What's Happening? (pages 16 and 17)
- Children can use the information contained in each illustration to discuss what's happening and predict what might happen next.
- If children are able to recognize and name some letters, look for the repeated letters in the first two words of each sentence.
When children talk about what they see in the illustrations, they are learning to look carefully, pay attention to small details, and use words to explain what they see or think. These are important early-literacy skills. If children are beginning to recognize some letters, they may notice that the first two words in each sentence begin with the same letter. They will also begin to understand that words are formed by groups of letters, and that the letter on the left is the first letter in a given word. Some children may also see that shorter words can be found inside longer words; for example Hi is part of the longer word Hillary.
*Literacy: Speaking & Communicating (Develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions, and for other varied purposes.) *Literacy: Alphabet Knowledge (Increases in ability to notice the beginning letters in familiar words.)
Morning on the Farm (pages 22 to 25)
- After reading the story, ask your child to retell it. If your child has trouble remembering the sequence of events, help him or her use the pictures to recall what happened.
- Reread the Spanish phrases, pointing to each animal as you say its name in Spanish.
If you want to hear the Spanish read aloud, go to HighlightsParents.com and click on the High Five® audio button. Each month, you'll find a recording of the entire issue. You can listen online or download the audio to your favorite listening device.
*Social & Emotional Development: Knowledge of Families & Communities (Progresses in understanding similarities and respecting differences among people, such as genders, race, special needs, culture, language, and family structures.) *Literacy: Book Knowledge & Appreciation (Demonstrates progress in abilities to retell stories.)
Triangle Tricksters (pages 26 and 27)
- After reading the poem and answering the questions, you could count to see how many triangles are on these pages.
- Point out that not all triangles on these pages are the same shape, size, or color, but all triangles have just three sides.
- Ask your child to find a shape on these pages that is not a triangle. (The tree trunk is not a triangle; it has four sides. The center of the star is not a triangle; it has five sides.)
Counting to find out how many triangles are green, red, etc. will help children begin to see how a set of objects can be divided into smaller subsets. You could repeat this activity by giving younger children a set of 15 colored wooden beads and asking them to group the beads into subsets based on color. Give older children a set of 15 coins, and ask them to group the coins into smaller subsets of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
*Mathematics: Number & Operations (Demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.) *Mathematics: Geometry & Spatial Sense (Begins to recognize, describe, compare, and name common shapes, their parts, and their attributes.)
*Early-childhood standards based on the U.S. Head Start Child Outcomes Framework.