For our last inclusive pod project of 2020 we let the third graders write their own version of the traditional tale, Stone Soup.
Spoiler alert: It barely involves a stone and even if you squint your eyes it does not really follow the Stone Soup narrative arch.
In this tale, an FBI Agent/British Investigator comes back to his old town to visit the restaurant where he used to work, run by the Carrot Brothers. These are played by actual carrots with faces drawn on them. One version of the Carrot Brothers included clothes, but those carrots began to rot before filming began. On his return from his FBI/ British Investigator work he is met by the rude Chugga Chugga Choo Choo family who promptly tells him to get out of town and calls him rude names like Hobo Pants. The family includes Mama, who is also a Detective/Night Watch-woman, a brother named Chubs McNubs, a sister, a father, and two birds who are just as rude as the rest of the family.
As a part of our schedule in our inclusive pod, we begin each session with a group meeting where we review the day’s message, talk about the date, and review our plans for the day. At the end of this meeting I give each grade level a math challenge based on what we are learning. Right now, the first graders are working on identifying coins, so we’ve been counting coins. The third graders have to count a mix of change, tell me the amount and also identify how much more money they need until they get to one dollar. The first graders have to count one group of coins (pennies, nickels, dimes – not mixed) and tell me how much there is.
As our inclusive pod goes on I continue to contribute much of the success to the theory that if you plan for the students on the two extremes of your group – those who may need the more intensive support and those who may need extensions, then i
we wanted to do a project that dealt with thankfulness, but hadn’t found one yet.
Last week I only touched the surface of the benefits my own children have gotten from participating in the inclusive pod. Shortly after I wrote, we experienced this moment, which confirmed everything I believe in the value of inclusive settings. 
