ELA / Kindergarten / Unit 4: Falling in Love with Authors and Illustrators
Students explore the works of four award-winning authors and illustrators, Grace Lin, Yuyi Morales, Monica Brown and Jerry Pinkney, learning about their lives and inspirations.
ELA
Unit 4
Kindergarten
Jump To
In this unit, students explore and experience the works of four award-winning authors and illustrators; Grace Lin, Yuyi Morales, Monica Brown, and Jerry Pinkney. Students will think critically and make connections between the author or illustrator’s life and the stories he or she writes or illustrates, and how each author’s unique personality is reflected in the words or pictures. By studying a wide variety of authors and illustrators, we hope that the foundations will be set for a lifelong interest in reading and books. In future units and grades, students will read additional award-winning stories written or illustrated by the different authors and illustrators from the unit.
This unit builds on Welcome to School, Noticing Patterns in Stories, and Celebrating Fall and assumes that students are inquisitive consumers of text, asking and answering questions while listening to and enjoying a story. Students will continue to work on retelling a story, including key details about the setting, characters, and major events. Students will also continue to be challenged to "read" the illustrations and think about how the illustrations help a reader better understand what is happening in the story. At the end of this unit, students should also be able to clearly articulate and define the role of the author and illustrator and why they are both important.
To build speaking and listening skills, students continue to work on clarifying and sharing their thoughts while engaging with the thinking of others. Students practice continuing the conversation through multiple exchanges, asking and answering questions and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
Students continue to work on building writing fluency by writing daily in response to the Target Task question. Students learn strategies for crafting statements and questions orally and in writing, and practice using end punctuation when writing statements or questions. In this unit students return to opinion writing, continuing to work on crafting opinions. After learning about each author or illustrator, students will write a letter to the author/illustrator explaining which book was their favorite. Additionally, students will begin to explore narrative writing, narrating a single event, with a beginning, middle, and end..
Fishtank Plus for ELA
Unlock features to optimize your prep time, plan engaging lessons, and monitor student progress.
Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, we receive a small portion of the proceeds, which supports our non-profit mission.
Book: The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin (Charlesbridge, 2001) — 390L
Book: Kite Flying by Grace Lin (Dragonfly Books, 2004) — 280L
Book: Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin (Dragonfly Books, 2003) — AD250L
Book: Fortune Cookie Fortunes by Grace Lin (Dragonfly Books, 2006) — 490L
Book: Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales (Square Fish, 2015) — 420L
Book: Tito Puente, Mambo King by Monica Brown (Rayo, 2013) — AD620L
Book: My Name is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz by Monica Brown (Cooper Square Publishing LLC, 2004) — AD0L
Book: Pelé, King of Soccer by Monica Brown (HarperCollins, 2017) — AD620L
Book: My Name is Gabriela: The Life of Gabriela Mistral by Monica Brown (National Geographic School Pub, 2010) — AD440L
Book: The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009)
Book: Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book by Yuyi Morales (Roaring Book Press, 2008) — AD530L
Book: The Tortoise & the Hare by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition, 2013)
Book: The Grasshopper and the Ants by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition, 2015)
Book: Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book by Yuyi Morales (Chronicle Books, 2016) — 540L
Book: Dreamers by Yuyi Morales (Neal Porter Books; Illustrated Edition, 2018) — AD480L
Assessment Text: “Thanking the Moon” by Grace Lin (Knopf Books for Young Readers) — AD1060LL
These assessments accompany this unit and should be given on the suggested assessment day or after completing the unit.
Download Content Assessment
Download Content Assessment Answer Key
Download Cold Read Assessment
Download Cold Read Assessment Answer Key
Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit
Unit Launch
Prepare to teach this unit by immersing yourself in the texts, themes, and core standards. Unit Launches include a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning.
The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units
Specific skills to focus on when giving feedback on writing assignments
Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text
attach challenge contagious courageous confident contender defeat fortune imagination immigrant jealous kite little lonely overcome patient prepare proud steady talent ugly
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 4, view our Kindergarten Vocabulary Glossary.
Fishtank ELA units related to the content in this unit.
In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.
Explain how the family works together to build a kite by using details and illustrations to retell key details and events in a text.
