Summer Learning

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Animal Fun Grades K-1 Parent Guide

Day 1: Fiction Day – Neighbors at Play by Claire Booher Materials

• Neighbors at Play, student journal

Before Reading

• Read the title, Neighbors at Play. • Say: Before we read, let’s look at the title. Good readers use the title to wonder what

the story will be about. • Look at the picture on the cover of the story with your child. • Say: Good readers also look at the pictures. They ask themselves, “What am I curious

about?” What are you curious about? • Share what you are curious about when you look at the cover. • Say: When we read the story together we are going to think about the big ideas in the

story and connect them to what we already know. We can also look for interesting details to determine what the author thinks, feels, or believes.

During Reading

• Have your child read the story with or to you, helping them with words as needed. Have them stop every few pages and think about what is happening on each pair of pages.

• Have your child answer questions to identify the big idea and details. Ask:

What is happening on this page? What word or sentence helped you understand what is happening on the page? How does Little Elephant feel? How do you know? What animals do you see? What are they doing for fun? What do you already know about animals and how they have fun?

Parent Tip:

Practice pointing to words as you or your child read. Look for sight words for your child to recognize and read. Read with expression and encourage your child to read that way too!

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After Reading

• Ask your child some questions about the story, then have them record their thoughts in the journal:

Ask: How does Little Elephant feel at the beginning of the story? (Possible

Answer: At the beginning of the story Little Elephant felt sad.) Write: Help students write the feeling word on page two of the journal, in the

top box. Ask: How do you know Little Elephant felt ___________? (Possible Answer: I

know Little Elephant felt sad because she (had a sad face, said she can’t do the same things other animals can do, and cried when she talked to the monkeys.)

Write: Help students write or draw on page two of the journal in the second box. (We will complete the third box on Day Three.)

Say: Sometimes books remind me of something that happened to me. Think about how Little Elephant feels. Tell me about a time when you felt the same way.

Summer Learning

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Help the Townspeople! Grades K-1 Animal Fun Grades K-1 Parent Guide

Day 2: Non-Fiction Day – How Animals Move by Rebecca Grudzina

Materials

• Neighbors at Play, How Animals Move, student journal Before Reading

• Reflect on the story Neighbors at Play. Ask your child: How does Little Elephant move? (Possible answer: Little Elephant can walk and

run with her legs, and play in the water with her trunk.) Think about a zoo, what is your favorite animal at the zoo? How does it move?

• Read the title and look at the cover. • Say: When I read the title of the text, I think about what the text is about. I try to

visualize, or picture in my mind, how animals move. On this cover, I see a photograph of an ostrich. An ostrich is a tall bird that runs fast with his legs.

• Ask: What other animals come to your mind? What do you visualize when you think about how animals move?

• Say: Sometimes the photos can help me understand the meaning of the text. As we read, think about how photos help you better understand what you are reading.

During Reading

• Have your child read the story with/to you, helping them with words as needed. Have them stop every few pages, and think about what is happening on each pair of pages.

• Have your child answer questions to identify the big idea and details. Ask:

What is happening on this page? What word or sentence helped you understand what is happening on the page? What animals do you see? What body part do they use to move? What do you already know about animals and how they move?

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After Reading

• Ask your child some questions about the story, then have them record their thoughts in the journal: Say: Think about the story we read, what is the main idea of the story? Write: On page three of the journal, help your child write the main idea of the

text and draw or write at least one detail from the story. Say: Sometimes when I read something, I want to know more information. What

animal would you like to learn more about? Write: On page three of the journal, have your child write their answer in the

third box. Say: I also think of many questions I want to know answers to. What is one

question you want help finding the answer to? Write: On page three of the journal, have your child write their answer in the last

box. • Optional Extension Opportunity: Help your child research about their animal and help

them find the answer to the question they posed.

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Help the Townspeople! Grades K-1 Animal Fun Grades K-1 Parent Guide

Day 3: Fiction Day #2 – Re-Read Neighbors at Play Materials

• Neighbors at Play, student journal

Before Reading

• Show your child Neighbors at Play. • Ask your child:

What was this story about? (Look at page 2 in the journal to reflect on student work)

Based on the title and illustrations, do you think this selection is an informational text about real animals or a story about make-believe animals?

What do you know about real elephants? Are the elephants in the story like real elephants?

• Say: We talked about what we knew about real elephants. We wondered if the characters in the story would be like real elephants. When we read the story again, we will look for clues that will help us find out how are the elephants in the story the same as real elephants. How are they different?

