Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

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Vidal’s illustrations have a folktale vibe about them, partly due to those nice white outlines reminiscent of a woodcut.

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.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. 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. 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. Culminating Activity • Students will complete a Story Map using text evidence from the story. • Students may use shoulder partners. 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?

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. Day Two: Set a Purpose • What is a retelling? • What parts does a good retelling have? Turn and Talk

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This book could be used with a variety of ages. For younger classes, it could be an engaging read aloud. For older classes, it could be used as part of a larger unit of mythology or poetry. I love books about myths and I'm always looking for resources for my students from different areas of Africa to connect to. I look forward to adding this book to my classroom library. 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. 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 Turn and Talk • What do we need to know about the story to do a retelling? • Who is the main character in the story? How would you describe him? • What is the setting? • What is the problem in the story? • Why is rain important to Kapiti Plain? • How did Ki-pat react when he saw how hungry and dry his cows were? • How does the character respond to the problem? • What is the result of his actions? • What is the solution in the story? • What is the central message of the story? What are the key details in the story that support your answer? 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 ENDING