Picture Book - Nursery Rhymes and Stories

Grace and I have been busy this week. We've read The Ugly Duckling Before, but this version had much more interesting illustrations. A Caldecott Honor Award winning book, it is delightfully written and extraordinarily illustrated. I would have to say the pictures "make," this book, holding my five year old's full attention. I was really excited while reading this book to Grace because it led to a couple of interesting discussions about bullying, hard times, compassion, and discovering God's will for us as well as rejoicing in who He has created us to be. There is a fair amount of text on each page, so I recommend this one for kindergarten and up. (Maybe slightly older if you have wiggly kiddos.)

I really like Paul Galdone. These are stories that were read to me as a young student in kindergarten and first grade. The books were first editions back then! But now, they are timeless classics. This particular volume is a compilation of four stories: The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, The Little Red Hen and Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee. I read one story a night to my daughter and we had a great time together with Grace chiming in on the repetitive phrases. I recommend doing the four stories as a unit study of sorts with the idea of fleshing out the various literary devices used in nursery tales. More than that, I recommend just having fun with these wonderful tales!

This story stands alone in my memory of childhood. The Three Little Kittens was by far my favorite nursery tale. That said, as a five year old, I never understand why the kitten's mother would not let her kittens have pie unless they found their mittens. After all, if they were wearing their mittens, wouldn't they get pie all over them? LOL I waited to see if Grace would have the same question. Alas, I discovered that I must have been a peculiar child. Grace simply thought that the kittens should be more careful in the future. :snort: Recommended, especially in combination with the other Paul Galdone books. They are simply awesome!

If Grace were slightly older, I might introduce literary elements to her. If you have a second or third grader, I think this would be a super idea. Children pick up literary elements fairly quickly especially in simple stories like these. Keep it light and fun! Don't go trying to teach a seven year old what an "archetype," or a "catharsis," might be...but rather stick to the very basics of literary elements.

Some terms to consider:

Antagonist - The villain or bad guy.
Protagonist - The Hero
Character - The people or animals in the story
Climax - The turning point of the story.
Denouement - The falling action of the story, where resolution begins. This is a great one to teach if you want to impress grandparents who aren't sold on homeschooling. :snort:
Dialogue - Conversation - Point out to young children the quotation marks around conversations. Foreshadowing - Hints of what will come in the story.
Point of View - From whose perspective is this story being told?
Plot - The simple story line.

Now, go on! Have fun!

©2008 Y.M.F.