are tons of stories you can listen to on Storyline Online. Even if you have a copy of the book, I highly recommend having your students listen. This website is by the Screen Actors Guild and the readers are phenomenal. I even teared up when Stellaluna and her mom found each other again. #pregnancyhormones

Throughout reading the story we discussed strong verbs vs. weak verbs. I went over the strong verbs meanings, which made a great vocabulary lesson. Hopefully after learning these strong verbs, they can incorporate it into their language and writing. 

Since we were learning about story structure, we talked about the beginning, middle, and end of the story. As a class we sequenced the beginning, middle, and end together early in the week. Then later in the week I had them work with their tables to write and determine the beginning, middle, and end on their own. Each child got a sticky note and I told them to write the beginning, middle, or end. They had to work with a partner to make sure they weren't writing the same part. Then they stuck their sticky note on their tables chart. I put each child's name so they could take ownership of their work in the group. They did a fabulous job and were proud of their work so I displayed it in our class.

We also discussed character development and how characters change from the beginning and end of the book. We decided as a class how Stellaluna felt at the beginning, middle, and end of the book. Then the students made their own foldable. I love how we color coordinated the feelings. It visually made it easier to see the character changes.

I love teaching reading with mentor texts like Stellaluna. It makes reading more enjoyable and authentic.