Literacy Snack Idea Big Problems

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For today’s Literacy Snack Idea Big Problems, we’re reading a fantastic book that covers two aspects of diversity, age, and Native American traditions. We will be reading Big Moon Tortilla, by Joy Cowley.

When Marta ruins her homework and breaks her glasses, Grandmother soothes her with an ancient story and one of her delicious tortillas. This book is set in the Papago reservation in southern Arizona. The watercolor illustrations bring the desert setting and characters to life.

In the book, Marta’s grandmother told her a story to make her understand that her problem wasn’t such a big problem. In her story, there were options on how to deal with problems. She chose one of those options and realized her problem didn’t seem that big anymore. This is a great book to help little ones put in perspective that not all problems are that big.

And of course, Marta got to enjoy a fresh homemade tortilla her grandmother had made her after calming down before returning to her homework. To go along with the book, we’ll be having tortillas for our snack today.

THESE RESOURCES WORK WELL WITH THIS ARTICLE.

snack idea

Have you ever had a freshly made tortilla? They are seriously in my top 3 favorite foods ever. Freshly cooked, warm with butter. MMmm. Obviously that’s not mostly feasible for the classroom so we’ll just be sticking to store-bought tortillas today.

Any size will do just make sure you have enough for one per child. If you have a microwave in your classroom, warming them 5 at a time for a few seconds with a damp paper towel on top works wonderful. You could even offer them some butter to put on them but most of them will eat them plain.

free printable

I made a free printable for the students to work on while they are enjoying their tortilla snacks. They will get to think of a problem that they have or had in the past and choose one of the 4 options from the story of how they will handle the big problem.

They can choose to be like a tree and stand up tall and see the problem from different views. Or they could be like a rock and sit still seeing nothing or doing nothing. They can be like a mountain lion, strong, fierce, and ready to fight. Or they can be like an eagle. The eagle will fly high and laugh at the world and will see how small the earth is and see how small the problem is.

You can download the Literacy Snack Idea Big Problems free printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store by clicking the green box below.

I hope your students enjoy this book as much as I do! See you next time!

Jenette