#525. "Dan the Flying Man"

Literature, level: Elementary
Posted Mon Jul 20 12:54:08 PDT 1998 by Literature Chatboard ().
Materials Required: varied
Activity Time: varied
Concepts Taught: literature extension

Post: A new big book to work on

Posted by Joni, on 6/10/98

I'd love to hear your ideas about a class favorite -- DAN THE FLYING MAN. We body
trace each other as _____, the flying person, and hang them up all over the room. I have a
bit of trouble coming up with other ideas. Thanks in advance. I love this board!

Joni

: A new big book to work on
Posted by Peachy on 6/11/98

Here are a few for K:
-Find rhyming words for "Dan". Write them so the children can
see them. Ask what they notice about all the words. After they
notice the same ending, have different children circle the"an"
in each word with Wikki Stix.
-Take a sentence from the book and copy it on a sentence
strip. Read it several times together, and then cut it into
individual words and have the children put the words in the
right order for the sentence.
_Play the Wordo game Pat Cunningham describes in Phonics Their
Way, using words from Dan The Flying Man.

Re: Dan the Flying Man
Posted by Addie k/mo,on 6/11/98

I love Dan, the Flying Man!!! Here are some of the things we do:

Write an innovation of the story:
You could do "I am (your name) the (verbing) man." and illustrate.
Or you could do "Over ________________" and have the kids illustrate. Both ways turn
out well.

Another book that complements Dan is "Why Can't I Fly?" I cant remember the author,
but it is an I can read book and it is about a little monkey that is trying to fly.

Teach the class to fold paper airplanes. Take them outside and fly them. If you want you
could hold contests. Some we have done are: everyone stands on a starting line and
throws their planes one at a time, the one who goes the farthest stays until another plane
beats it......everyone throws their planes one at a time and the kids count to see which
plane stays up the longest....throw the planes one at a time and see which one does the
most loops. You could measure the distance the planes flew if you wanted to use rulers or
yardsticks.

Make balloon rockets. Decorate a lunch sized sack like a rocket. Blow up a long balloon,
but don"t tie it. Stick it inside the sack and let go...BLAST OFF!!!

We made a video of Dan...one year. We used large(15"x36") pieces of tagboard and drew
the things that Dan flew over in the story. Then we lined up four chairs in a row and stood
the murals in front of the chairs, so you couldn't see the chairs. One child on each side
held up the pix. We played the tape and several kids were in line by the chairs. When the
tape said "over flowers, over flowers" one child walked across the chairs with his/her arms
out as if flying, then the next child walked across over the next item. The kids laid down
the pictures as they were used in the song. Then on the last part all the "Dans" walked
back in front of the camera, held hands and took a bow. The kids loved making this video
and watching the video.

Re: Dan the Flying Man
Posted by Katharine, on 6/13/98
These are some great ideas, thanks.

We make the hats -- just out of tag board, but they are awfully
cute. We memorize the book as a poem, and of course act it out.

Because we have a teacher on site known as "Dan the Farmer Man"
(you can guess why) we use that kind of sentence to write more
books/poems, naming the types of things that Dan with a new
occupation might fly over. (Dan the teacher man. Dan the Fire
man. Dan the truck driving man.) I like the use the kids'
parents' occupations.

Re: Dan the Flying Man
Posted by Joni, on 6/16/98

I just got another great idea for Dan the Flying Man at a conference today. This teacher
read the book at the beginning of the year. Then she had each child draw him/herself. (She
had precut head and neck shapes for each child). Then each child wrote (or teacher could
write) I am ____________ (their name inserted in the blank). She put these out on the
bulletin board at the beginning of the year. She also did one for herself. I just wanted to
share because I thought it was such a cute idea!

Thanks for all the great ideas! I can't wait to read Dan next fall with my cuties! Question
Kat, HOW do you make the hats??!? They sound wonderful.

Joni