We’re well into week three of our Tomie dePaola author study
and knee deep in Strega Nona’s world! My class has fallen
in love with the characters in these books. Their folkloric quality,
Big Anthony’s bumbling, Bambolona’s brusqueness and
Strega Nona’s endearing ways have captured their hearts
and their attention.
We began this part of our study by reading Strega Nona and
answering the question, “What is a strega?”
During our discussion my kiddos brainstormed examples
and synonyms for the kindhearted “Grandma Witch”.
We then defined a strega with these pasta pot circle maps.
Strega Nona Activities
We’ve been comparing story elements along the way and one of the
things my class noticed immediately is that all of the Strega Nona
books take place in Calabria, Italy, which is also the author’s
ancestral home. We read Strega Nona’s “biography”,
things my class noticed immediately is that all of the Strega Nona
books take place in Calabria, Italy, which is also the author’s
ancestral home. We read Strega Nona’s “biography”,
Strega Nona: Her Story, and looked closer at some of the
“settings within the setting”.
“settings within the setting”.
We talked about how Strega Nona’s house and kitchen are key
locations in many of the stories. My class decided this
made perfect sense to them since Strega Nona has many visitors
come to her house and when company comes
where do you go? The kitchen!
locations in many of the stories. My class decided this
made perfect sense to them since Strega Nona has many visitors
come to her house and when company comes
where do you go? The kitchen!
My kiddos pour over the illustrations in these books taking in
all of the details, and looking for the little visual extras
and references to other stories that Tomie dePaola
all of the details, and looking for the little visual extras
and references to other stories that Tomie dePaola
so often includes. One of the things I love from a teaching
standpoint about his books is that the illustrations flow from
picture to story directly supporting the text.
standpoint about his books is that the illustrations flow from
picture to story directly supporting the text.
We used a brace map to decompose the elements of this setting.
Strega Nona Character Traits
After reading Strega Nona: Her Story and Big Anthony: His Story
we compared the childhoods, life stories, and character traits
of these two main characters. We sorted them and some
of my kiddos called these “sorting hats” just like in Harry Potter!
In many of his books, especially the Strega Nona series, Tomie dePaola
includes lots of Italian words.
As we read through our books we collected these words and wrote
them on sticky notes. I pulled out my sticky note stash and it was
a unanimous vote that we use the hearts! Of course it’s because
Tomie dePaola includes a little heart somewhere
in many of his illustrations and my kiddos love to try to find it!
I reused our chart from last year by cutting off the artwork
and gluing it to a new page since I had written on the previous one.
Strega Nona Vocabulary Booklets
During our literacy centers we made Italian dictionaries.
My very favorite book in this series is Strega Nona Takes a Vacation.
It’s fun to see Strega Nona out of her element and my kiddos think
the beach scenes with her in the old fashioned bathing suit are hysterical!
After we read the book we talked about why Strega Nona might
need a vacation and what destinations she might choose.
The kids wrote in their notebooks about the kinds of things
Strega Nona might do to relax on her trip and in our writing center
they wrote postcards home to Calabria from Strega Nona’s point of view.
Strega Nona sent a postcard to remind Big Anthony to do his chores!
Strega Nona Cause and Effect Activities
My kiddos love Big Anthony because he is such a goof!
I love him because he’s a walking example of cause and effect!
We made these little trifolds to show the causes and effects of
the fact that Big Anthony NEVER pays attention!
Not only is Anthony a disaster waiting to happen but he is
extremely forgetful! We did this little writing activity and
I took pictures of my class with a string tied around their finger.
I had to explain the meaning of “tie a string on your finger”
to help you remember. They just couldn’t get over the
fact that anyone would do that rather than just setting a reminder
on their phone! Ha!
“When you tell time, don’t forget to look at the hour hand first
and then the minute hand.”
I can just hear this little one’s mother saying, “When you cut
something with a knife don’t forget to put it away
so your little brother doesn’t cut his finger off!”
It’s good to remember to always pay for your groceries!
Free Strega Nona punctuation worksheets
We also did some pasta punctuation practice in our literacy centers.
I wrote sentences on strips and found these little salsa pots at the Dollar Tree.
Download Pasta Punctuation {HERE}.
We found a lot of patterns in story events during our study
and one of my boys noticed and thought it was pretty cool
that “things overflow a lot in Tomie books!”
We had just been talking the day before about Big Anthony
being “overwhelmed” by all of the love sick ladies chasing him
after he takes Strega Nona’s magic ring and “turned handsome”.
I pointed out that both of those words began with the prefix “over”
and that many of the events in these books are “over the top”.
It was music to my ears when my second graders started coming up
with these big words and so we used them to compare Tomie
stories by forming analogies. (Ah, *teacher bliss*)
We used this list to help us form analogies between events
and story elements.
This little friend piped up while sharing hers and said,
“The setting for these is OVERseas… well , except for Texas!”
I know this is the longest post ever, but before I go I wanted
to show you a little treasure I got this year. It’s the most beautiful
pop-up book!
After several years, Tomie dePaola has written a new book in the Strega Nona series.
If you’d like to do this author study with your class you can! All of this and so much more is included in my Tomie dePaola: An Author Study
Be sure to pin these ideas to share with your teacher friends!
Don’t miss the rest of the series: Teaching with Tomie dePaola books.
Click on the links below to see the rest this four-part series:
Teaching with Tomie dePaola Books : Little Grunt and the Big Egg
Teaching with Tomie dePaola Books: The Art Lesson & Tony’s Bread
Teaching with Tomie dePaola Books: The Strega Nona Series
Teaching with Tomie dePaola Books: Writing a Response to Literature
You might also enjoy my Tomie dePaola board on Pinterest!
I’d love for you to link up and share how you teach
with Tomie books in YOUR classroom!
I love your Cause and Effect trifold, which product will I find that in?
Linda,
You're connections between the pasta and the punctuation was fantastic. It has inspired me to really rethink the way I have my students interact with language skills during our center time. This series is so encouraging and engaging. Thank you for sharing your gift with us.
Lesley
Linda,
Your ideas are beyond amazing! I was so happy to be able to teach with your unit this year. I especially enjoyed the postcards!
I also have that pop-up book! It's hard to believe that they were able to put so much detail into it!
Thanks for hosting this fun linky!
Maribel