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Our Relatives in Alaska: Berry Magic

Preschool Language and Literacy Unit Week 2

Created by Joshuaa Allison-Burbank

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Introduction

The Preschool Language and Literacy Unit entitled Our Relatives in Alaska: Berry Magic is part of a series of instructional units tailored to Native American preschoolers from various tribes. These units incorporate traditional Native American stories to address domains of language (phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics) and pre-literacy skills (alphabet, letter-sound correspondence, sight words, vocabulary, early phonics, question structures, and pre-writing) into daily activities and collaborative projects. These daily activities and projects utilize evidence-based instructional strategies that are culturally-responsive to Native American children. Each instructional unit will include a traditional story that is incorporated into shared storybook interventions and daily language and literacy-focused activities. Shared storybook interventions are effective intervention tools that facilitate emergent literacy and language development. By using culturally-relevant stories, this allows Native American preschoolers to connect to the story content and also assists with sustainability of cultural practices, teaching strategies and traditional themes.

Teri Sloat and Betty Huffmon (Yup’ik) tell the story of a young Yup’ik girl, Anana, who helps bring new berries during berry-picking season. Students will be immersed in this traditional story that tells how traditional celebrations bring communities together and how each tribe has their own unique stories to explain the creation of items special to Native Americans. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge of oral tradition practices by retelling the story through symbolic play, role play, and shared story book readings. These instructional units are intended for early childhood programs primarily with Native American students. However, this unit can be adapted for use in any preschool setting.

The unit curriculums were adapted from Dr. Betty Bunce’s Early Literacy in Action: The Language-Focused Curriculum for Preschool and incorporates modified activities and teaching strategies from The Intensive Phonological Awareness Program (Schuele & Murphy, 2014). Each daily lesson plan in this unit includes Kindergarten Common Core State Standards that are supported by daily literacy and language activities. Including these standards allow teachers and parents to see how these activities foster language and early literacy skills that will be essential for success in kindergarten. Implementers are encouraged to explore how this unit supports early childhood academic standards in your state or region.

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Table of Contents

Weekly Planning Guide Page 4

Daily Planning Guide – Monday Pages 5-10

Daily Planning Guide – Tuesday Pages 11-15

Daily Planning Guide – Wednesday Pages 16-19

Daily Planning Guide – Thursday Pages 20-23

References Page 24

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Berry Magic Language and Literacy Unit: Week 2

Preschool Language and Literacy Unit: Magic Berries Weekly Planning Guide – Adapted from Bunce (2008)

Group Topics Cultural Theme

Story Dramatic Play Collaborative Art/Fine Motor

Monday

Learning about Alaska Natives – Where is Alaska? Who are Alaska Natives?

Cultural Identity – Continuing to learn about one another’s culture. *Yup’ik words, songs, and games.

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Semantics Literacy: Vocabulary & Sight words – unit words deck

Story retell through role play.

Learning about the state of Alaska – Students will paint a large cut out of Alaska and learn about geography, climate, & AN villages

Tuesday

Alaska wildlife – What animals can we find in Alaska? How are animals important to Alaska Natives?

Animals are Sacred - Learning about the gifts that animals give – food, clothing, shelter, tools, etc.

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Phonology Literacy: Alphabet & Letter-Sound Correspondence

Exploring the Alaska tundra – students take a journey as a class and will look for animals and native food.

Wet on Wet Picture Books – students will use water colors using Alaska animal stencils. Students will write or trace letters/words.

Wednesday

Weather in Alaska and cold climates – What is the weather like in Alaska? What types of homes

Songs –Students will learn an Alaska Native song and how songs tell stories. *Story of the drum.

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Morphosyntax Literacy: Text Structures: Grammatical Markers & Complex Sentences

Life in Alaska – pretend play centers with themes: traditional methods of fishing, hunting, and gathering by acting out.

Sewing activity – students will learn to sew using needles and yarn that they make themselves

Thursday

Reflection– recalling where Alaska Natives live, how they live, and what types of food they eat.

Stories have life lessons – Students will learn how to make Akutaq.

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Pragmatics Literacy: Question structures & Writing

Story retell through independent role play. Akutaq feast after story retell.

Northern Lights activity – Students will paint a large mural of the Northern Lights

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MONDAY

Daily Objectives:

1. Students will participate in conversations with peers 2. Students will each introduce themselves to a group of peers 3. Students will each identify sight words following activity 4. Students will each demonstrate knowledge of at least one new vocabulary word 5. As a group, students will accurately retell the story Berry Magic through role play Kindergarten Common Core State Standards Supported:

1. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

2. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.2: With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. 3. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about

kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. 4. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.4.a: Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately. 5. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.5.c: Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note

places at school that are colorful). Language and Literacy Skills Facilitated

Tier II Vocabulary Suggestions: The following vocabulary can be pre-taught, placed on a word bank, or defined during joint book reading and group reading experiences.

