Analyze Pourquoi Tales
Create a "tic tac toe" by selecting three activities to complete.
Time will be given in class to complete one or two of these activities.
All activities must be error free.

#1: Setting
#2: misunderstandings
#3: Author's purpose


Create a diorama showing the setting for the story.  On the back of the diorama, write an error free list of words that you used to describe the setting.  Do not use computer generated pictures, create 3-D plants and animals.


Identify misunderstandings in the story.  Write a clear description of one misunderstanding and tell how it occurred.  Create a Venn diagram to compare the misunderstanding you selected with one that occurred in your life.
Describe Verna Aardema's purpose in writing this folk tale.  Use context clues to explain your identification of the purpose. 
#4: owls
#5:  passage of time
#6:  African animals



Conduct research to find out how French, Greek, Norwegian, and Hindu people perceive owls and the significance of their presence.



Identify phrases and word pictures that help you discover the time of day and the passage of time during the story.
Create an error free poster following research on the animals in the story.  Show where in Africa these animals can be found; provide information about their habitats and food webs.
#7: Courtroom scene
#8: inference
#9:  possessive nouns
Create a script for a courtroom trial to decide the guilt or innocense of the mosquito.  Select a jury; select students to take the roles of various animals.  Students will need to come to the decision as the council did in the story.






Why did the iguana fail to come to the meeting called by the lion?  (Use story clues.)  Draw a picture to give the reason for the "missing iguana."






Create a cube to show possessives.  Each side of the cube should show a picture of an animal from the story and its possession.


created and maintained by K. Snyder, 2010