Stellaluna

Stellaluna

By Janell Cannon, Harcourt Inc., 1993

 

 

Concepts and Themes To Teach

• Bats
• Forest
• Sultry
• Swoop/limp/clambered/babble
• Tangle
• Twig
• Downy
• Mango
• Rules/ Following rules

 

Expanded Core Curriculum Skills and Activities

 

Compensatory Skills

• Talk about bats: different species of bats, some are big, some small, some have tails, others do not.  Point out the differences.  Talk about how bats are useful and not scary.

 

• Taste a mango.  Decide if it is a fruit or vegetable.

 

 

Social Interaction

• One species of animals imitates the other.  Have the child work on imitating an animal or another child.  Switch leaders

 

• Stellaluna is very sad because she is not like her bird friends.  Discuss how they are like and not like their friends.  Discuss how they may feel different from their friends.

 

 

Recreation & Leisure

• Use playground equipment to hang upside down to imitate the bats.  Talk about how it feels different to be upside down. 

 

• Echolocation game:  Blindfold a child (if needed) to be the “bat”.  The other children in the group will be the “insects”.  They should spread out in the room.  The bat calls out “beep, beep”.  The insects respond “buzz, buzz” while they walk around the room.  The bat tries to tag an insect by listening for the sound they make and locating them.  An insect that is tagged, must go sit in the “bat cave” until the next round.  A variation, instead of the “insects” answering, they could stomp on the floor to imitate vibrations.

 

Assistive Technology

• Listen to the story, activate the turning of pages with a touch screen.

www.storylineonline.net

 

 

Visual Efficiency Skills

• Identify visual items that are upside down.  Use pictures that are familiar to the child.  Use sets of multiple pictures and identify the one that is turned the wrong way

 

 

Self-determination

• Stellaluna had to follow the rules of the nest.  Discuss what rules each child has at home or at school.  Discuss how they feel when they follow the rules, and when they break the rules

 

Discuss with the child how it might feel to try something that they have not done before.  Talk about how Stellaluna was frightened