Mrs. Underwood

ACROTIC POEMS

Tricky Rabbit tricks a coyote
Rabbit tricks Coyote by telling him he's going to get married
Is really trick and sassy to Coyote
Coyote tries to catch Rabbit so he could eat him
Knocks on wasp nest
Stuck on wax doll until he tricks Coyote
Takes big chiles and leaves small ones
Eats big chiles and makes the farmer mad
Rabbit runs fast to get away from Coyote so he doesn't eat him

by Arielle

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Hind legs are long with strong muscles for leaping
Awesome jumper that can leap farther than 10 feet
Runs faster than a rabbit
Eats carrots and cabbages
Stronger than rabbits and can leap higher than rabbits

by Katie

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Brown fur that shines in the sun
Runs like lightning
Outside-living creature
White fluffy tail
Nose that wiggles

Has underground home
Always hides from a fox
Really big ears
Eats lots of vegetables

by Stephen

Cottontails mate as early as mid-February
Once a day their mother feeds them her milk
They often build their nest near streams
Their shelter is called a form
Only two weeks later they take their first hop
Never shy around its mother
The cottontail rabbit has long ears
After they're born they get hair
It holds its tail up like a white flag
Lives in a hole in the forest

by Christine

Runs very fast to get away from crocodile
A very tricky bunny
Brother Rabbit takes things that are not his
Brother Rabbit eats all the grains of rice
Is really sassy to crocodile
Tricks crocodile to get to the other side of the river
Stick on a stump with sap

by Abbi

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RABBIT FACTS

Spring Hare - by Liza and Rachel G.

Its powerful legs enable it to leap up to 30 feet.
The female may only have one baby at a time.
They live only in Africa.
They can close their ears to keep out sand when digging a burrow.

Jackrabbit - by Jeremy, John Scott, Andrew, and Blake

They mostly live in deserts in western North America.
Its eyes are on the side of its head so it can see backward without turning its head.
They run at speeds from 30-45 miles per hour.
They can hear sounds over a mile away.

Arctic Hare by Ben, Michael, Hayden, Skyler, and Victoria

Sometimes up to 200 hares will live together in a group for protection.
They eat the small arctic willow shrub. When they plants are covered with snow, the hares have a hard time digging up enough food.
The fur is white in the winter and brown in the summer.
They live in Canada, Alaska, and Greenland.

Cottontail Rabbit - by Shannon, Kandace, and Katy

They have a lot of blood in their ears which cools off as they run and then cools the rest of their bodies.
The mother has 4 to 6 babies at a time. When she leaves the nest, she covers them with fur and grass.
They do not dig burrows.
They are prey for lots of animals like dogs, foxes, racoons, weasels, bobcats, hawks, and eagles.

European Rabbit - by Tyler

Rabbit families live near each other and share a system of burrows called a warren.
Their lifespan is about 9 years.
They are hunted by lots of animals and people.
They eat mainly grass, clovers, and herbs.

Louisiana State Standards
This project was designed to address the following Louisiana standards for language arts:
Standard One: Students recognize story elements (setting, plot, character, and theme).
Standard Three: Students communicate using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and handwriting.
Standard Four: Students demonstrate competence in speaking and listening as tools for learning.
Standard Six: Students read and respond to a variety of literature (e.g. folktales).
Standard Seven: Students apply reasoning skills to their reading, writing, speaking, and listening
-- using comprehension strategies (comparing and contrasting, summarizing)

Planning and Assessment
Introduction:
I introduced this unit by reading Lunch Bunnies and visiting Sharon Hall's Bunny Reader site. I also used the book Bunny Riddles to write a joke on the board every day -- if I forgot, the students always reminded me.
Trickster Tales:
1. We read Brother Rabbit and completed a story map for this tale.
2. We read The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote and used a bunny graphic organizer to map this story.
3. After modeling compare/contrast paragraph writing using a Venn diagram, we created a Venn diagram on these two folktales.
4. Students wrote paragraphs telling how the two stories were alike and shared their paragraphs with the class.
5. Students wrote paragraphs telling how the two stories were different.
6. Each day we read other rabbit trickster tales (including Brer Rabbit books and a Louisiana version called Why Lapin's Ears Are Long) and discussed differences and similarities.
7. Students chose individual projects to complete the unit. Choices included writing/illustrating an original rabbit trickster story, researching different types of rabbits, writing acrostic poems, and writing different endings for stories we read in class.
Assessment:
1. Students demonstrated recognition of story elements (Standard One) and competence in listening (Standard Four) by participation in class discussion and completion of graphic organizers and story maps.
2. Students demonstrated competence in written communication skills (Standard Three) and in use of reasoning skills (Standard Seven) through written comparison of the two folktales.
3. Students demonstrated the ability to read and respond to a variety of literature (Standard Six) by their completion of individual projects that utilized folktales and nonfiction reading.