Compare and Contrast with The Runaway Tortilla...Freebie!

I love traditional literature...but I especially love traditional literature that has been revamped with some Latino flavours!  Enter, Eric A. Kimmel.  Mr. Kimmel has written several of my classroom read aloud favorites including, The Runaway Tortilla.  


As I've already mentioned for some reason the group of kids I have is obsessed with The Gingerbread Man...they can't get enough.  Every time we go to the library they are on the hunt for some version of this story.  This is why I decided to introduce comparing and contrasting using their favorite The Gingerbread Man and a spicier version, The Runaway Tortilla.   I've actually created a whole mini-unit to go along with this read aloud and strategy.  If you click the picture below you'll go to my TpT store and can download the mini-unit for free.  To see more of what we did continue reading.  BUT keep in mind, there are more activities in the mini-unit then you'll see here on my blog.

The Runaway Tortilla has a lot of similarities - there is a sassy main character, only this time it's a girl tortilla.  There are a man and woman involved in it's making - Tio Jose and Tia Lupe...and their are a host of characters that chase the tortilla - but this time they're all desert dwellers.  There is even a tricky character at the end, only this time it is a coyote instead of a fox.  It's a great way to introduce compare and contrast...


Here is our less than fancy Venn Diagram.  

After reading the story my second graders partnered with the first graders to fill out post its on differences.  They really have begun to make a huge shift to favoring The Runaway Tortilla...check out all those post its!  The teachers did what they both have in common but the kiddos read the post its aloud and had to decide what the post it meant...they did great!  


The next day we wrote the main differences very big on the sides of the Venn Diagram, for them to refer to for their writing project.  They wrote about similiarities and differences, with some cloze sentences.  They're getting so good at this, and almost all of my kids prefer to write in English now!


Then they wrote a fancy final draft, "decorated" a gingerbread man and a paper plate (a.k.a. Tortilla) and the whole project came together.  

 Tortillas

 Gingerbread Men

 

  Doesn't this tortilla show disdain well?  He really captured her general attitude towards everyone...

If you would like to do this activity and more in you class you can download the whole mini-unit for FREE at my TpT store by clicking here.  Please do leave feedback if you use this product - it usually makes my day!!!

I hope this unit is as fun for your class as it was for ours!

Cheers,

Mrs. Castro

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