A+Camping+Tale

=A Camping Tale=

Day 1

 * 1) Introduce the poem. "This is a poem about someone who goes camping. Have you ever gone camping? What do you need for camping?
 * When he is camping, he is visited by a vampire! What do you know about vampires? What gets rid of vampires? When do vampires come out? When do they sleep? (Make sure they know about garlic.)
 * 1) Echo read the poem. Teacher reads a line or two, group echos. Give positive feedback / make a few suggestions for improvement.
 * Echo read twice. The first time, stop to discuss the following vocabulary:
 * pitch the tent (set up the tent; check in that they know about tents and camping)
 * evening (right when night is falling)
 * hollered (yelled)
 * Halt! (stop)
 * garlic salt (a spicy powder that tastes like garlic)
 * cloak (like a big coat but without arms)
 * batty (crazy)
 * bloke (guy)
 * fled (ran away)
 * 1) In pairs, students time each other reading the poem and record their initial time on the graph.
 * 2) Comprehension question: Why did the guy put the garlic salt in the campfire? What happened to the vampire when he put the garlic salt in? Why do you think he had to use garlic salt instead of real garlic? (He was camping, so it was all he had.)

Day 2

 * 1) Today practice the poem with a partner. Have students model reading it with expression. Talk about changing your voice. Have them give each other some feedback.
 * model how to read the beginning calmly, to get the mood of what's happening, and then get urgent when the vampire comes, and then kind of funny or sarcastic at the end
 * 1) Go over each part of the poem in more detail. Paraphrase each part in "talking language." Re-write the story in sentences on chart paper.
 * 2) Partners time each other and record their Tuesday time on the sheet.
 * 3) Comprehension: What happened at the end of the poem? Why did the guy try to calm the vampire down? What did the vampire do at the end?

Day 3

 * 1) Focus on the punctuation. Have them find punctuation marks, and model what each kind of punctuation might mean. Tell them they can experiment with it, and try different ways of reading the punctuation. For example, you might want to pause at the dash, or you might want to hurry on to the next part. They should definitely pause at the periods, and do shorter pauses at commas.
 * 2) Students practice alone or with a partner, as they choose, trying out different ways of reading it and paying close attention to punctuation.
 * 3) They time each other and record the time.
 * 4) Comprehension: Change the ending of the poem. What could have been a different way the story could have ended?
 * Worksheet for this activity (can be done at centers): [|campingtale new ending.doc]

Day 4

 * 1) Today they will get to perform the poem for each other. Give them some time to practice.
 * 2) People who want to can perform for the group. Time them as they do. If some don't perform, be sure they get timed by a partner and record their times.
 * 3) Other options for performing: have pairs or groups of 3 read each stanza, and go around the circle, reading the poem chorally in small groups.
 * 4) Word study: -ed. Talk about the 3 ways to pronounce -ed: /t/, /d/, and /ed/. Make a chart and put each -ed word in the poem on the chart in the column under how you pronounce it: Worksheet for this activity for center work: [|camping tale ed endings.doc]
 * picked (t)
 * started (ed)
 * hollered (d)
 * grabbed (d)
 * stamped (t)
 * tried (d)
 * offered (d)
 * fled (d)
 * 1) Comprehension: How do you think each character felt at each part of the poem?
 * 2) Before the vampire came, how did the man feel? (calm, relaxed, excited)
 * 3) When the vampire got there, how did the man feel? (scared, worried, terrified)
 * 4) When the vampire choked, how did the man feel? (sorry) How did the vampire feel?
 * 5) At the end, how did the man feel? (friendly, generous, sorry for what he did; maybe at the very end he felt annoyed) How did the vampire feel? (still angry)