
The pot kept bubbling and the pasta kept coming!" Continue reading the book through page twenty-two, stopping after the mayor urges the townspeople to create a barricade and they learned "that didn't work.Reinforce predictions that students made earlier in the process. Again, ask students to think about the plot of fairy tales and to predict what will happen in this story.Continue reading the story, reading pages five through nine, stopping after Big Anthony thinks "My chance has come!".Ask students to think about the plot of the fairy tales that they are familiar with and predict what will happen in this story.Read the second, third, and fourth pages of the book, stopping after the exchange where Big Anthony agrees never to touch the pasta pot.Reinforce any ideas that students suggested from the pictures on the cover and title page. Read the first page of the book to the class, and pause to ask students to identify the fairy tale possibilities for the book.Ask students to identify elements that may indicate that the story is a fairy tale, referring to their brainstormed lists for ideas. Show the class the front cover and/or the title page of Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola.For instance, a student may offer both a characteristic and an example: "There's usually a person like the stepmother in Snow White." Note the examples on the board or chart paper as well. As students make suggestions, encourage any additional information that they volunteer that provides examples.Again, list the details on the board or on chart paper. If desired, choose an item or two from the attached list of Common Elements of Fairy Tales to get things started.


As students explore the fairy tale genre in this lesson plan, first by reading fairy tales and then by writing their own fairy tale stories, picture books are the foundation for their work.

Katie Wood Ray explains why picture books can be effective in the classroom: "Picture books are short, and so considering a structure at work in a shorter text is much easier than in a longer text" (140). Picture books are key to the success of this lesson plan, serving as the models and inspiration for students' own compositions.