RL.K.2 RL.K.6 RL.K.7 SL.K.1
Describe dim sum and how the family feels about dim sum using details and illustrations to retell key details and events in the text.
L.K.4 L.K.4 RL.K.2 RL.K.3 RL.K.6 RL.K.7
Explain how the family’s fortune cookie fortunes came true and why by using details and illustrations to retell key details and events in a text.
L.K.4 RL.K.2 RL.K.3 RL.K.6 RL.K.7
Explain why the little girl changes her mind about the ugly vegetables.
L.K.4 L.K.6 RL.K.2 RL.K.3 RL.K.7
Discussion & Writing – 2 days
Write a letter to Grace Lin explaining which story is your favorite and why.
L.K.1.b L.K.1.f L.K.1.f L.K.2.a L.K.2.b SL.K.1 SL.K.2 SL.K.3 SL.K.5 SL.K.6 W.K.1 W.K.5 W.K.7 W.K.8
Explain what challenges Yuyi and her son faced and how they overcame them.
L.K.4 L.K.6 RL.K.2 RL.K.3 RL.K.6 RL.K.7
Describe Niño and what lesson he learns.
Explain how Grandma Beetle tricks Señor Calavera.
RL.K.2 RL.K.3 RL.K.6 RL.K.7
Explain Señor Calavera’s problem and how he solves it.
Discussion & Writing
Write a letter to Yuyi Morales explaining which story is your favorite and why.
L.K.1.b SL.K.1 SL.K.3 SL.K.5 SL.K.6 W.K.1 W.K.5 W.K.7 W.K.8
Explain who Tito Puente is and why Tito Puente is famous.
RI.K.2 RI.K.3 RI.K.6 RI.K.7 SL.K.1
Explain why Celia Cruz was famous.
L.K.4 L.K.6 RI.K.2 RI.K.3 RI.K.6 RI.K.7 SL.K.1
Describe why Pelé is famous.
RI.K.2 RI.K.6 RI.K.7 RL.K.3 SL.K.1
Explain who Gabriela Mistral is and why she was famous.
Write a letter to Monica Brown explaining which story is your favorite and why.
Retell what happens in The Lion and the Mouse.
RL.K.2 RL.K.3 RL.K.7 SL.K.1
Retell what happens in the beginning, middle, and end of The Tortoise & The Hare.
Retell what happens in The Grasshopper and the Ants.
Write a letter to Jerry Pinkney explaining which story is your favorite and why.
L.K.1.b SL.K.1 SL.K.2 SL.K.3 SL.K.5 SL.K.5 SL.K.6 SL.K.6 W.K.1 W.K.5 W.K.7 W.K.8
Discussion
Explain which author or illustrator was their favorite.
RL.K.6 SL.K.1 SL.K.3 SL.K.3 SL.K.3 SL.K.5 SL.K.5 SL.K.5 SL.K.5 SL.K.5 SL.K.6 W.K.1 W.K.7
Assessment
Writing – 4 days
Write a story about something you love.
L.K.1.b L.K.2.a L.K.2.b W.K.3 W.K.5
Create a free account to access thousands of lesson plans.
Already have an account? Sign In
The content standards covered in this unit
L.K.1 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.K.1.b — Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.
L.K.1.f — Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities.
L.K.2 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.K.2.a — Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I.
L.K.2.b — Recognize and name end punctuation.
L.K.4 — Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.
L.K.6 — Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.
RI.K.2 — With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
RI.K.3 — With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
RI.K.6 — Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.
RI.K.7 — With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
RL.K.2 — With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
RL.K.3 — With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
RL.K.6 — With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
RL.K.7 — With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
SL.K.2 — Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
SL.K.3 — Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
SL.K.5 — Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
SL.K.6 — Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
W.K.1 — Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is…).
W.K.3 — Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.
W.K.5 — With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
W.K.7 — Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).
W.K.8 — With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
L.K.1.a — Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
L.K.1.d — Understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).
L.K.1.e — Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).
L.K.5 — With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
RI.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RI.K.10 — Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.K.4 — Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
RL.K.9 — With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
RL.K.10 — Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Unit 3
Celebrating Fall
Unit 5
Winter Wonderland
See all of the features of Fishtank in action and begin the conversation about adoption.
Learn more about Fishtank Learning School Adoption.
Yes
No
Access rigorous, relevant, and adaptable ELA lesson plans for free