Bert and Beth Go Hiking (pages 6 to 9)
- Before you read the story, talk about what is happening in each illustration.
- After you read the story, talk about the sequence of events and ask, "How did they get the book about their trip?"
- Make books about things you do together. Take pictures or ask your child to draw pictures. Then print or mount them on paper, and ask your child to describe each picture. Write your child's words below the pictures.
Making books together teaches children how we use text and illustrations to remember and retell stories. Using their photographs or drawings in a homemade book makes it easy to share with others. Like Bert and Beth, your kids will remember what they did and will use the pictures to retell the story.
*Literacy: Book Knowledge & Appreciation (Demonstrates progress in abilities to retell stories.) *Literacy: Early Writing (Begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.)
That's Silly! (pages 18 and 19)
- This feature invites a great deal of talking and laughing. At times, stop and ask why something is silly. This encourages children to use language to share their thinking.
- With younger children, you can take turns describing what's silly. As you speak, you model how to describe and explain what you see.
As children make sense of this illustration, they discover that they can read the picture. The ability to grasp the meaning embedded in the pages of High Five will heighten your children's pleasure as they read their magazine.
*Language Development: Speaking & Communicating (Develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate.) *Approaches to Learning: Reasoning & Problem Solving (Develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.)
Color Rhymes (pages 26 and 27)
- Use the pictures to help your child complete each rhyme.
- After you've read the rhymes, talk about the birds. Ask, "How are they alike? How are they different?"
Exploring rhymes helps children begin to distinguish the ending sounds in words. Once children begin noticing letters within words, you can help them see how some of the rhyming pairs have the same ending letters (yellow, fellow) and some have different letters but sound the same (red, head).
*Literacy: Phonological Awareness (Progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, songs, stories, and poems.) *Science: Scientific Skills & Methods (Develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences, and comparisons among objects.)
*Early-childhood standards based on the U.S. Head Start Child Outcomes Framework.