Story Elements for Kindergarten

Story Elements for Kindergarten This unit will help students understand that authors use story elements to create stories and that readers can anchor comprehension by identifying these elements. Two authors will be used in this inquiry over a two week period. The first week will survey books by Kevin Henkes. The second week will examine stories by Tomie dePaola. Note that other children’s authors may replace these two or may be used to continue this study. This unit was created to parallel a writing unit studying authors’ craft. Each week can be used to notice what techniques an author uses in his writing. Students are then invited to apply these crafts to their writing. Lessons covered in this reading unit include: Story Elements Are Hiding in Stories; Using Story Elements Vocabulary; A Focus on Ordered Events; Events Create Mind Movies; Identifying Story Elements on My Hand; Switching Authors, Story Elements Are Hiding in Stories; A Look at Characters and a Problem They Set Out to Solve; Identifying Story Elements, Reading and Writing. Lessons should take approximately 15 minutes but may run longer when entire books are read. One suggestion is to read a story in advance, for example, during read aloud. Enjoy