Before too long our third graders will read and discuss biographies during literacy time and perhaps do some research about a famous person.  To introduce them to a wide range of some of the most interesting biographies in our collection I planned a booktalk for this week’s lesson.  It included books about inventors, explorers, artists, athletes, etc.

To make the elements of a biography a bit more memorable I borrowed an idea from super-librarian and children’s literature expert Judy Freeman and we made…Biography Stew.  (sort of)

Using images of ingredients such as raisins, Cheerios, Goldfish crackers, nuts, etc. we talked about how biographies often include:

  • something about the person’s childhood (Alpha-bits cereal–because we learn our ABCs as children)
  • something about their education (Goldfish–because fish are part of schools)
  • something about the person’s accomplishments (Cheerios–to cheer for them)
…and so on.
Ask your third grader what they remember from today’s culinary lesson!  This will be a great lead-in to next week’s reading of a biography on the Red Clover list for this year– Stand Straight, Ella Kate, the story of Ella Kate Ewing, one of the tallest females (8 ft. 4 in.) on record.
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