Student-friendly definitions Student-friendly definitions Adjectives Movement Verbs trimmed short in length decorate to make something nice plump fat stitching to be sewing vast wide and huge trimming to be cutting shining bright snuggling to be hugging or holding close boggy wet and muddy peeked to look



Monday

Learning about Alaska Natives – Where is Alaska? Who are Alaska Natives?

Cultural Identity – Continuing to learn about one another’s culture. *Yup’ik words, songs, and games.

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Semantics Literacy: Vocabulary & Sight words – unit words deck

Story retell through role play.

Learning about state of Alaska – Students will paint a large cut out of Alaska and learn about geography, climate, & AN villages

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tangy having a strong taste wiggled to wobble or shake grumpiest upset, not happy tumbling to be rolling skipped to jump Nouns dangling to be hanging memory things you remember leaped to jump tundra flat land with no trees, usually cold sprang to jump quickly festival party or celebration hurried to move fast feast party to celebrate something scraps pieces of cloth or material Vocalization Verbs parka a fur coat that is very warm & has

hood grumbled to complain

moss very soft plants that grow on rocks murmured to say quietly dangles something hanging loosely whispered to say very quietly cluster a bunch of things close together hummock a small piece of land that rises above

water, similar to an island

stems main part of a plant that holds the leaves and flower

blush to be shy

High Frequency Words: A word bank can be prepared for use throughout the week. The implementer can select 10-12 pre-primer high frequency words to include in word bank. High frequency word recitation can be incorporated before and after story time. On Wednesday, the implementer can incorporate these sight words in the complex sentence activities.

Yup’ik Words

akutaq (uh-GOO-tuk) Eskimo ice cream

gaspeqs (KUS-puks) Traditional Yup’ik women’s jacket

pelatuuk (BLAH-dook) cloth that Yup’ik women tie around their head

mukluks (MUK-luks) Very warm Yup’ik women boots made of seal skin and lined with fur.

Atsa-ii-yaa Berry

Atsaukina. Be a berry.

Teaching Yup’ik Words: Though there is a phonetic spelling of the Yup’ik words used in the story, the implementer must insure that he or she is pronouncing the word correctly. Many of these words will not only be new, but will also reflect language system unique to the Yup’ik of Alaska. The implementer should plan to provide pictures of the above items with the written words in both Yup’ik and English. These pictures should be posted in the classroom in a common area, such as circle gather areas, to allow the implementer to easily refer to the picture and word when reading the story to students. Encourage students to make connections to their

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current vocabulary. For example, when introducing the world “mukluks”, you can provide the definition and show the picture. Students can make connections by telling them to name other types of warm shoes, such as “snow boots” or “rain boots.” Encourage students to make connections to why the clothing is made a certain way (e.g., weather, water, etc.).

Social Skills Facilitated

The implementer can facilitate conversations (e.g. elicited initiations and responses) between the students during the introduction activity and story retell through role play. Students can be encouraged to identify and discuss similar items from their culture. For example, when discussion “mukluks,” the implementer can ask other students if they have their own pair of moccasins and what they look like, how they feel. This is can eventually be turned into a description activity and visual aids (e.g., graphic organizers) can be used to compare and contrast with shoes from other cultures/communities.

Cognitive Skills Facilitated

Problem-solving skills: Students have to explain why traditional Yup’ik clothing must be warm. Students can also compare and contrast clothing to traditional clothing from other tribes from various parts of the country.

Classification skills: adjectives (descriptive words), nouns (people and things), and verbs (action words); students can also classify clothing items

Recommendations: • Classifying traditional clothing by purpose (cold weather, water, ceremonial) • Classifying animals found in Alaska and comparing to animals found in different

regions of country (e.g., Southwest)

Sequencing skills: sequencing of story grammar elements and events in the story, sequencing how to make Eskimo ice cream

Narrative/story structure: story retell through role play and learning about story grammar elements

Recommendations: • Remind students during shared reading that they are going to act out the story and that

everyone must listen carefully • Provide plenty of narration and facility communication exchanges • Present pictures of the book to students during retell to aid with story recall

Motor Skills Facilitated

Gross motor: collaborative story retell through role play includes walking, running, standing, and sitting.

Fine motor: students will paint and manipulate art supplies during collaborative art project

Multicultural Themes Facilitated

Culture: This Yup’ik story tells how a young Yup’ik girl, Anana, helps bring new berries to make akutaq for the upcoming feast. This story helps explain where the new berries come from. Many Native American stories

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help explain where particular everyday items come from. There is usually some connection to a spiritual world, which can help explain the “magic” and how the dolls come to life to bring a new item into the human world. Encourage students to make connections to their own lives. Ask students what they favorite food item and where it comes from or ask students where natural elements come from. This can include the rain and the snow. Draw the students back to the berries by allowing students to taste different kinds of berries. This will help students see why the older women in the story were not pleased with the crowberries.

