In this integrated primary science and language arts elementary lesson plan, students learn the characteristics of a cumulative tale, identify what two examples of cumulative stories teach about how to grow plants in gardens, and write their own informative garden-themed cumulative stories.
What is a Cumulative Tale?
A cumulative story follows a repetitive pattern or text structure: each page repeats the text from the previous page, adding a new line/plot element at the end. As the details pile up, the tale builds to a climax. Because of the repetition, these tales can be useful devices for helping children memorize important information.
NOTE: In class discussion, substitute "add and repeat tale" for the more difficult term cumulative.
Examples of Cumulative Tales
Explain to primary students how add and repeat tales work. Note examples such as "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" or "This Is the House That Jack Built." Discuss how the use of repetition and rhyme makes the lines in these tales easy to remember.
Language Arts and Science Elementary Lesson Plan – How Sunflowers Grow
Share the children's picture book This Is the Sunflower by Lola M. Schaefer [Greenwillow Books, 2000]. After finishing each spread, have students identify which lines repeated and which are new. Have students take notes about each new bit of information provided on how sunflowers grow. Ask them to create a sequence of events chart to record how each event leads to the next.
At the end of the book, have students identify the climax of the book – how a single sunflower has turned into a patch of sunflowers – and summarize in a sentence or two what they have learned about the sunflower life cycle.
Science and Language Arts Elementary Lesson Plan – How to Plant a Garden
Share the children's picture book Jack's Garden by Henry Cole [Greenwillow Books, 1995]. After finishing each spread, have students identify what words are repeated and which are new. Ask students to examine each illustration, identifying what is shown in the main picture and around the margins.
Then, have students summarize the main idea of each spread, identifying what it teaches them about how to grow a garden. Ask them to create a sequence of events chart to record how each event leads to the next.
At the end of the book, ask students to identify the climax of the book – the series of actions Jack has performed has led to a garden full of grown plants that he can enjoy – and use information from the book to write a set of steps in a process explaining how to plant a garden.
Write an Add and Repeat Tale
Have pairs or small groups of students use their knowledge about how plants grow and how to plant a garden and what they have just learned about add and repeat tales to write their own cumulative story about how plants grow. Remind them to use rhymes and a repetitive pattern to make their text easier to remember.
Suggest that students:
- Plan how many steps to include in their tale.
- Write the whole tale.
- Break the tale into pieces so that a new line is added on each page.
Have students illustrate and publish their finished work, placing it in the class Reading Center to share.
Reading works from a variety of genres helps students become more accomplished readers and provides them with examples of multiple text structures to use as writing models. By reading the two children's picture books in this language arts and science elementary lesson plan, students learn about plant growth and how to write a cumulative story.
Teachers can check out another text structure spring writing elementary lesson plan.
Renee Carver - Renée Carver has an Elementary Education degree and over ten years of experience writing and editing children's educational products.
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