During Reading

• Have your child read the story Neighbors at Play with or to you, helping them with words as needed.

• Help your child looking for details in both the pictures and words that help compare real elephants to Little Elephant.

Parent tip:

Many of the ways Little Elephant is like a real elephant will be shown in both pictures and text. Discuss how Little Elephant is like a real elephant. For example, real elephants can run, have two ears and four legs, like water, etc. You can also discuss how they are different. For example, real elephants do not talk and are not allowed to roam around the zoo.

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After Reading

• Ask your child some questions about the story, then have them record their thoughts in the journal: Say: Adults and young animals are also alike in many ways. Looking at the

picture on page 2, how are a young elephant and a mother elephant alike? (On page two of the journal write one way adult and young animals are alike.)

Ask: What is one way that Little Elephant and her mom are different? (On page two of the journal write one way adult and young animals are different.)

Cut out the “Can You Move Like Each Animal?” activity cards. Have your child choose a card and act out the card for 30 seconds. Continue playing until all the cards have been used.

• Optional Extension Opportunity: Help your child use the activity cards to recreate the

“How Animals Move” book. Students can also add their own animal and animal movements as they retell the story.

Summer Learning

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Animal Fun Grades K-1 Parent Guide

Day 4: Engineering Day Materials

• Miscellaneous household items, student journal Before Building

• Say: How were all the animals in the story Neighbors at Play able to play together? • Say: Think about how animals move and have fun outside of the water. • Say: Kids like to play in the water and move like animals. Do you think we should

build a model of a water play area that allows kids to pretend they are animals as they play together? Remember a model can be a smaller non-working version of the real object. But first we need to draw the final plan before we build.

• Say: Look at your picture of the water play area. What is your favorite part of your picture?

• Have your child complete the sentence stem at the top of page five of the journal. • Say: Let’s look at the picture of the water play area you drew. What shapes do you

see? • Have your child draw the shapes or write the names of the shapes on page five of

the journal.

Optional Activity:

• Say: Sometimes we can get ideas from other people that will make our final project better. With your child, search the internet for pictures of “water play areas for animals” and “water play areas for children” to gather additional ideas.

• Ask: What is one thing they learned from the pictures that can make one of their designs better?

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During Building

• Have your child use materials from around the house to build a model of their water play area. Bigger models can be built in bathtubs or outside for more adventure!

Reflection

• Ask: Can you tell me about your water play area using numbers and words? • Ask: Can you tell me about your favorite part of the water play area? • Ask: Can you tell me about what you would change about your water play area?

Parent Tip

Students should know how to identify a variety of 2D shapes (circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, and hexagons) and 3D shapes (cylinder, cube, cone, and prism). They might not know how to spell the shape names correctly.

Summer Learning

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Help the Townspeople! Grades 2-3 Student Journal

Animal Fun! Grades K-1

Animal Fun!

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Neighbors at Play Read Neighbors at Play by Claire Booher.

Little Elephant wanted to play with her neighbors.

How does Little Elephant feel when she talks to her neighbors?

Write or draw a key detail that helps you know about Little Elephant’s feelings.

How are a young elephant and a mother elephant alike?

How Animals Move

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Read How Animals Move by Rebecca Grudzina.

What is the main topic of this text?

Write or draw a key detail that helps you know about the main topic of the text.

Which animal do you want to learn more about?

Write one question you want to answer about your animal.

Build it

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

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All of the animals liked to play in the water

with Little Elephant.

Think about how animals move and have fun outside of the water.

Kids like to play in the water and move like animals.

Draw a water play area where kids can move and have fun like animals.

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Look at your picture of the water play area.

What is your favorite part of your picture?

What shapes do you see in your picture?

Build your water play area. Tell about your water play area using numbers and words.

Tell about your favorite part of the water play area.

Tell about what you would change about your water play area.

_______________________________________________________________, because_________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Summer Learning

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Animal Fun! Grades K-1 Resources

Dig Deeper with Research!

Use the QR code or click on the book image to open. Dig into these Gale eBooks to learn about elephants and other animals.

Use your school’s Gale password for the library ID.

Summer Learning

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Discover more facts about animal play with these magazine articles. Use the QR code or click on the book image to open.

Hint: Click on the to have the article read to you.

The book included in this unit is from Benchmark Education and is not to be distributed in any way to non-DoDEAstudents.

The book included in this unit is from Benchmark Education and is not to be distributed in any way to non-DoDEAstudents.