By participating in these story retells, the implementer will have facilitated numerous opportunities for oral retells, which is consistent with Native American cultures, including Alaskan Natives (Inglebret et al., 2008). In traditional Yup’ik stories, there are often hidden messages in the story.

Language: This unit introduces several Yup’ik words that must be pre-taught to ensure comprehension of Magic Berries. Understanding these words will be essential for understanding various activities throughout the week. The implementer should spend time teaching the vocabulary concepts and making sure that students understand what the Yup’ik words mean and how they relate to the story.

Teaching Strategies: Direct instruction (e.g., vocabulary, geography, etc.), visual supports, modeling, elicited imitation, collaborative learning, interactive story retell, and joint art project

Community Involvement: Implementer can collaborate with a community member from an Alaskan Native village or someone with experience working with Alaskan Native villages to provide appropriate models and instruction on heritage language. These community members can also assist with curriculum design and planning. Parents are also another resource for learning and incorporating culturally-relevant themes (Inglebret et al., 2008). The implementer should take some time to educate parents and other community members on early literacy instruction and the connection with language development in preschool-age children. This is a great opportunity to share teaching strategies to encourage literacy and language activities at home.

GROUP

General Description of Activity: During large groups, the implementer will discuss the importance of introductions and sharing cultural backgrounds in Native American cultures. Each student will practice sharing their name and where they are from (if they know). Introductions will start in a clock-wise pattern as circular patterns are common in Native American cultures. The implementer can write names and students’ tribes on index cards or display near designated writing centers for provide visual models when practicing name writing.

Settings: classroom circle area, word bank area, writing center

Materials/Props: Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon (second copy with Braille for student with visual impairment), word bank sheet, index cards, map of country, crayons, high frequency word chart

Question Recommendations: What is your name? What is your traditional name? Where are you from? What tribe are you from? What part of the country are you from?

CULTURAL SHARING

Introductions and sharing cultural background is consistent with establishing cultural identity amongst Native Americans (Pewewardy et al., 2009). Introductions during the large group activity will allow students to

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introduce themselves to peers by verbally saying their name, age, and where they are from. The implementer or other school staff can help students learn about and share their background (e.g., hometown, tribal affiliation, clans, state, etc.). Verify cultural background with parents and ask if it is okay that they child shares this information with others in the classroom. Make introductions a part of morning routines or include names and traditional names into group songs.

Roles: Clinician – moderator/discussion leader; Older students can serve as moderators as well

Question recommendations: What is your name and where are you from? Why is it important to introduce yourself to others? What would happen if someone didn’t know his or her name? Why is it important to know where you are from?

STORY

Berry Magic tells the story of a young Yup’ik girl, Anana, who sees the other women picking berries to make akutaq (Eskimo ice cream) for the fall festival. She hears the women grumbling about the crowberries and how they are dry and tasteless. Anana responds by returning to her home to make four little dolls dressed in fur parkas. Anana makes very elaborate dolls with great detail and she later sings to them. Each doll comes to life and brings a new type of berry for the akutaq. These new berries allow for very tasty akutaq, which eventually brings the entire community together. There are many life lessons that can be extracted from the story. For a preschool classroom, the implementer can focus on how this Yup’ik story helps explain where berries come from. Extracting life lessons from traditional Native American stories allow for high levels of multicultural integration. In this case, the discussion of how berries originated helps connect elements of everyday life to stories of creation.

Materials/Props: Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon (second copy with Braille for student with visual impairment), images to aid with comprehension (see Tier II vocabulary words that will need visual supports, such as “tundra” and traditional items), dolls might be beneficial to help tell the story

Roles: Clinician – moderator/discussion leader

Question recommendations: What was the problem in the story? What was the solution? How did Anana do to bring new berries? Why are the berries important in this story? How do you think the crowberries tasted? When do berries grow?

DRAMATIC PLAY

The story of Berry Magic will be retold by the students reenacting scene from the story. The students will decide who will be Anana, the dolls, community members picking berries. The clinician will narrate the story and present images from the story but will allow students to interpret the story in their own words.

Note: There are not any male figures in the story, since the story has to do with food gathering and preparing a meal. This gender role is an essential component of Yup’ik culture, along with most Native American tribes. This must be respected. However, boys can be animals in the story, community members picking berries, or

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community members who later taste the berries. If boys chose to be the audience members, they can still sing along with songs in the story.

Materials/Props: Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon (second copy with Braille for student with visual impairment), dolls, doll costumes, pretend berries, large bag

Roles: Anana, community members in field and attend fall feast, four dolls

Question Recommendations: Show us what happened at the beginning of the story. What did Anana do after hearing about the crowberries? What did she make? What song did she sing? Show us what happened at the ending.

