As part of our six week Unit on Life Cycles we read and compared two versions of Tolstoy's The Enormous (or Gigantic) Turnip. In the book an old man's turnip grows to such an enormous size that he needs the help of his wife, a little girl, a dog, a cat, and a mouse to pull it up.Then we wrote our own version, but kept in mind that we wanted our characters or "helpers" to get smaller and smaller, keeping to the moral that even the smallest helper can make a big difference.

Once upon a time a panda bear planted a little tomato and said, "Grow, grow, little tomato, grow sweet! Grow, grow little tomato, grow strong!"

And the little tomato grew up sweet and strong and big and enormous. Then one day, the panda bear went to pull it up. He pulled and pulled again, but he could not pull it up.

He called the wolf. The wolf pulled the panda bear, the panda bear pulled the tomato. And they pulled and pulled again, but they could not pull it up.

So the wolf called the skunk. The skunk pulled the wolf, the wolf pulled the panda bear, and the panda bear pulled the tomato. And they pulled and pulled again, but they could not pull it up.

The skunk called the parrot. The parrot pulled the skunk. The skunk pulled the wolf, the wolf pulled the panda bear and the panda bear pulled the tomato. And they pulled and pulled again, but they could not pull it up.

The parrot called the pigeon. The pigeon pulled the parrot. The parrot pulled the skunk. The skunk pulled the wolf, the wolf pulled the panda bear, and the panda bear pulled the tomato. And they pulled and pulled again, but they could not pull it up.

The pigeon called the beetle. The beetle pulled the pigeon. The pigeon pulled the parrot. The parrot pulled the skunk. The skunk pulled the wolf, the wolf pulled the panda bear, and the panda bear pulled the tomato.

And they pulled and pulled again, and up came the tomato at last!

The Gigantic Turnip by Aleksei Tolstoy, illustrated by Niamh Sharkey

The Enormous Turnip by Aleksei Tolstoy, illustrated by Scott Goto

Using the Kidspiration activity we developed, everyone then wrote his
or her own version of the tale. A wonderful time was had by all!

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