Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin
Retold by: Paul O Zelinsky
Traditional

When a miller tells the king his daughter can spin straw into gold, the king takes the daughter and locks her in a tower for 3 nights so she can spin straw into cold or she will be executed. When the daughter loses all hope, a dwarf like man, Rumpelstiltskin comes to save the day. He spins straw into gold the first night for her in return for her necklace, the second night in return for her ring, and the third night in return for her first born child. The king was so impressed that he married the miller's daughter and they have a child. When Rumpelstiltskin comes back to claim his price, the queen does not want to give up her child so they make a bet. If the queen can figure out his name in 3 days, she can keep the baby. She had begun to lose hope after failing the first two days, but her messenger sees the dwarf singing in the woods a song that reveals his name. The messenger tells the queen and she guesses it right so she can keep her baby.

This can be used in a lesson about traditional fairy tales and folktales. The students can look through the book and find the common elements of fairy tales. It can also be used for some vocabulary words because there are some tricky words that will be good to look up and learn.

Freedom of the Menu

Freedom of the Menu

By Elizabeth Kennedy
Free Choice

This is a historical fiction story about the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins in 1960 from the point of view of an African American girl. It tells the story of the four young black men that were being refused service from Woolworths because of segregation.

This would be a great book to help talk about segregation and the different ways people protested to end segregation. This would be another great book to use with point of view. We see the young African American girl's point of view, but we could ask the students what they think the White man who owned the store's point of view was, etc.

The Headless Mummy

The Headless Mummy
By: David Keane
Free Choice

Joe Sherlock is in the fourth grade and he solves mysteries for $10 a day. His newest mystery is the disappearance of a 4000 year old head from a mummy that disappeared from the local museum. He has to solve the mystery before Mr. Klopper loses his job.

This is a great book to use when studying context clues. Throughout the book there are subtle hints that lead up to the final conclusion of the mystery. You can see if the students can figure it out before the ending and if they can't, they can go back through the book and write down the clues that they missed which would have helped them solve the mystery.