COLLABORATIVE ART

The students will help color a map of Alaska and learn about its unique geography. The students will color the ocean and land. The map will be displayed in the classroom for the duration of the unit. Each art activity should include a collaborative effort and should include high-context, multisensory activities (Inglebret et al., 2008). The implementer should always redirect competition and reward cooperation amongst students (Kasten, 1992).

Materials/Props: Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon (second copy with Braille for student with visual impairment), word bank sheet, map of the state of Alaska (can draw on butcher paper) or have pictures, markers, crayons, glue, labels for ocean, tundra, ice, river, forest, etc.


Question recommendations: Where is Alaska? What is the weather like in Alaska? What animals can be found in Alaska?

Discussion Topics: countries, regions of the country, cardinal directions, tundra, ocean, ice, glaciers, snow, Artic Circle, rivers, animals, Alaska Natives

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TUESDAY

Daily Objectives:

1. Students will participate in conversations with peers 2. Students will identify different types of animals found in Alaska 3. Students will each demonstrate familiarity of the alphabet 4. Students will each demonstrate some familiarity with letter and sound relationships 5. Students will each contribute to a group project Kindergarten Common Core State Standards Supported: 1. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.7: With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations

and the story in which they appear. 2. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about

kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. 3. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1.a: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions. 4. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1.a: Print many upper- and lowercase letters. 5. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.4: Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and

support, provide additional detail. Language and Literacy Skills Facilitated

Phonology: The target language domain for this week is speech sounds. Speech sounds are in the words we speak and preschool-age students will at different stages of speech-sound development. Articulation refers to the way we manipulate our oral cavity to produce certain sounds when we talk.

To prepare, the implementer can learn about his/her student’s various stages of speech-sound production. This can help the implementer plan activities that will facilitate use of age-appropriate speech sounds and provide

Daily Planning Guide – Adapted from Bunce (2008)



Tuesday

Alaska wildlife – What animals can we find in the Alaska? How are animals important to Alaska Natives?

Animals are Sacred - Learning about the gifts that animals give – food, clothing, shelter, tools, etc.

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Phonology & Phonological Awareness Literacy: Alphabet & Letter-Sound Correspondence

Exploring the Alaska tundra – students take a journey as a class and will look for animals and native food.

Wet on Wet Picture Books – students will use water colors using Alaska animal stencils. Students will write or trace words.

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opportunities for students with articulation/phonological disorders or delayed speech sound development to listen to models of speech-sounds and practice production

Specific speech sounds can be incorporated into group time, story time, and conversations during dramatic play and art activities. Facilitation strategies include modeling of speech sounds and providing numerous opportunities for students to imitate speech sounds.

Common speech sounds in the book Berry Magic (age of acquisition – Bowen, (1998)) /k/ (3 yo) crowberries

parka, Eskimo, picking neck

/f/ (3.5 yo) fur, four, filled before ruff

/b/ (3 yo) before, black, berry /l/ (4 yo) long, little, load /g/ (3 yo) get, goose

again bag, sang

/d/ (3 yo) dots, doll head

/s/ blends (3.5 yo)

scraps, stich, stuff, skin, slowly /t/ (3 yo) tops, tangy, tundra bright, out, went

/v/ (6 yo) vast every, even

/s/ (4.5 yo) sewing, circle parkas, grass, piece

/p/ (3 yo) picked, plan, parka plump

/z/ (4.5 yo) rose, beads, dolls, parkas

“ch” (4 yo) cheeks watched match

“sh” (4 yo) she

Alphabet: Before shared book reading activity, the implementer should recite the alphabet with the students. It is recommended that the implementer incorporate visual aids (e.g., alphabet cards, chalkboard, and iPad) as aided input. Draw attention to specific letters during storytelling and activities.

Letter-Sound Correspondence: The target literacy domain is letter sounds. The implementer can use letter cards to model and elicit imitation of letter sounds. Students can also attempt to identify letter sounds at the beginning of words, such as their names or commonly used words in the classroom.

Phonological Awareness: Introduce rhyming by teaching students that words that sound the same are words that rhyme. The implementer can use rhyme judgement activities to have students determine whether presented words sound the same. Rhyming songs can also be incorporated into today’s lesson. Activities from the Intensive Phonological Awareness (IPA) Program (Schuele & Murphy, 2014) can be incorporated, if available.


Students will comment, ask questions, answer questions, and have conversations amongst one another during the tundra exploration pretend play activity. Students will verbalize requests and share paint, glue, newspaper, paintbrushes and other materials during collaborative art activity. The cultural theme includes learning about animals and how Alaska Natives, and other tribes, use animals (e.g., food, clothing, tools, etc.). This may present opportunities for additional discussion.

