One of my very favorite children’s authors is Tomie de Paola. I love all his books and have shared most of them with my kids. My favorite is Strega Nona. Read the book and extend the learning with this unit study.
This post is part of the 31 Days of Literature Unit Ideas series. You can find all of the books in the series here. You can get this literature unit study as well as 44 others and lots of great literature unit study resources here in my free ebook The Ultimate Book of Unit Studies for Literature Lovers.
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About the book…
Strega Nona is translated “Grandma Witch” and she’s known in the town for her magic potions and spells. But she’s especially famous for her magic pasta pot that can make pasta whenever she wishes. When Strega Nona goes down to the town she leaves her assistant Big Anthony with strict instructions not to mess with her pasta pot. But Big Anthony’s curiosity gets the best of him, and he finds himself in big trouble when the pasta pot won’t stop.
Although Strega Nona is considered a witch, she’s definitely a good and helpful person in this story. She does do magic- most involved in helping other people. So if you don’t like that sort of thing you may not choose Strega Nona. There is a very good moral to the story when Big Anthony learns the importance of obeying, even when he doesn’t understand why, and of honesty.
Learning activities…
- Geography- Strega Nona is from Calabria, Italy. Find and color Italy on this map of Europe, and then use this map to find Calabria and label it on the Europe map.
- Geography- On this site you can find pictures of Calabria, Italy.
- Social Studies- Learn about Italy and its culture from the Kids World Travel Guide site.
- Language arts– Tomie de Paola has written quite a few Strega Nona books. Use the template on this site to make your own book and write your own story about Strega Nona. (Let younger children dictate.)
- Hands-on- Make your own Strega Nona house with pasta bubbling out. You can find a house template and instructions here.
- Hands-on- This site also has simple instructions for making your own homemade pasta.
- Language arts- This story is a great one to use when talking about sequence- the order that things happen in a story. You can find a free printable here that has kids put in order the events in the story. If you have younger kids, this site has story sequence cards with pictures.
- Hands-on/language arts– Strega Nona is a great story to act out. Assign parts to kids and siblings and act out the story.
- Science- Give kids a variety of dry pasta shapes. Have them experiment to see which shapes can be used to build the tallest structure, the strongest structure, the longest structure, etc. Talk about why the different shapes work better for different projects.
- Science- Read this interesting article to learn about why pasta boils over when you’re cooking it and some other very interesting facts about the science of pasta.
- Science- Try this experiment to see how strong strands of spaghetti are.
Other resources…
- Watch a video of the story with Tomie de Paola reading.
- This cute video from the Jim Henson Company has the Strega Nona characters as puppets talking to Tomie de Paola.
- Learn about Tomie de Paola and about being an artist (he illustrates his books) from the author’s website.
- This free printable pack from abcteach has vocabulary, word search, crossword puzzle and more.
- This is not a free resource, but Hands of a Child has a great Strega Nona lapbook.
Other favorite Tomie de Paola books…
- The Legend of the Poinsettia- This book tells the Mexican legend behind the well-known Christmas flower.
- The Night of Los Posadas- Los Posadas is the Christmas tradition of a parade with a Mary and Joseph who go door to door asking for refuge on Christmas Eve. On this night, Sister Angie, the coordinator is home with the flu, and the couple playing Mary and Joseph are caught in a snowstorm. But two strangers show up to take their place, and the town witnesses a special Christmas.
- The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush– Texas and Wyoming both have the beautifully colored flowers known as Indian Paintbrush. This book tells the Indian legend of how the flowers got their name.
- The Clown of God– This is a beautiful retelling of a French legend about a juggler who came to see the Christ child at his birth and offered the only talent he had- his juggling.
- 26 Fairmount Avenue– This is a part of Tomie’s autobiography, written for children. My girls loved this glimpse into the life of an author we really enjoy.
- There are so many, many Tomie de Paola books we love. You can find his author page on Amazon here.
Literature unit booklist…
- Getting to Know Italy and Italian by Emma Sansone
- Italy ABCs: A Book About the People and Places of Italy by Sharon Katz Cooper
- C is for Ciao: An Italy Alphabet by Elissa D. Grodin and Mario Cuomo
- Ciao Bambino: A Child’s Tour of Italy by Danna Troncatty Leahy
- Noodle Kids: Around the World in 50 Fun, Healthy, Creative Recipes the Whole Family Can Cook Together by Jonathon Sawyer
You can get this literature unit study as well as 44 others and lots of great literature unit study resources here in my free ebook The Ultimate Book of Unit Studies for Literature Lovers.
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