Highlights High Five™ August 2007 Parent/Teacher Guide
Puppy Trouble (pages 6 to 9)
- Before reading the story, talk together about the action taking place in each illustration.
- Read the title and ask: "Why do you think the story is called "Puppy Trouble?" After looking at the illustrations, kids will probably be able to figure out that chewing on things is the "trouble."
- After reading the story, explain that this story has a lot of rhyming words. Identify the rhyming pairs on each page.
Listening for and identifying rhyming words will encourage young children to pay attention to the ending sounds of words. Learning how to listen for and identify the various sounds that make up individual words helps lay a strong foundation for later reading success.
What Can You Do with Water? (pages 12 and 13)
This feature illustrates some of the properties of a liquid, an important early science concept that kids can experience firsthand.
- Water takes the shape of its container.
- Liquids flow.
- Some things are less dense than water and will float. Some things are more dense than water and will sink.
- Some things dissolve in water and cannot be easily removed once they're mixed--like the food coloring in the photograph. Other objects don't dissolve and can be easily removed from water--like the items that sink and float.
- When you freeze water, it becomes a solid. When ice is warmed, it turns back into a liquid.
At home, bath time can become an opportunity to explore some of these properties of water. In classrooms, water tables or large dishpans of water can give children opportunities to discover what happens when they pour water from one container to another or when they add objects to water.
Mama Mouse's Birthday Present (pages 30 to 33)
After reading the story, you could ask these questions.
- How do you think Little Mouse got the money to buy a cake for his mother?
- How did Little Mouse's feelings change from the beginning to the end of the story?
Like Little Mouse, children may not understand why the text on page 32 can be described as a poem.
- Explain that in poems, words at the ends of lines may rhyme.
- Reread the "birthday poem" on page 32 to listen for and identify the rhyming words.
- Explain that many poems also have a steady beat.
- Clap together on each syllable to help "feel" the rhythm. (Some lines have six syllables but the stress in each line is on the fifth syllable.)
Little Mouse didn't realize he was creating a poem when he told his mother what happened to the cake. Found poems are happy accidents, arrangements of words that are perfect and pleasing just the way they are said or written, just like a poem.
Here is an example that was captured by the mother of a four-year-old.
Have fun listening for found poems in the things you and your little ones say.