Introduction Kindergarten   Lesson One     Experience One     Experience Two     Experience Three   Lesson Two   Lesson Three Grades One and Two Grades Three and Four Online Games and Activities Culminating Experience Train Glossary National Standards		Kindergarten: Lesson One - Experience Two Reading Roundhouse >> Resources What do stories about trains and train heroes tell us? Students explore trains and train heroes as characters in stories, legends and folklore. Objectives: Experience Two will enable students to: Identify the main characters and events in train stories and folklore. Determine the main theme or message in stories. Retell stories in their own words or summarize the main events in a story using a graphic organizer. Consider why trains and the people who work on trains and railroads have become important characters in stories. Examine the personal qualities of heroes in train stories and legends. You will need... Materials: Books, such as The Little Engine That Could or Thomas the Tank Engine, construction paper, crayons; Visual 3: What a Character! Time: Two to three 30-minute periods Words: More powerful than a locomotive... Character Focus Questions: Use these questions to help students focus on key ideas in Experience Two. Why do trains, especially locomotives, remind us of people? What a Character! Indiana's Academic Standards: Language Arts - Standard 2: Reading Comprehension (K.2.2, K.2.5); Standard 3: Literary Response and Analysis (K.3.3); Standard 4: Writing Process (K.4.3). Procedures: Before beginning the experience, make sure the Reading Roundhouse has a good selection of stories and picture books on trains. Day One: Prepare students to listen to The Little Engine That Could or Thomas the Tank Engine by asking them to think about the sounds that a train makes. Do people ever make similar sounds? (For example, people might make huffing and puffing sounds when they are out of breath.) Have students practice making some train sounds, and then ask them to listen for sounds in the story. Read the story aloud to students. Help students to use pictures and context to make predictions about story content. Help students remember the train words they learned in Experience One as the story is read. Day Two: Review or read the story again. Ask students to tell who the story is about. Explain that this individual is called the main character. Ask students to describe the main character: Does this character have a name? What does he or she look like? Why does this character seem like a real person? Discuss the message of the story: How does the main character behave? What does the story say about the way people should behave? Assessment: Give each student a copy of Visual 3: What a Character! Have students use markers to give the locomotive the features of a person, such as eyes, a nose and a mouth. Ask students to pretend their locomotive is a friend. What is this friend like? Have students give their locomotive character a name and write the name or the first letter of the name on their drawing. Some students may want to dictate a story about their character for the teacher to write down. Performance Criteria: Each student should be able to describe the locomotive he or she has drawn, giving it personal characteristics and a name. Train of Thought Journal: Ask students to help create a locomotive character for the Big Book of Trains. Use What a Character! as a model for the locomotive. Ask students to suggest words, such as "happy," "sad," or "friendly" to describe this character. Write suggested words on a wipe-off board or the chalkboard and have students pick three words they like best. Use the same process to have students select a name. Draw the locomotive's face with eyes, nose and mouth and write the name and descriptive words on the journal page. Encourage students to think about this question: Would this locomotive make a good character for a story? Later, students will be able to read this page and remember the character they helped to create. They may even want to make up their own stories and tell them to other students or an adult. John Henry and Casey Jones: For a long time, trains have inspired the imaginations of storytellers. There are many stories for children in which a train or a locomotive is the central character or plays an important role. Stories of trains and heroic railroad workers have become part of our folklore. Legends, like that of John Henry, take place in a historical context and often contain exaggerations and elements of fantasy. Actual events, individuals or circumstances may have inspired some legends. Usually these stories come from unknown authors and are handed down from one storyteller to another long before they are ever written down. The Casey Jones story is based on the accounts of people who survived the famous train wreck. The real John Luther Jones was born in 1863 near Cayce, Ky. He became known as Casey while working on the Illinois Central Railroad. Early versions of the John Henry story originated from an African-American ballad. Several states in the eastern half of the United States claim John Henry and his legend. We may never know if the story is based on historical events. We do know that between 1870 and 1873 the Big Bend Tunnel on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was built through the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia, a site mentioned in several versions of the ballad. The Coosa Mountain Tunnel, built from 1887 to 1888 near Birmingham, Ala., is another potential site. We also know that in those days many hard-working people, like "the steel-driving man," risked their lives in dangerous jobs. They must have felt a sense of pride in their work. At the same time, machines were beginning to take the place of human workers in factories, farms and railroads. The John Henry and Casey Jones legends tell us that, no matter what, human strength and courage make a difference. Tips for the Teacher: In Experience Two, students learn how to recognize the main characters and events in a story. Using a graphic organizer of some sort is a good way to help them identify and summarize major events and begin to consider the relationship that events in a story have to each other. Stories usually have three major parts: The beginning introduces the main characters, the setting and an event that sets the plot in motion. The middle introduces complications or a problem that leads to a crisis. The end brings a resolution to the problem and a conclusion to the story. Bonus - Story Train: Extend students' experience by using the Story Train to create their own stories. Have Kindergarten students make up and tell a story about the locomotive character they have drawn. The teacher or another adult can write down the story. (Language Arts K.4.2) Older students can use the graphic organizer to plan and then write their own legend about a train or train hero. Students should review, evaluate and revise their own work. (Language Arts 1.4.3, 1.5.1, 2.4.6, 2.5.1, 3.4.6, 3.5.1, 4.4.10, 4.5.1)