Anne Kraus – författare

Traditional pourquoi tales (how-and-why stories) offer many exciting opportunities for learning. Kraus' bibliography and activity guide helps you design exciting story times and extend and explore tales with students. Activity pages (e.g., Venn diagrams, shadow puppets, multimedia projects), teaching ideas, a list of story themes, an annotated bibliography of further reading, and other materials can be used to prepare story hours, art and drama projects, literature reading units, cultural explorations, and science and nature studies. A convenient feature of this guide is the extensive chart that organizes pourquoi tales by theme, topic, and motif so they can be used as multicultural links to other areas of study. Tales are also organized by cultural and geographical groups, providing opportunities for integrating multicultural concepts into science, literature, and social studies.

The appeal of tales about such popular tricksters as Coyote, Brer Rabbit, Raven, and Turtle and the magic of fairy tales can be used to attract students into a variety of related learning experiences. Kraus' bibliography and activity guide shows how to use these tales in a planned sequence that leads into motivational reading, prediction activities, Venn diagramming comparisons, and such creative extensions as art and shadow puppetry. In addition to the activities and lesson plans, this guide has extensive charts that index themes and provide many access points for the stories. Comparisons of multicultural Cinderella tales and annotated bibliographies that are organized by cultural and geographic groups are also included.