Adult and Baby Animals

Clifford, we love you...

Our kids loved reading about Clifford in Clifford the Small Red Puppy. In previous weeks, we learned that each animal is called by a different name, depending on if they are an adult or baby. Students used their prior knowledge to determine that in the beginning of this book, Clifford was a puppy and by the end he was a dog. I was very excited to hear my children make that connection. 

Each time I read this book, I had students focus on different comprehension and book skills:

• On Monday I had students identify the front cover, spine and back cover of the book. 
• On Tuesday I had students identify the title, author and illustrator. 
• On Wednesday I had students identify the characters in the story.
• On Thursday I had students identify the problem and solution in the story.
• On Friday we reviewed all skills. 

Along with this skills, we reviewed vocabulary every day. I have students repeat after me, sometimes using syllable clapping depending on the difficulty of the word. I also give several examples of each word using visuals, songs and in sentences. I always invite students to give me an example. For example, I would ask students, "What kind of animals would you find in a pet store?" 

At the end of the week, we completed a Clifford craft using one paper plate, red paint, construction paper and markers! :)

This is our third week learning about animals, so I had students practice classifying which images were and were not animals. Next week we will do this with seeds for Earth Day!