Another Great Gilman Story

Read Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman and then do a comparison with Robert Munsch’s I Will Love You Forever. They are both loving stories illustrating the circle of love.  Good to do around Valentine’s Day.

In Gilman’s story, the button at the end of the story leads to a great gym activity.            

You will need:

Tape player and fun music

Button tied to a circle of wool.

Blind fold

You tie a button onto a piece of wool and then tie the wool at each end together to form a circle.  Make 2 or 3 of these depending on the size of your class.  Sit each group of students in a circle and move the wool through your hands.  Six per group works well to sit in a circle plus one in the middle.  Play your music and be ready to pause it. The button travels around the circle and with both hands grasping the wool so the wool slides through their palms.  Play your music but when the music stops one student in that group will have the button hiding in their hand. Each circle has one student blind folded in the middle of the circle.  When the music stops, that student asks, “Susan, do you have the button?”  To promote sentence structure, I have them answer in a complete sentence, “No, I don’t have the button.”  They have 3 guesses.  If they don’t guess the student, the one with the button gets to go into the middle.  If they guess correctly, they get to stay in the middle.

Objectives

Ø     To take the detail of a story into a fun game

Ø     To create cooperation within a small group

Ø     To practice taking turns

Ø     To ask questions

Ø     To answer in sentence form

Ø     To listen carefully to the music

Ø     To encourage student to make games at home from wool and a button.

v    My students played this at each other’s birthday party.  Parents love the simplicity without the expense.