During one of the 2nd grade learning units, Ms. Aden’s classes were asked to choose an animal that they were interested in and study that animal, taking note of its characteristics (weight, size, texture, adaptations, etc.) then they designed and hand-stitched many of those characteristics onto their felt animal shape. They wrote about their animals and now use those animals as puppets in class to act out and invent stories with dissecting story elements such as character, theme, problem/solution, etc.