Karen Mildener Grade – Kindergarten – 2
P.S. 51 Literacy

Tops and Bottoms
By Janet Stevens

Synopsis of Story:
Bear is wealthy, but lazy. Hare is poor, but hardworking and smart. Hare makes a plan to go into business with Bear so that Hare will benefit from Bear’s wealth. Hare and his family do all the work planting crops but get the best of the harvest. Bear learns lessons about different kinds of plants and the value of hard work. In the end both characters come out winners.

SEL Understandings

• Recognizing that goals can be long-term and short-term
• Understanding long-term goals require patience and planning
• Understanding what is required to achieve a goal
• Setting goals and moving towards them
• Staying open to feedback
• Knowing how to evaluate other’s opinions
• Persevering to obtain goals
• Understanding how to inspire others (i.e. finds out what others want)
• Maintaining vision
• Knowing how to persuade others to his/her point of view
• It is possible to create a win-win situation for all
  

Objectives

SEL:
Students will describe the difference between a long-term goal and a short-term goal and give examples of each.
Students will connect the qualities of Hare (knowledgeable, hard-working, persevering) with his reaching his goals.

Literacy: Students will make text-to-text connections between this book and the folk tale of the Tortoise and the Hare.

Pre-Reading

Say:
Do you know anyone (presidents, athletes, actors, etc.) who really wanted something and made a plan to get what they wanted? (Elicit names and goals) How long did it take them to reach their goals?
Today, we are going to read about characters with very different goals and very different kinds of plans.

Discussion Questions

During the reading:
What do you think Hare's goals are? How do you know?
What are Bear's goals? How do you know?
Why does Bear get fooled each time he and Hare make a deal?
What do you think will happen in the end?

Post Reading:
In what other story have we met Hare? (The Tortoise and the Hare) How has Hare changed in this story? (Elicit that he has a long-range, well-thought-out plan for accomplishing his goal)

How would you compare Bear and Hare in the beginning of the story? [Elicit that Hare knows about plants, has a goal and a plan for achieving it and he is willing to work hard. Bear has none of these qualities in the beginning.]
What do you think made Hare so determined?
Why did he work so much harder than Bear?
What do you think about Hare tricking Bear? How could he have reached his goal without tricking Bear?

Activity - Developing a Plan for Our Garden

In this activity, students will begin to create a plan for growing a classroom garden. The first part of the activity will be done in a large group and the second part in small groups of no more than five.

Say:
Like Hare and Bear, we are going to plant our own garden here in the class (if your school has an outdoor spot to use, you may want to use that). If the garden is to flourish, however, we need a long term plan. Today we will begin planning our garden but we may not finish our plan today. A good plan usually has these ingredients (Chart these):

• A vision or a picture in our minds of what our goal is at the end.
• An understanding of what we already know and need to learn about what we want to do.
• A list of our strengths and weaknesses.
• A list of the tasks that we will need to accomplish.
• A list of who will do what.
• A schedule that says when things will be done including when we will look at how our plan is working.

Tell the class that they will start with the vision today. Working in groups of three to five students, they will do two things. First, they will have about ten minutes to discuss their dream or vision of a class garden. That is about ___minutes each for sharing what they would like to garden to look, smell, sound and feel like. This is a time for just listening to each other. It is not a time for arguing. Tell them that, as they listen, they should try to think about what their visions have in common. For example, I might like pink flowers and you might like carrots, so we both want enough room for our plants to grow.

After the ten minutes, give each group a very large sheet of paper and the instructions that they have to work together to draw one garden that includes the shared parts of their visions. Give them at least 20 minutes for this. Circulate around the room facilitating collaboration. Towards the end of the process tell students that they can add words if they think the other groups will not understand their vision by just looking at it.

Hang up the visions. Bring the group together and have them do a Gallery Walk (see Glossary). Process the experience by asking the group to find the Shared Vision. Write the Shared Vision in one or two sentences.

Class Extension

• Each day continue the planning by focusing on one ingredient of a good plan (see above). When completed, begin implementing the plan.
• You may wish to read biographies of famous people and talk about their achievements. Discuss if they had goals and how they met their goals.
• Integrated learning - Developing a garden integrates many areas of the curriculum and gives you many opportunities for emotional learning. Students can do research on what kind of plants will thrive in either classroom or outside environments. Connections to how farming affects both present and past cultures fit within a social studies unit. Math, art and music are also easily incorporated.

Home and Family Connections

A classroom garden is a wonderful connection for families and can create a spirit of community. Family members can share their expertise and plan field trips to either community or municipal gardens or garden centers. Ideally, family involvement will be part of the long- range plan.

Counselor Reflection

What prevents me from meeting my own personal goals? Do I let myself succeed? What are my internal stumbling blocks? Do I repeat the same patterns? What are my life stories?

Counselor Evaluation

Should this be read early in the year? Did the young children grasp the ideas in this story?