Highlights High Five™ July 2007 Parent/Teacher Guide
Summer Flowers (pages 12 and 13)
After reading page 12, talk together about the flowers. Then ask open-ended questions to discuss the illustrations.
- What do you notice about these flowers?
- How are these flowers alike?
- How are these flowers different?
- How are the leaves alike and different?
Open-ended questions have more than one possible answer. Asking open-ended questions will encourage children to look carefully at the illustration and think more deeply about what they observe. If you are reading the magazine with more than one child, open-ended questions give more children an opportunity to respond.
That's Silly! (pages 28 and 29)
- Talk together about all the silly things you find in this illustration. As children use language to express their ideas, they will also be using what they know to decide what is silly and what's not.
- Point out that the artist made the scene out of clay, and then took a picture of her work for the magazine.
- Kids can use play dough to make their own scene. (See pages 22 and 23 for an easy recipe for play dough.)
Open-ended materials like play dough give children an opportunity to explore their own ideas as they mold and model clay.
The Giant Turnip (pages 30 to 33)
Before reading the story, explain that Grandpoppa is another name for Grandfather and Babushka is another name for Grandmother.
After reading, ask questions like these to discuss the story.
- What if the turnip hadn't come out when Mouse helped? What might have happened next?
- What do you think they will do with the turnip?
- The cards on the bonus pull-out pages can be used to retell the story. Encourage children to use the illustrations in the story to decide how to put the cards in order from first to last.
- Explain that they can turn the cards over to see if they are in the proper order. If the children have difficulty recognizing the numerals, help them count the turnips on each card.
- Have You Seen My Duckling? by Nancy Tafuri
- The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone
- Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car, Mr. Gumpy's Outing, both by John Burningham
- One Fine Day by Nonny Hogrogian
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
In this story, the same action happens over and over. There are many stories like this at your local library. Here are some titles you might want to check out.