Woksape (wisdom)

"The Mouse Moral: Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole." (from Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young).  While this story is a simple story with an easy to follow pattern, highlighting colors and days of the week, it has a bigger message.  Each mouse discovers part of the Something.  But it takes all of the parts together to figure out that the Something is really an elephant.  Students made connections to this text, with thoughts including:
     *You can't always do things by yourself. 
     *Sometimes it takes teamwork.
     *You have to know what you can do by yourself and what you need a team for.
     *It's like when we read.  If you look at just the words in a book, you don't get the whole story.  You have to use all the clues the author gives you to   
      be a good reader.
     *To be wise, you must put all the parts together.  You must know when you need a little help too.