Saturday, July 25, 2009

A Lesson Plan for How To Be A Happy Hippo

Level: Kindergarten
Subject: Reading

I. Objectives:

A. To realize that happiness does not depend on material things alone
B. To appreciate the author's humorous portrayal of characters
C. To respond to the story through the following engagement activities:
1. Venn Diagram
2. Comic Balloon
3. Writing A Letter
4. Drawing the Events
5. Horace's Plan

II. Subject Matter and Materials:

A. Selection: How To Be A Happy Hippo by Jonathan Shipton
Little Tiger Press, 2000

B. Materials:

1. charts for engagement activities
2. clay and stuff toy for unlocking difficulties
III. Procedure:

A. Pre-reading

1. Unlocking of Difficulties

a. scrambled out - Because I was so tired, I lost balance and fell while walking up the stairs. I scrambled out before my brother sees me. What do you think is the meaning of scrambled out? (unlock the word by acting it out)

b. wallow - Carabaos love to play in the mud. They like to wallow. (demonstrate it using a stuff toy and clay)

c. wedge - Philip made a wedge of mud and threw it on the grass. (demonstrate by making a ball out of clay)

2. Developing a Purpose for Reading

a. Schematic Web
What can you say about hippos?
What do you know about them?
What are the similarities between you and hippos?

b. Motivation:

Is there someone that you miss?

c. Motive Question:

In our story, let us find out who is it that Horace misses.

B. Reading

The teacher will read the story aloud while the students will follow silently. He or she would ask students to read certain parts of the story.

C. Post Reading

Engagement Activities

Instructions:

Group 1: "Horace and Me" chart
Fill in the chart with the ways in which you think you are similar to Horace and ways in which you ar different.

Group 2: "Daddy's Boy" chart
Fill in the comic by answering the question, "What did Horace tell his dad one morning?" "What was his dad's response?"

Group 3: "Horace's Plan" chart
What did Horace do when his father never came? This group will recall the plans of Horace by drawing and describing it.

Group 4: "Father and Son" chart
Fill in the chart with different things that Horace and his dad did after he fell from the trap.

Group 5: "Dear Dad" chart
Pretend that you are Horace. Write a letter to your daddy hippo after spending the whole day with him.

Timer: Horace's dad will fall on the trap. When he finally gets into the trap, you should be finished with your work.

Discussion:

1. Why did Horace miss his dad?
2. Why was his father always not around?
3. What did Horace feel about his Dad's absence?
4. What were the things that Horace wanted to do with his Dad?
5. What are the things that you would like to do with your Dad?
6. In what ways are you similar to Horace? In what ways are you different?
7. What did Horace do one morning?
8. What did he ask from his dad?
9. What was hid dad's answer?
10. What did Horace feel after hearing his dad's promise?
11. Did Mr. Hippo come as promised?
12. What did Horace feel?
13. If you were Horace, would you feel the same way? Why?
14. What did Horace do?
15. Where did he go?
16. What did he do in the jungle?
17. Why did he dig a hole?
18. After digging, what did he do with the hole? What was it
for?
19. For whom was the trap?
20. Why did he want to trap his dad?
21. What happened the next morning? What did they hear?
22. Who was the first one to rush out to the trap?
23. What happened to Horace?
24. Why did he fall?
25. Was he hurt?
26. What did Horace and Mr. Hippo do?
27. How long did they play in the mud?
28. What else did they do?
29. What happened to Horace after spending the whole day with his
dad?
30. What did he whisper to his dad?
31. What made Horace happy?
32. Did you enjoy the story? Why?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting lesson plan.