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Problem-solving skills: learning about animals and how they get used for clothing, tools, food

Classification skills: classifying items from animals used as clothing, tools, and food; can also classify animals that swim, walk on land, or thrive in certain seasons

Sequencing skills: discussing steps of tundra exploration, steps in collaborative art activity


Gross motor: Tundra exploration activity includes walking, crawling, running, standing, and sitting.

Fine motor: Art activity includes writing and painting with water colors


Culture: animals in Alaska and how they are sacred, learning how Native Americans use animals

Language: Incorporating Yup’ik words into discussions

Teaching Strategies: Direct instruction, visual supports, modeling, elicited imitation, collaborative learning, observational learning, experiential learning, and joint art project

Community Involvement: Implementer can collaborate with a community member from an Alaskan Native village or someone with experience working with Alaskan Native villages to provide appropriate models and instruction on heritage language. These community members can also assist with curriculum design and planning. Parents are also another resource for learning and incorporating culturally-relevant themes (Inglebret et al., 2008). The implementer should take some time to educate parents and other community members on early literacy instruction and the connection with language development in preschool-age children. This is a great opportunity to share teaching strategies to encourage literacy and language activities at home.

GROUP

General Description of Activity: Group discussion for today can start with a discussion about wildlife in Alaska. The implementer can use the Alaska state map from Monday’s activity to discuss where animals or sea life live. Since many of these animals might be new to the students, pictures or a video of these animals can be useful. A sand tray with an Alaskan landscape and toy animals would be a great multisensory activity to introduce the different animals of Alaska. Tell students that they need to pay close attention to the animals because they will have to recall the animals for today’s art activity.

Settings: large group, small group

Materials/Props: pictures of animals native to Alaska (Examples: moose, eagle, seal, caribou, grizzly bear, salmon, whale), sand tray, toy animals

Question Recommendations: What animals can we find in Alaska? Where do these animals live? How can this animal live in the cold weather? What kinds of animal cannot live in Alaska? What animals can be eaten by humans?

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CULTURAL SHARING

In the story Berry Magic, Yup’ik traditional attire is incorporated into the story.

Recommended discussion topics include:

• How animals are used for food, clothing, instruments, tools, etc. • how animals survive in different weather conditions • how animals are special to Native American tribes (concept of “sacred”) • how animals are incorporated into traditional stories

STORY

Before reading Berry Magic, students can be asked what they remember from the story. A story grammar marker, such as a wall chart, can be used to refer to story grammar components while students are retelling stories. Time should also be taken to review specific vocabulary concepts to ensure comprehension. Story time today will focus on phonology, alphabet, and letter-sound relationships. A list of specific speech sounds has been provided to allow the implementer to emphasize particular speech sounds. The implementer can place stress on age-appropriate speech sounds and provide numerous models. This allows for exposure to many models of target speech sounds. If the implementer knows of speech sounds that are stimulable, the implementer can elicit imitation from specific students. Time should be invested to learn about students’ individual speech sound inventories.

Older students can be given the responsibility of recognizing specific letters. For example, a student will raise his/her hand when they see a word with their assigned letter. Provide letter cards or give the child a letter bracelet as a reminder.



Question recommendations: What was the problem in the story? What was the solution? What did Anana do to bring the new berries? Why are the berries important in this story? How do you think the crowberries tasted? When do berries grow?

DRAMATIC PLAY

During the dramatic play activity, the students will go on a tundra exploration to explore the tundra and look for animals that have been previously discussed. Pictures of Alaska animals or stuff animals can be displayed on the classroom walls, ceilings, and doors.

Roles: explorers, gatherers, hunters, community members

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Question Recommendations: What animals do you see? What plants do you see? What letter/sound does this animal name start with? What sound does this animal make? Does that animal crawl/slither/walk/fly?

Materials/Props: animal and plant pictures, can also use tissue roll binoculars (will have to prepare in advance), stuff animals

COLLABORATIVE ART

In this activity, students will choose small stencils of Alaska animals and glue them to blank board books (regular paper or card stock can also be used). Students will then use paintbrushes or fingers to pain over the stencils. Allow to dry. Then remove paper stencils. You can tape labels of the animal names on the book and model the word to students. Encourage students to model. You can also stencil the bottom of the pages to leave room for sentences or phrases that the students create. Use contact paper to help cover the pages.

Suggestions for book title: Our Relatives in Alaska, Our Friends in Alaska, Alaska Animals, Animals

Literacy considerations: Encourage the child to write his or her own name in the front of the book. Model and ask students about specific letters and letter sounds in animal names. Older students can choose to include a phrase or sentence using the animal name in which they can write it themselves or have a teacher write the sentence and have student trace.

