Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

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Group Retelling Cards • Work with your table partners to create retelling cards about the story, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. • Use text-evidence from the story to guide your retelling. • When your cards are complete, we will have time to share. Strength/weaknesses: The repetitive pattern gives the reader a pleasant sensation of predictability which could possibly help enable emerging readers to work their way through the text. The story suggests the interconnectedness of events, sort of a child's version of systems theory. Not so much a weakness as a common element in traditional literature, but in the story the drought ended because an Eagle feather dropped from the sky. Do young readers ever ask if a causal relationship between the feather dropping and the drought ending has been satisfactorily established? Well, I’m guessing there will be another drought in Kipat’s lifetime. At some point he’s going to learn that him shooting that arrow into the sky was coincidental rather than causal. Until then, I’m sure he’s properly full of himself. RESONANCE Culminating Activity • Students will complete a Story Map using text evidence from the story. • Students may use shoulder partners.

Focusing on the main character, Kipat, his big problem is that a drought affects Kapiti Plain, and his cows can’t get enough to eat and drink. DESIRE

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Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain” is a folktale from the Nandi people in Kenya. It is about Ki-pat, a herdsman who tries to make it rain during a drought so the cattle will have grass to graze on. Complete Vocabulary Chart Use context clues and the illustrations to determine the meaning of the words as they are used in the text. Complete the last column by writing the meaning of the word from the story. You may work with a partner.

This story is traditional literature because it is a folktale. It is a simple story with a clever hero who saves the cattle. It was passed down by storytellers until it was written down in 1909. This is a more recent adaptation.Vidal’s illustrations have a folktale vibe about them, partly due to those nice white outlines reminiscent of a woodcut.

The Nandi are an ethnic group in East Africa, living in the highlands of Kenya. This book is about a particular area called the Kapiti Plain and is a Nandi folktale about a drought and how one man was able to bring rain to the plain. I don’t know how Kapiti is meant to be pronounced — semi-arid lands in Kenya with a 550mm average rainfall — but my pronunciation is influenced by the name of the south-western North Island of New Zealand, called Kapiti Coast, in which the first syllable is stressed. Why the cumulative story structure? These can be tedious to read for tired parents, especially if you’re reading at bedtime; in my experience I start yawning uncontrollably. However, a cumulative tale that builds on itself is a good narrative choice for an environmental story, because cumulative tales emphasise connections between things. Set a Purpose • What are context clues? • How do we use pictures to help us understand what the word means? • How do you use text to help us understand the word? Turn and Talk Like many old tales about young men who solve a problem and become successful, Kipat is rewarded with a wife. Woman as chattel, treated as about as important as the cows. How Nandi folklore thinks of cattle… and human mothers. EXTRAPOLATED ENDINGDay Two: Set a Purpose • What is a retelling? • What parts does a good retelling have? Turn and Talk A traditional tale filled with rhymes and repetitive texts which portrayed the Kapiti plain beautifully. The illustrations pinned out the exact drought situation and the tribes of Africa. Kipat has worked out how to make it rain. Honestly, I kind of wish this is how it worked. NEW SITUATION