We've all heard Cinderella's sad tale, but what about they ugly stepsister's point of view? Teach perspective and point of view using these engaging and familiar picture book stories. Add in some extra fun with magnifying glasses, sunglasses and some mini spiral notebooks and then have the students create their own tale!
Every year I look for more and more ways to add picture books into my weekly lessons because let's be honest, upper graders love picture books just as much as the primary students do. Picture books are a great way to teach skills that all upper graders need to learn. Whether it be sequencing, inferencing or cause and effect, adding a picture book greatly enhances your mini lesson and ups student engagement. 
Every year I look for more and more ways to add picture books into my weekly lessons because let's be honest, upper graders love picture books just as much as the primary students do. Picture books are a great way to teach skills that all upper graders need to learn. Whether it be sequencing, inferencing or cause and effect, adding a picture book greatly enhances your mini lesson and ups student engagement.
I love the Capstone® book series because it makes planning my literacy centers a breeze. My students were very engaged when we used the Capstone Multicultural Fairy Tale Readers - Set of 4. I knew instantly that I needed this set of Capstone® The Other Side of the Story Books (Set 1) to help teach point of view.
These great books come in a set of seven, so they are perfect for literacy centers. The kids were excited because they all know story of Cinderella, but with these flipped fairy tales, they get to read about the ugly stepsister's point of view!
We needed some special detective tools to help us while we read these flipped fairy tales. The students loved wearing the Black Nomad Sunglasses - 12 Pc. which coorelated with our mini-lesson about point of view. I then challenged them to use the 4x Magnifying Glasses to help them look for differences they noticed from the new perspective shared in the Capstone® The Other Side of the Story Books (Set 1) - Set of 7 book they chose.
They recorded the differences in these Top Secret Spiral Notebooks, which they absolutely loved. It is really wild how adding simple things like sunglasses and a tiny notebook can up the engagement in such an amazing way. These items took the lesson from good to great!
After they read the story, they chose a fairy tale to flip. They planned their writing, focusing on contrasting character traits. The goal was to make the vilian look like the good guy and make the hero look not so good.
They had a blast and at the end of the week published their writing in these Lined Softcover Journals. The students shared their writing with a second grade class and it was so fun to share this project with them. I can't wait to display these books at our next Open House and I can't wait until my next shipment of these Capstone® books.