Materials/Props: small blank board books (regular paper or card stock can also be used), paint brushes, paint, contact paper, animal paper stencils, glue or tape, permanent markers

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WEDNESDAY

Daily Objectives:

1. Students will participate in discussions about weather in Alaska 2. Students will participate in discussions about how tribes live in Alaska 3. Students will learn about the drum and participate in songs 4. Students will demonstrate knowledge of target grammatical structures by modeling verbal productions 5. Students will verbally imitate productions of complex sentence structures 6. Students will participate in pretend play activities in a group setting

Kindergarten Common Core State Standards Supported:

1. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

2. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1.b: Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges. 3. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.3: Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify

something that is not understood. 4. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and

usage when writing or speaking. 5. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.5.c: Identify real-life connections between words and their use.

Language and Literacy Skills Facilitated

Grammatical Structures: There are numerous grammatical structures used in the story Berry Magic. These can be emphasized during read alouds by stressing, eliciting imitation, and through reinforcement with visual aids (e.g., writing on dry erase boards/chalkboards).




Wednesday

Weather in Alaska and cold climates – What is the weather like in Alaska? What types of homes Alaska Natives live in?

Songs –Students will learn an Alaska Native song and how songs tell stories. *Story of the drum.

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Morphosyntax Literacy: Text Structures: Grammatical Markers & Complex Sentences

Life in Alaska – pretend play centers with themes: traditional methods of fishing, hunting, and gathering by acting out.

Sewing activity – students will learn to sew using needles and yarn that they make themselves

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Common Grammatical Structures in Berry Magic (Order of Acquisition) Present Progressive

picking, stuffing, stitching, filling, trimming, setting, snuggling, wearing, tumbling, leaving, shining

Regular Past Tense grumbled, liked, decorated, watched, dressed, matched, tied, stitched, reached, turned, looked, slipped, lowered, whispered

Plural “s” berries, beads, dangles, fans, dolls, crowberries, cranberries, blueberries, salmonberries, raspberries, stems

Third Person Regular

Irregular Past Tense

was, found, made, sang, gave,

Third Person Irregular

Possessives doll’s Uncontractible Auxiliary

Uncontractible Copula

Contractible Copula

Articles a, the Contractible Auxiliary

Prepositions: about, to, in, of, with, for, around, on,

Compound and Complex Sentences:

“They grew like dots on the topics of the hills.”

“She lovingly filled it with goose down, covered its plump body with warm fox skin, and stitched together a tiny pair of sealskin mukluks for its feet.”

Recommendation: Encourage students to recall sight words in these complex sentences. Write down the sentence on a chalkboard or white board and point to words you are reading.


The students will have discussions with one another about the weather and animals native to Alaska. Students will listen to stories together and have discussions about the songs. Encourage round-robin discussions.


Problem-solving skills: The students will learn about living in cold climates and describe how Alaska Natives survive in cold climates. Utilize graphic organizations (e.g., Venn diagrams) to make comparisons to Southwestern climate and tribes.

Classification skills: Students will classify geographical, climate and cultural similarities and differences between Alaska Natives and tribes in the Southwest. A graphic organizer can be used as a visual aid.

Sequencing skills: sequencing of traditional methods of fishing, hunting, and gathering by acting out.

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Gross motor: Pretend play activities will include standing, walking, bending, kneeling, digging, and lifting

Fine motor: Planting activity will include manipulation of small objects during pretend play activities


Culture/Community Involvement: This activity will incorporate traditional stories in addition to Berry Magic. This is a good day for a community member to come in and tell a traditional story or provide a cultural demonstration.

Language: This is a great opportunity to incorporate Alaska Native culture into the daily activities. Since the cultural theme today is related to songs, have a discussion with students about how songs can tell stories. This incorporates oral tradition practices.

Teaching Strategies: Direct instruction, visual supports, modeling, elicited imitation, collaborative learning, observational learning, experiential learning, and joint art project

GROUP

General Description of Activity: Large group topic will include discussions about climate in Alaska. The implementer can talk about the tundra, snow, glaciers, mountains, ocean, and village life. The implementer can prepare pictures of different scenes from Alaska. Alaska is a vast state. Be sure to provide a variety of pictures from different village and emphasize how each village will reflect where they are located. The use of videos, images, and drawings are encouraged for a variety of aided input. Utilize that large map of Alaska from Monday’s activities.

Settings: large group

Materials/Props: pictures of the Alaska Native villages, pictures of geography.

Question Recommendations: What is the weather like in Alaska? Where is Alaska? What songs tell stories? Where do people in Alaska fish, hunt, and live?

