Monday, March 25, 2013

Stone Soup


Brown, M. (1947). Stone soup. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Age Level: 6-9

Genre:  Traditional Literature/Folktale/Picture Book

When I saw this book on a common planning document, I decided that I should read it for my blog post.    

This folktale is about a group of men traveling during a time of war.   When they come up on a village, they must use their keenness to find a place to stay and a meal.   The villagers are not opening their doors or cupboards to the men so they devise a plan to trick the villages into feeding them. 

This story is considered a traditional story because it has an easily understood plot, common theme, characters and setting.  It also has a ‘happy ending.’   I would recommend this text to both colleagues and students as I feel that it is an entertaining tale.  I plan to use it very soon for a unit on folktales. 

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategies that can be used with this text:  This story would be great to use with introducing conflict because this text has a person-against-person conflict since the villagers are reluctant to help the men.  I also think the text is great for introducing folktales.  I also think this would be great for identifying theme or lesson in a story.  Cleverness is a clearly communicated theme, as the men had to find a way to be fed. 

Questions to pose:

What type of story is this?  Explain how you know.

What lesson do you learn when reading this text?

Can you make a connection with this story?  Explain.

How would you describe the villagers?  Give details from the text.

Additional Resources:


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