Literature Unit

Albert Magpie and Timothy Rabbit
in Clarry's Lost Pony Tail
by Shirley Todd

Introduction

The literature unit was written as a teaching aid to facilitate the development of children's basic cognitive skills—these are defined as the thought processes that address and answer the questions "who, what, when, where and how"—while reading or listening to stories or interacting with learning materials. This unit involves memory, understanding, listening, problem solving and reasoning.

Questions asked before and during the story help by encouraging children to think about what they are reading and/or listening to. This in turn will help in developing their comprehension and recall skills. It is therefore suggested that the children read the questions for the selected pages before and again as they read the story so they can contemplate the story while discovering the answers. Once they have finished reading, the story should be discussed in more detail. Page 11 has some suggestions.

The word-find puzzles help the children to develop their thinking skills. They will also help the children to learn to spell new words, thereby increasing their vocabulary. There are four word puzzles with varying degrees of difficulty: two are standard word puzzles and two are fun shaped puzzles. Two of the word-find puzzles are in uppercase lettering and two in lowercase lettering; this will help to familiarize children with seeing and writing both forms.

There are two mazes which help in developing problem-solving skills—one of the mazes has a little trick to it.

The suggested activity of making and playing the board game on page 14—in which the children create cards with “jumping,” “turning,” and “hopping” written on them—will help to develop their gross motor and co-ordination skills. Gross motor skills are defined as using the large muscles of the body.

Another suggested activity on page 14 is for a child to act as a reporter while other children act as the characters in the book. The reporter learns to ask the "who, what, when, where and how" questions.

The literature unit is written in such a way that the activities can be spread over a period of time. Activities that cater to the level best suited for each group of children can be chosen from the unit. There is a handy blank page titled Teacher's Notes for recording suggestions, comments and ideas. There is also a blank unit planner for you to schedule unit activities.

Limited colour has been used in the design of this literature unit as consideration was given to helping reduce printing costs—colour being more expensive—if printing out large quantities for classes. Children can visit the author's Web site to read about her and discover why she wrote the book. Feedback is most welcomed. The Web site address is listed at the bottom of this page.