CULTURAL SHARING

Songs will be the cultural theme for today. Songs are important in every culture. In Native American cultures, songs tell stories of creation, ceremony, history, healing, and much more. Songs are a critical component of oral traditions. Students can write a short song or poem talking. If you have access to a hand drum, bring one in and share with the class. Tell a Native American story about the drum. The drum can be used for singing. Another use for the drum is the counting out of syllables in multisyllabic words.

Suggestions for song/poem topics: animals, what animals mean to me, my favorite animal, and my favorite thing to do outside

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STORY

Today’s literacy focus will be on age-appropriate grammatical structures and complex sentences. The students will be exposed to a variety of grammatical structures in the Berry Magic story. The implementer can model, elicited imitation, and expand these targeted structures. A list of age-appropriate grammatical structures has been provided for the implementer. The use of compound and complex sentences can be facilitated through the modeling and expanding of students’ utterances. Utilize the hand drum, or hand clapping, to count out syllables in multisyllabic words.

DRAMATIC PLAY

Today’s dramatic play activities will include fishing, hunting, and gathering. The implementer can prepare a play area using masking tape. Pretend fishing tools can be provided for students to use. The focus of this activity is on traditional methods of fishing, hunting, and gathering. Avoid terminology that is associated with mainstream culture. Other discussion topics can be about ceremonies or traditions related to these activities (e.g., Bladder festival, story of the seals, etc.).

***This is another great opportunity to incorporate traditional tools, such as an ulu knife or dart and throwing board. Implementer must invest time in learning about these tools and how they were used.

Roles: hunter, fisher

Question Recommendations: How do we hunt/fish/gather? What can you fish for in Alaska? What can you hunt for in Alaska? What types of food can you gather?

Materials/Props: masking tape, fishing poles, nets, pretend fish, hunting tools, stuff animals (walrus, seal, fish, moose and other animals in Alaska)

COLLABORATIVE ART

The collaborative art project will be sewing or weaving depending on student interests. Older students might be able to use actual needles and yard/thread to sew pieces of materials together to make a class blanket. Students can work together to sew fabric pieces of animals or designs to make the blanket. The implementer should refer to the act of sewing in the story Berry Magic. Young children can weave small blankets with yarn and cardboard looms.

Discussion topics can include:

• Blankets are important to Native Americans – refer back to storytelling, some blanket designs tell stories • Both boys and girls can learn to sew • Sewing in different tribes – Star quilts, weaving (rugs, baskets, etc.) • Other types of arts and crafts • Traditional items boys and girls make

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THURSDAY

Daily Objectives:

1. Students will discuss Alaska Native culture 2. Students will share their cultural background 3. Students will engage in conversation and work together during activities 4. Students will demonstrate knowledge of a variety of interrogatives by asking and answering various

WH- questions 5. With minimal prompts and assistance, the students will retell story Berry Magic as a class 6. Students will work together to complete all activities

Kindergarten Common Core State Standards Supported:

1. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3: With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

2. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.2: With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. 3. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.2: Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally

or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

4. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.5.d: Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action by acting out the meanings.

5. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

Language and Literacy Skills Facilitated

Question structures: The literacy focus will be various types of question structures. The students will ask and answer various WH-questions during conversations, activities, and shared story readings.




Thursday

Reflection on daily themes – recalling where Alaska Natives live, how they live, and what types of food they eat

Stories have life lessons – Students will learn how to make Akutaq

Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon Language: Pragmatics Literacy: Question structures & Writing

Story retell through independent role play. Akutaq feast after story retell.

Northern Lights activity – Students will paint a large mural of the Northern Lights

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Writing: Students will copy or trace their names and key vocabulary from throughout the week in a student workbook. The workbook will also include pages that display alphabet list and high frequency words for students to take home to practice with their parents.

Social Skills & Pragmatic Language Facilitated

Pragmatics: Today’s language focus will be pragmatic language and will include numerous opportunities to facilitate social communication skills. Students can continue to share their culture and ask questions about Alaska Natives. Students will work as a group to retell the Berry Magic story and share their creations during art activity.


Problem-solving skills: connecting themes from throughout the week, recalling items from story for art project

Classification skills: classifying animals, weather elements, classifying types of berries

Narrative/story structure: retelling story with appropriate story grammar elements


Gross motor: Pretend play activities will include standing, walking, bending, kneeling, and lifting

Fine motor: Writing activities will facilitate age-appropriate writing grasp; scooping, pouring, and stirring ingredients for akutaq


Culture: The students will continue learning about the significance of akutaq and how to make it. The focus will be on learning about traditional foot items and why it is important to Alaska Natives. Discussions can be about the ingredients, caloric intake (e.g., why there has to be a lot of calories in the dish), and who makes it. It will be a collaborative class effort and can include following directions, direction retells, and sequencing steps.

Language: When making akutaq, the implementer can encourage students to imitate the word and explain the meaning.

