How Chipmunk Got His Stripes
by Joseph & James Bruchac, Jose Aruego, & Ariane Dewey
Description:
Publisher's description (Puffin Books, 2003): In this retelling of a Native American pourquoi tale, Brown Squirrel challenges prideful Bear to keep the sun from rising.
Bear brags that he can do anything-even stop the sun from rising. Brown Squirrel doesn't believe him, so the two wait all night to see if the sun will rise. Sure enough, the sky reddens and the sun appears. Brown Squirrel is so happy to be right that he teases Bear. What happens when a little brown squirrel teases a big black bear? Brown Squirrel gets stripes and is called chipmunk from that day forward . . . Joseph and James Bruchac join forces to create this buoyant picturebook, based on a Native American folktale.
Resource format: Picturebook
Age recommendation: Kindergarten - Grade 3
Keywords: Native American, oral tradition, storytelling, animals, origin story
Year of publication: 2003
Publisher information: Puffin Books
Teaching and Learning Ideas
Our team collaborated with new teachers, alumni of the Werklund School of Education’s Bachelor of Education program, to create teaching and learning plans for texts in this website. With audiences ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to Post-Secondary, lesson plans across this resource address a wide range of school subject areas, inclusive approaches, and Indigenous education topics, such as the revitalization of Indigenous languages. As this website was designed with Undergraduate Programs in Education instructors, as well as teachers in mind, connections to UPE courses have been flagged on each lesson plan. These lessons are intended as a starting place for educators, to help you envision ways in which you might bring Indigenous literatures, as well as ways of knowing, being, and doing, into your teaching contexts. Please adapt, use, and share these lessons in ways that are generative for your teaching practice. We offer our sincere thanks to the dozens of new teachers who gifted us with these creative ideas!
Return to Search for Resources