Highlights High Five™ December 2008 Parent/Teacher Guide
Harriet's Mittens (pages 6 to 9)
- Before reading the story, ask children to describe what they wear when it's cold outside.
- After reading the story, discuss how Harriet helped her friends.
- Encourage children to hold someone's hand and talk about how it feels. Is that hand getting warmer?
Talking together about what they do to keep warm helps children identify with the characters and the problem in this story. They will then bring their prior experience to bear as they listen to the story.
Delivering Packages (pages 32 and 33)
- Help children point to and count the packages as they answer the first three questions.
- When they answer the fourth question, ask children to explain their thinking. For example, "The shape looks just like my scooter" or "My scooter has two wheels and a place to stand, and the package looks just the same."
- The last question offers children the opportunity to talk in an open-ended way about the illustration. You might use this question to explore who has a pet, why people feed birds, where the woman in the car is going, etc.
Children need a great deal of practice counting sets of objects before they fully grasp the concept of number. Breaking down the total number of packages into smaller subsets (red packages + brown packages + green package = total number of packages) is another important math concept that children can explore as they talk about these pages.
Talking together about what the red, brown, and green packages might contain enables children to share their ideas in a safe way. You can help children refine their thinking by asking if what they suggest would actually fit inside one of the boxes.
Peek-a-Boo! Where Are You? (bonus pages)
Follow the directions on the bonus pages to play a matching game.
How to Play Go Fish
- Deal each player four cards. The remaining cards are placed facedown in a pile.
- Players take turns asking one another for cards. For example, if a player has a Tex card, he would say, "Do you have any Tex cards?" If the answer is yes, the person gives the card(s) to him. If the answer is no, he draws a card from the pile and his turn is over.
- When a player collects all four cards, they place the set faceup on the table.
- Play continues until one player has no cards left in his hand or until the cards in the pile are gone. The winner is the player who has collected the most sets of cards.
These cards help children recognize the names of familiar High Five™ characters. Here are some questions that will help children look closely at the letters in these names. For example, how many names have four letters? How many names have three letters? What is the beginning letter in each name?