Schema: teachers, field trips
Inference: Mrs. Millie uses animal words that rhyme in place of the real word. Ask the students to infer what Mrs. Millie really means before you read what her students say when they correct her.
Mental Images: Make a mental image of the things Mrs. Millie says. The illustrations will help you. Talk about literal meanings.
Schema: dancing, stories about mice
Text-to-Self connections: More than anything else…what do you love?
Inference: What do you infer that Angelina’s parents are thinking as she is dancing down the stairs?
What do we infer is the reason that Angelina is making sad and funny faces in the mirror?
Verbs: Angelina skipped and practiced, and twirled and spun and each is shown with an illustration of the action.
Cause and Effect: Because Angelina is dancing in the kitchen, the effect is that she knocks over the milk and cheddar-cheese pies.
Because Angelina is so happy about taking dance lessons every day, the effect is that she listens to her parents and helps them more at home.
Because Angelina worked hard in her dance classes for many years, the effect is that she became a successful ballerina.
Predicting: What do you predict that Mr. Mouseling is going to do to solve the problem of Angelina dancing all the time. Check out the illustrations of where Mr. and Mrs. Mouseling go that afternoon. Or, predict what is in the pink box.
Schema: soup, favorite vegetables, gardening, tools
Text-to-Self Connections: bring fresh or canned samples of green beans, green peas, corn, squash, and carrots to show. Open them or mix them if fresh in a pot to cook. Usually the school cafeteria has soup everyday so it might work to get some already made from there for a little sampling after reading.
Cause and Effect: Because we plant seeds and care for them, the effect is that we have fresh vegetables for soup.
Sequencing: If we wanted to grow our own soup, what order would be the way to do it?
Senses: Think about the five senses and see which ones we use when we plant, tend, wash, cook, and eat our vegetables.
Inference: Would these vegetables grow in the snow? There’s not any snow in the book. What season do you infer it is when the vegetables are growing?
Synthesis: I am synthesizing that it would be fun to make soup from growing the vegetables. I am synthesizing that some people have places that they can grow their own food.
Schema: Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Text to Self Connections: wanting a book before bed, saying the words from memory with whoever is reading the book to you, telling the story just by looking at the pictures, sitting in laps and reading, honey cakes mentioned in many stories about bears and honey, and wanting a story read over again.
Text-to-text connections: Hansel and Gretel, Gingerbread Man, Winnie the Pooh, Berenstain Bears
Predicting: Ask students to fill in the word that they predict will be next with the rhyming text.
Synthesis: I am synthesizing that reading books at anytime of the day is a good thing. I am also synthesizing that when Mama or Papa bears reads to the little bears, that the little bears feel loved.
Schema: farm life, rock bands
Predicting: What are the animals are getting ready for to do? Go to bed?
Inferring: What are the animals inferring when they see that the farmer’s light is on?
I am inferring the animals are sleepy at the end of the book because….
Text-to-Self Connections: waiting in line
Mental Images: Can you make a mental image of the animals singing and playing in a band?
Characterization: What traits would these animals possess if they wanted to be in a rock band?
Compare and Contrast: animal sounds in the traditional Old MacDonald Had a Farm with the musical sounds of the punk band.
Text-to-Text Connection: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin: the animals trick their farmers.
Punctuation: Great examples of punctuated dialogue in both books.
Mental Images: This book has some good examples to practice making mental images.
Mathematics: Math word problems are provided at the end of the book to show how the comparisons were mathematically determined.
Compare and Contrast: The book lends itself to comparing.
Schema: dogs, talking dogs, Martha cartoon shows on television
Inferring: The family thinks the Inn will infer that Marth is a person when they put her in the wheel chair.
What does the maid infer when she sees a very full Martha and a pile of bones on the floor?
What do dogs infer when they hear the K word? What is a “kennel?”
Predicting: When Martha sees the frisby, what do you predict she will do?
What do you predict Martha is thinking when they all leave to have fun, and she has to stay in the room?
What do you predict the Inn manager is going to do with Martha when she asks about summer employment?
Personification: Martha, the dog, is given human traits.
Text-to-Text: the other Martha books
Text-to-Self Connections: Has your pet ever misbehaved when you have left it alone?
Synthesis: What does the comment that Martha makes, “I gotta be me” mean to you?”
Schema: mice, snacks, other books about mice
Word choice: Positional Words are frequently used such as down, around, through
Counting numbers from 1 to 10 and from 10 to 1
Inferring: What does the mouse infer when he see’s the furry feet?
Cause and Effect: Because the plate flew into the air, the effect is that the mouse escapes from the cat.
Schema: the original 3 Little Pigs story
Point of View: This story is from the wolf’s point of view, and the original one is from the pig’s point of view.
The 3 little pigs steal their materials is this story. The straw is taken from cows, the sticks from birds, and the house from chickens.
Cause and Effect: Because he builds his house from straw hay, the effect is the cows eat his house.
Because the pig builds his house of sticks, the effect is that the birds take it back for their nest.
Because the other pig stole the chicken coop, the effect is that the rooster pecks him.
Compare and Contrast the wolf in each version: In this version, the wolf is like a mentor to the animals. He teaches them to build and they learn to share.
Drawing Conclusions: What conclusion can we draw about the wolf in this version?
Schema: trees, birds, nests
Persuasion: This book might be a good example to teach persuasion. What are the birds trying to persuade Harry to do? What is Harry’s mother trying to persuade him to do? What is Harry trying to persuade his Mother to do?
Inferring: Harry infers that a car hit the bird.
I am inferring that Harry wants to keep the bird because he says that he is her friend when his mother tells him that the bird is a wild bird.
What can we infer that the flock of green birds is trying to persuade Harry to do?
Predicting: What do you predict will happen when Harry opens the window? I was predicting that the birds would fly away with Harry’s bird.
Text-to-Self Connections: using the library
Cause and Effect: Because the birds did not leave before it turned cold, the effect is that they must stay with Harry for the winter.
