Candy Land, Chocolate Milkshakes, and the Polio Connection

This is our first year with the program CKLA, so I am figuring out how to make what they give engaging and relevant to my students, as well as stick as closely as possible to the program.  The first unit, which is Personal Narrative, had us reading a story called Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio.  It was about a girl who contracted polio at the age of 12 and her year of recovery from the disease.  The story was VERY interesting to the students, who really enjoyed learning about the trials and tribulations of Peg, the main character.  

To cap off the unit, and bring in a little bit more polio history into it, we read a non-fiction article from Scholastic News (It is subscription based, but I did find this video with the article on it here.)  It was about a school teacher named Eleanor Abbott who, having polio herself, invented the game Candy Land for children who were bored at the hospital recovering from the disease. 

Here is where things got interesting.  In Small Steps, the girl began to get better after she drank a chocolate milkshake.  So I brought in some chocolate ice cream, added about a scoop to a mason jar, added half a cup or so of milk, screwed the lid on and the kids began to shake their jars until it "felt" like a shake.  I know, none of that was very scientific.  But it was good enough for them to feel like they had a chocolate shake like Peg did!

Then we broke out the game boards and played Candy Land ourselves!  

But you know me.  We can't just play to play (especially since this really is a preschool game.)  So I gave them this recording sheet here.  I asked them to think about what it was that they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing BEFORE they played the game.  They wrote down sensory details and their internal thoughts.  Then they got to playing.

While they were in the middle of playing, I asked them to continue to write down sensory details, what they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing throughout the game play.  I walked around as they were playing the game and, if I noticed that the students didn't have much on their brainstorm page, I stopped them all and asked them to add a few ideas to the sheet.  But for the most part, I just let them play and have fun!  And, boy did they.  The room was filled with laughter and a happy-go-lucky feeling.  

After the game was done and we had cleaned everything up, they did the same thing but reflecting upon the experience as it was now over.  

I then had them get together with a partner and tell the first hand account of their game play, using the notes they took along the way to help them.  This all then culminated with them writing their narrative down in 3 paragraphs, using sensory details and dialogue.

So there you have it.  A fun way to tie in our first unit learning in CKLA!  Now on to Unit 2.