‘PIE 5 Reader's Cupboard' serves up literary treats

Warwick — Care for a delicious heaping bowlful of Gribley Grubs cereal? What’s that you say? Not partial to grubs for breakfast? Well then, how about a healthy handful of Frightful-O’s to begin your day? Or what about Chick-a-DeeZ Crunch with milk? If these cereals sound a little strange to you, it is all due to Jean Craighead George’s novel, My Side Of The Mountain, starring Sam Gribley and a whole host of unforgettable characters. Colin McLaughlin’s class at Sanfordville Elementary School has been gobbling up tasty literature in “PIE 5 Readers’ Cupboard,” as they have made their way thematically through the fifth grade curriculum. Linking content areas is one of the hallmarks of learning within a PIE classroom; in this case, social studies, specifically U.S. geography and history, with language arts. Students read the novels, chapter by chapter, as a group. Questions related to the day’s reading were assigned as homework to foster the understanding and analysis of plot and characterization. An art project was then assigned, which allowed each student to creatively expand on their understanding of the novel. Enter the myriad of new cereal varieties described at the outset of the article. Students were asked to “create” a cereal based on one of the characters, or any aspect of the setting or theme of My Side Of The Mountain. Within specific guidelines, they had to replicate the actual packaging on a cereal box using facts from the novel. Creating the name and cover design of the cereal generated some clever names and interesting art work. And where else to store your cereal, than in a cupboard, in this case, a PIE 5 Readers’ Cupboard. Displayed on the hallway wall outside their classroom, students got to see their cereal boxes on decorated shelves complete with cozy curtains. Subsequent novels read by the class included Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, Bound For Oregon by Jan Van Leeuwen and The Story Of Sacajawea by Della Rowland. The Readers’ Cupboard cereal boxes were joined by comic strips depicting episodes in Where The Red Fern Grows. The boxes were replaced by Conestoga wagons as students journeyed westward on the migration trail to the Oregon Territory with the Todd family, in Bound For Oregon. The wagons had to contain items necessary for the journey. The students fabricated the survival items from bits and pieces of raw materials found in the classroom. A look inside showed lots of cooking utensils, clothing, quilts and Bibles had made their way into the wagons. The teacher’s mother, Karuna McLaughlin, joined student’s parents Melissa Shaw-Smith and Kathryn Petrillo-Klein in lending artistic and literary assistance to help make the projects come alive. “Certainly many literary memories were created in the PIE 5 Reader’s Cupboard this year,” said Kathryn Petrillo-Klein. “May the class cupboard, as well as each student’s, remain well stocked for many years to come.”