Children listen to a story about two piggies who run all around the farm, having fun.
Emphasize spatial language in the story: under crinkly, clean sheets; over growing, green beans.
Materials
- Piggies in the Pumpkin Patch by Mary Peterson and Jennifer Rofé
Preparation
- Pre-Read: Read through the story on your own before reading with children. Think about how you might engage them in identifying the spatial language.
Directions
- Before You Read: Hold up the book and read the title, author, and illustrator. Ask children what they think the book will be about.
- As You Read: Each time the piggies head to a new part of the farm:
- Emphasize the spatial words in the text (under crinkly, clean sheets; over growing, green beans).
- Demonstrate the piggies’ movement by tracing it on the page (move your fingers under the sheets on the page; over the beans on the page).
- Ask children to act out the spatial words (wiggle your fingers under your chin; clap your hands over your head).
- After You Read: Hold up the two-page spread at the end of the book that shows a map of the farm.
- Say: What do you see here? It’s a map of the farm. A map is a small picture of a real place. This is a map of the piggies’ farm that shows all the places they went. The places are called landmarks.
- Ask what children think the dotted line is, as you trace along it. Explain that this is the path, or the route, that the piggies moved along as they had fun on the farm.
- Trace the route the piggies took with your finger, stopping at each landmark, and ask children to describe what the piggies were doing: they went under the crinkly, clean sheets; over growing, green beans, etc.
- Use questions to prompt children to use spatial words: What did the piggies do when they came to the tabby cats? Yes, they went between them!