Week 2, Entry 5: Review of Children’s Books

Mr. McGill Goes to Town by Jim Aylesworth

Quick summary: This story is about Mr. McGill fixing his mill. He wants to get it done before it gets dark. He asks his neighbors and they need help with their own jobs. They agree to work together to get all the jobs done. By working together, they are able to get the work done fast.

ELL’s will need to have an understanding of the following concepts in order to fully comprehend the story:

Vocabulary-rough, leaned, lane, hitched: To best introduce the word lane, I would provide a detailed picture of a lane and compare it to a picture of a highway or street. The rest of the vocabulary words we could act out, discuss and create several examples together. After reading the story I would scaffold the following questions at each student’s language acquisition level:

·         What objects can you leaned on?

·         What kinds of jobs are rough?

·         Point to which is larger a lane or a street.

·         Why would the man hitch his horse to a post?

Other concepts that students will need background knowledge on:

“Fixing a mill”: I would provide a picture of a working mill and discuss its primary job (to grind wheat into flour). I would question what would happen if the mill couldn’t work (it wouldn’t be able to grind the wheat and make flour. Families wouldn’t have flour to make bread.)

“Nailing on horseshoes”: I would show my students a short you tube video demonstrating a horse being shoed. After reading, we could discuss why it was easier for 4 men to shoe the horse instead of just one man. I would bring in an old horseshoe for students to pass around and investigate.

“Going to town”: Mr. McGill wanted to finish his work before the sun went down so he could go to town. Some people live out in the country far from town (sketch a map to demonstrate). Because it takes so long to go to town, people in the country may go to town only one day week instead of everyday like you and me. After reading the story I would question students how did Mr. McGill and the other men go to town? Did they take a train, a car, a bus? No they walked. Why would Mr. McGill want to go to town while the sun was still up?

The Little Red Hen adapted by Paul Galdone

Quick summary: The Little Red Hen teaches the others animals a lesson about teamwork. The animals learn that if they do not help out, they do not get to share in the rewards. The hen works hard and earns herself a tasty treat.

Vocabulary- gathered, tended, ground, mended: All of these vocabulary words are easiest to understand through demonstration so we would gather our pencils, mend a torn folder or a broken crayon and discuss how the aquarium helper tends to the fish each week and the plant helper tends to the plants each week when watering. For ground I would explicitly teach the different meanings of ground: we fall on the ground when we play outside. We will also explore grinding herbs in my mortar and pestle. I will demonstrate how my coffee grinder grinds the coffee beans. We will explore whole coffee and ground coffee and discuss the differences.

Other concepts that students will need background knowledge on:

Not I: I would explain during reading that when the animals say not I, they are saying I will not.

Pull weeds: I would show students a picture of a garden with weeds and without weeds. We would discuss how it is better for the flowers or vegetables to get all the water and sunlight to help it grow. Weeds can steal the flowers water and sunlight and make it harder for the flower to grow, so good gardeners pull the weeds out.

Wheat ground into flour at a mill: Recall our experience with the mortar and pestle and coffee grinder demonstration and show the picture of a mill from earlier unit story: Mr. McGill Goes to Town. Then I would show students strands of a wheat plant and ground flour. We would compare and discuss the differences.