Staff member:

• to provide a storytime or other activity to occupy the children during the parent preparation time.

Staff member:

• to prepare parents to read "Grandfather Tang's Story" with their children and to demonstrate how to make the animal shapes out of the tangram pieces.
  
• to collect participant evaluation forms at the end of the program.

Parent Preparation:
Work with the parents to do a "pre-reading" activity. The "pre-reading" activity is the presentation of questions that relate to the subject of the book or to the topic of the activity. These questions are asked and discussed before reading the book.

Pre-Reading Activity
These are questions to ask the parents before reading the book.
Ask the parents: What fairy tales do you know? What do fairy tales have in common? (Possible responses: fairy tales have magic in them, the good triumphs over evil or there are lessons to be learned.)

Introduce the Parents to Fox Fairies and Tangrams
Explain that fox fairies are important characters in Chinese folklore. In the Chinese fairy tales, these fox fairies have magical powers to transform themselves into other animals. It is said that fox fairies live for 800-1000 years.
Pass each parent a copy of the tangram pieces template.
Share with the parents the story of tangrams. It is said that a Chinese man dropped a ceramic tile square and it broke into seven pieces (5 triangles, 1 parallelogram and 1 square). He discovered that he could make many different pictures by fitting the 7 pieces together in various arrangements.
-Have the parents cut their tangrams into the 7 puzzle pieces.
-Demonstrate how all 7 tangram pieces can be put together, with the pieces touching but not overlapping, to create pictures. Pass out all the example tangram pictures and have parents try making them using their tangram pieces.
-Explain that in "Grandfather Tang's Story" tangrams are used to tell how two fox fairies, Chou and Wu Ling, use their powers to become different animals. In the story, as the fox fairies change their shapes. The tangram pieces are rearranged to make a picture of the new animal shape.

Note to the Facilitator: Use the large animal shapes to show the parents how the tangram pieces are arranged to look like the animals the fox fairies change into throughout the story.

Model reading "Grandfather Tang's Story"
Parents can share books.
Read the book to the parents while they follow along in their books. Encourage the parents to guess which animal each fox fairy is about to change into. Ask them to tell what clues they picked up from the story that helped them make their predictions. (Possible responses: "It was guessed that Chou was going to change from hawk to a crocodile. The guess was made because Chou's hawk-body grew longer, began getting covered with scales, got a long, wicked tail and spike-toothed jaws.")
Have parents share their ideas about the message of this story. (Possible responses: having too much pride can spoil a friendship or being too competitive with friends can become dangerous.
Have the parents read through the book and try to make some of the animals with their tangram pieces.

Note to the Facilitator: if parents are having too difficult a time visualizing the animals the tangrams represent, use the sheets that have both a picture of an animal and the related tangram shape.

Discussion: How the Parents Can Work With The Children
Have the parents share what questions they can ask their children to elicit predictions about what the animals the fox fairies are going to change into next. Share where the predicting questions can be asked. Stress that when predicting, it is not important if the guesses are correct, but it is important that parents involve their children in the process of thinking actively about what they are reading.
Remind the parents to have their children try to arrange the tangram pieces into the different animal shapes.

This discussion time should be a time of clarification and review for the parents of the techniques the parents experienced during the modeling of the reading activity - the contextual clues from the pictures, the humor illustrated in the pictures and the sequencing of the story's events. This time is intended to build the parents ability and confidence for working with their children.

Description of Family Activity:
Parents can introduce their children to tangrams and have them cut their tangram into the 7 pieces.
In parent-child pairs, parents will read "Grandfather Tang's Story" with their children.
Parents will work with their children in arranging their tangram pieces into the shapes of the animals as the book is being read.

Recommended Age of Children:
Seven to ten year old children. This activity requires fine motor skills to cut, arrange and rearrange small shapes.

Ways to Alter Activity for Younger or Older Siblings:
This is not appropriate to alter for pre-school children. For children about five to seven, pre-cut the tangram pieces and let the parents do the arranging.

Extension Activity:
Hand out copies of "The House that Soo Ling Built" and encourage families to finish this story with their own tangram shapes. Have them bring the stories with them for the next family activity and share what they created.
Talk about the displayed books and hand out the prepared lists of related books.
Encourage parents to borrow books on fairy tales.

Related Books:
Books by Ann Tompert: "Just a Little Bit," "The Hungry Black Bag," "Will You Come Back For Me?" "The Jade Horse: The Cricket and the Peach Stone"
Books that illustrate folklore of other cultures: "Strega Nona" and "Legend of Bluebonnet" by Tomie De Paola, "Tasty Baby Belly Buttons: A Japanese Folktale" by Judy Sierra, "Abiyoyo: Based on a South African Lullaby and Folk Story" by Pete Seeger, "Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock" by Eric Kimmel

Evaluation:
There is a brief Participant Evaluation Survey included in the Facilitator's Guide.
These can be completed in writing or orally (by interview of staff one to one or in a group) depending on the English reading and writing abilities of the participants.
Explain that by telling us what they liked and what they didn't like, they help us put together better activities and they teach their children to think about what they liked.
The Participant Evaluation form asks about their satisfaction level and what they learned about using the predicting strategy and what they learned about tangrams.
It asks what they plan to do with what they learned. It asks for their suggestions to improve this activity and suggestions for future activities.

To make suggestions and comments, email: ccolletti@ilsos.net

Notes to Myself - Lessons Learned for Next Time:

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