Snake Oil Reading
Marie Ota
Stretchy Snake is like Lips the fish on steroids. With Lips the Fish, we focused on isolating that beginning sound and connecting it with a picture. Stretchy Snake brings the whole word into play as we focus on sounding words out phonetically.
To use this strategy, your child is going to need to fluently know all their sounds. Fluently, meaning they say them without hesitation. This is because they will have to quickly take these sounds and blend them together to decode a word. If they are struggling to remember sounds, or say them incorrectly, blending them together becomes nearly impossible.
We spend weeks on this strategy and I usually introduce spelling words around this time as well so we are working not only on blending, but also on segmenting sounds. This strategy will be one of the most heavily relied on strategies for quite some time.
To introduce this strategy, we first have a quick little discussion about snakes. Students typically have a decent amount of background knowledge about snakes. We discuss different types, where they live, what the eat. I try to skip the pictures because they give me the heebie jeebies. We unfortunately have quite a few snakes that are native to our area, so kids usually have a lot of background knowledge about them.
We talk about how snakes can curl up really small (and demonstrate with our bodies) and how they can stretch out really long. I tell them how our friend stretchy snake takes small words and stretches them out l-o-n-g so we can hear all the sounds.
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There is a certain breed of short chapter book almost perfectly designed for bedtime reading. Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins is one of these. The aforementioned Sheep and Goat is one of these. And now Snake and Lizard can be one of these too. Sweet and simple little stories, the tales are touch and go for a while there but eventually they even out into a wonderful series of small stories. A lovely addition, a charming collection.
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
This Sit & Play Reading Snake is larger than life and a dream for any kid to play on in a children's waiting area or waiting room. This friendly snake is ideal for little ones to crawl on or sit on during reading time. The cover is made of synthetic leather that is flame retardant, wipe-clean, and fade resistant. You can't go wrong with this amazing statement piece in your waiting room!
I'm wondering what the difference in usage between へび, じゃ, and くちなわ is to reference snakes/serpents. Is one more common than the other? Is one more casual or more literary? For example, "snake" comes up in casual conversation more often than the word "serpent"; can the same be said for へび, じゃ, or くちなわ?
If you just see the kanji 蛇, you would normally read it as へび. That's the basic word for 'snake'. You can forget about the word くちなわ for the most part; it's an old word for snake (said to come from their resemblance to a rotten rope), but へび is the usual word today. Likewise, if you want to talk about snakes in conversation, just say へび.
But if you just see 蛇 by itself, you wouldn't normally read it じゃ or だ. You may run into these as independent words from time to time, as in 夏目漱石's 虞美人草, but this is an unusual stylistic choice, and I would usually expect there to be furigana in cases like these.
You should also be aware of 大蛇, which can be read two ways. It can be read だいじゃ 'great serpent' as a regular word, but especially in fiction or mythology, it often represents おろち; please see ヤマタノオロチ on Wikipedia for more information.
Christiana and Gavin were twins. They lived in Fridley, Minnesota, in a big house with a big yard and big shady trees. Before the city grew around it, the house had been part of a huge farm. Even now, there was still a garden and lots of room where wild things grew. There was even an old stone well that had once supplied water for the farmhouse.
There was one big problem with that government experiment years ago. When the rattlesnakes became smart, they also lost their poison. They could no longer defend themselves against the other creatures of the desert. Those that were released into the wild were never heard from again. And now there was only one very old, very smart rattlesnake left.
Bob lived in a large aquarium that the twins kept in their bedroom. The first thing they did every day when they came home from school was run to their room and say hello to Bob. They would find him coiled up, his little forked tongue flicking the air, his black eyes eager to see them. They would ask him about his day.
They peered under the steps. They crawled through the garden. They dug among the shrubs. They even looked up into the branches of the oaks and the elms, although rattlesnakes are not very good at climbing trees. But they could not find Bob anywhere.
Finally the twins realized that the sound was coming from inside the well. Gavin cranked faster, and the bucket rose into sight. And there, in the bottom of that old wooden bucket Bob lay curled. His forked tongue flickered weakly. His black eyes seemed a little glazed, even for a snake. His rattles hung limp at the end of his tail, barely making a sound now.
They lifted him and held them in their hands together, and they could feel that Bob was almost at the end of his journey as a snake. He gazed up at them. His tongue eased from his mouth, and, as if waving goodbye, gave a final flicker. With his tail, he gave one last rattle-rattle-rattle.
A very interesting approach and a great story. Can hardly wait for the illustrations. Will there be a sequel featuring the dragon? And I applaud your interest in teaching children about writing. Good job, everyone!
What a wonderful idea. I would have been so delighted as a child to be part of writing a book. The children must have been so excited. I enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to seeing the completed version.
After a few minutes when my breathing had returned to normal and my heart had settled down a bit I realized that the snake was a harmless bull snake but it was big, even for a bull snake and I guessed it to be all of ten feet long at the time.
Two things surprised me about that snake. One was that bull snakes were rarely seen on the islands preferring the high ground on the mainland, and the other thing was that it hadn't moved even with my rudely stepping on it. There was no movement at all other than a nervous little twitching of the tip of its tail and then I realized that the snake would never move again: it was dead. But what had killed it? What had happened in that quiet spot?
That a battle had taken place was evident by the crushed grass, and there, in a small spot of black earth, just as sure as if the animal had signed its name was a single tiny footprint. It was then that I noticed something else, a musky odor, unmistakable to anyone that has smelled it before: mink!
From what I could see the mink had most likely approached the log from the small end. It had leaped to the log and loped its length as it had probably done many times in the past for mink are creatures of habit, routinely retracing their tracks every few days.
Reading the sign it was obvious the snake had thrown three coils of its powerful body around the mink but the mink, desperate, fighting for its life, had lunged, carrying the two of them rolling across a large anthill which had been crushed in the struggle.
When I returned the next day the body of the snake was gone, most likely dragged off by a scavenging possum but I was surprised when I measured the distance between those two marks on the log. Eight feet nine inches! Much longer than I was tall at the time.
The snake was gone; the crushed anthill was entirely repaired. All that was left was a faint odor of mink musk on the air and soon even that would be gone. All that would remain would be my memories, and I have them still.
Charles Towne is first and foremost a Christian. An octogenarian, author, journalist, wildlife photographer, naturalist, caregiver, and survivor, his life has been and continues to be, a never-ending adventure filled with possibilities never imagined. He has adopted the philosophy that to Live fully, laugh uproariously, love passionately, and learn like there is no tomorrow, is a formula for a long and joy-filled life.
Snake weights for the display or viewing of books, posters, charts and maps. Made to PEL specification, our premium slimline snake weights will not discolour, unlike other inferior alternatives.
As well as the famous tale Donkey Cabbages, in their notes the Brothers Grimm mention another German story from their lesser know publication Deutsche Sagen (German Legends). This little known collection of over 500 legends was published in 1816, only five years after their famous fairy tales.
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