Teaching Strategies: collaborative art, experiential learning, modeling of target words, facilitating early social skills, such as turn-taking, asking questions, and having discussions with peers

Community Involvement: Parents and community members can be useful in carrying out this activity, especially teaching students about traditional foods.

GROUP

If the story has not been read since Monday, this is a good time to read the story once more. Encourage students to recall how each berry tasted and have students make predictions on how our akutaq will taste. The implementer will use group time to explain that students will make akutaq today. This time can be used to write directions on large poster board or notepad. Students can be assigned jobs.

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Settings: large group

Materials/Props: poster board or note pad, pictures of akutaq, visual aids

Question recommendations: What berries did you taste earlier this week? How did it taste? What is akutaq? How will it taste? How was the akutaq made in the story?

CULTURAL SHARING

Today’s cultural activity will be the making of akutaq in the classroom. In addition, students will learn how akutaq became a sweet and delicious treat thanks to Anana and the special dolls that came to life. Students should be taught that Native American stories have messages that help explain certain things in the world. In Berry Magic, akutaq became a delicious sweet dish that eventually brought the community together in celebration.

**Tell the students the real ingredients in traditional akutaq but tell them they are going to make another version of akutaq. You can use berries, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, cream cheese and whatever you can think of to look like akutaq. Have the students mix by hand and serve one another. Sing a song from the story before you eat.

Materials: food supplies (do some planning before making the akutaq), dishes, paper ware, utensils, visual aids, large note pad with directions

Question recommendations: What is akutaq? What other dishes are special in your tribe/culture? What is your family’s favorite dessert to eat? What did Coyote always cause when he tried to do something?

STORY

The story should be read again as the students will act out the story again. Tell students that will have to be leaders and try to recall as much of the story as possible. After reading the story, have students sequence the story. This will aid in comprehension and allow the students some independence during the role play. Use props such as dolls and real berries. The actual making of the akutaq can be incorporated into the story to allow the “community” to eat the akutaq at the end of the story retell.


Roles: Anana, four dolls who come to live, boys can be community members who pick berries, or boys can help narrate the story

Question recommendations: What was the problem in the story? What was the solution? What did Anana do to bring the new berries? Why are the berries important in this story? How do you think the crowberries tasted? When do berries grow?

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DRAMATIC PLAY

The story of Berry Magic will be retold by the students reenacting scene from the story. The clinician will narrate the story but can allow students to help with narration. Present pages from the story but allow students to interpret the story in their own words. It is helpful to ride out roles on index cards and have the students hold the cards or place in their pockets.

Note: There are not any male figures in the story, since the story has to do with food gathering and preparing a meal. This gender role is an essential component of Yup’ik culture, along with most Native American tribes. This must be respected. However, boys can be animals in the story, community members picking berries, or community members who later taste the berries. If boys chose to be the audience members, they can still sing along with songs in the story.

Materials/Props: Berry Magic– by Terry Sloat & Betty Huffmon (second copy with Braille for student with visual impairment), dolls, doll costumes, pretend berries, large bag

Roles: Anana, community members in field and attend fall feast, four dolls

Question Recommendations: Show us what happened at the beginning of the story. What did Anana do after hearing about the crowberries? What did she make? What song did she sing? Show us what happened at the ending.

COLLABORATIVE ART

The final art project will be mural of the Northern Lights. The implementer can show pictures and videos of the Northern Lights. Provide a brief lesson on how and why the Northern Lights happen. You can use black butcher paper and neon paint to make the mural. The students can turn off the lights and use a black light to see the paint. When done, the mural can be hung on the wall over the dining area for the akutaq feast.

Materials: long sheet of black butcher paper, neon paint, paint brushes, black light, tape, paint brushes, pictures and/or videos of Northern Lights

Question recommendations: What are the Northern Lights? How do they appear? Where can you find it? What would you do if you saw the Northern Lights? What other things can appear in the sky at night (e.g. shooting stars, constellations, and moon)?

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References

Bowen, C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders. A practical guide for families and teachers. Melbourne: ACER Press.

Inglebret, E. & Jones, C., &Pavel, D.M. (2008). Integrating American Indian/Alaska Native Culture into shared storybook intervention. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, 521-527.

Kasten, W.C. (1992). Bridging the horizon: American Indian beliefs and whole language learning. Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 23(2), 108-119.

Nichols et al. (2000). Teachers’ role in providing culturally responsive literacy instruction. Reading Horizons, 41, 1-18.

Pewewardy, C. & Fitzpatrick, M. (2009). Working with American Indian students and families: Disabilities, issues, and interventions. Intervention in School and Clinic, 45, 91-98.

Schuele, C.M. & Murphy, N.D. (2014). The intensive phonological awareness (IPA) program. Maryland: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Sloat, T. & Huffmon, B. (2004). Berry Magic. Alaska Northwest Books: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company.

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