This week, our book will be "The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by one of my favourite authors, Oliver Jeffers. You may have read this story before, but books are like friends - you visit them more than once. This lesson is designed to take around 30 minutes to complete.
Read Aloud
If you have the book at home - great! Please read this with your child. If not, here is a YouTube read aloud video.
Discussion Questions
Please take the time to ask your child questions about the story. Below are some sample questions (in black text) and answers (in red text) that you can ask your child. This will help you gauge their understanding and comprehension of the story. Students are welcomed and encouraged to re-visit the book at anytime.
Tell me about the story. (Have your child share what happened in the story in a chronological order: beginning, middle, end.) Duncan's crayons ran away because he didn't treat them the way they wanted to be treated. The crayons wrote him letters telling Duncan how they want to be treated. At the end, Duncan had an idea on how to continue to use his crayons and keep them happy. His idea was to use all of the crayons in a creative way.
Who were the crayons that wrote to Duncan? The red crayon, purple crayon, beige crayon, grey crayon, white crayon, black crayon, green crayon, yellow crayon, orange crayon, blue crayon, pink crayon, and peach crayon all wrote to Duncan.
Why was the beige crayon unhappy? The beige crayon was unhappy because he was tired of being called names other than "beige." He was also sad because he was only used to colour wheat.
Why was the black crayon unhappy? The black crayon was unhappy because Duncan only used him to draw the outline of things, then used other crayons to colour them in. The black crayon wants Duncan to use him to colour, too.
Is this story fiction or non-fiction? Why do you think that? This story is fiction because it is not real - crayons cannot write letters to the children that use them and they do not have legs to run away.
What is your favourite colour? What do you use it to colour? (Answers will vary.)
Daily Edit
This week's Daily Edits will be a little different. We will be focusing on Adjectives. Today, we will learn what adjectives are and how to use them. Please go over the Mini Lesson on Adjectives below with your child.
Mini Lesson: Adjectives
What are Adjectives?
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. They make sentences more interesting.
For example:
Sentence #1: I like to colour with crayons.
Sentence #2: I like to colour with red, blue, and yellow crayons.
Which sentence is more interesting? The second sentence is more interesting because it gives you more information about the colours of the crayons.
Let's do another example:
Sentence #3: I like to read books.
Sentence #4: I like to read adventure books that makes me feel excited and happy.
Again, which sentence is more interesting? The fourth sentence is more interesting because it has more details about what type of book it is and how it makes me feel.
How Do I Use Adjectives?
You can use adjectives in sentences. However, you cannot just put them anywhere in a sentence. There is a place to put adjectives in your sentence.
In a simple sentence, there is a structure of Subject + Verb + Adjective. This means that you place the adjective after the verb (an action word).
For example:
Ms. Zhu is beautiful.
"Beautiful" is the adjective and it is after the verb, "is."
Another way to remember where you can put adjectives in a sentence is to find where the nouns are in the sentence.
For example:
I like to swim at the pool.
The noun (person, place, or thing) in this sentence is "pool." Therefore, you can add an adjective in front of the word, "pool," to make the sentence more interesting.
I like to swim at the large, new pool.
Now, it's your turn. Add adjectives to these sentences to make them more interesting. The first few gives you hints for where to place the adjectives. Then, you have to figure it out for the others.
We like to laugh at _________ jokes. (What kind of jokes? Funny jokes? Bad jokes?)
He drives a _________ car. (What kind of car? Fast or slow car? Small or big car?)
The _________ house is right around the corner. (What kind of house? A red or blue house? A creepy or beautiful house? A small or large house?)
The _________ path is hard to walk on with my _________ shoes.
My friends like to swim in the _________ water at the _________ lake.
There is a castle in _________ France. (What kind of castle is it? An old or new castle? A large or small castle? Where in France? Northern France or Southern France?)
She jumped over a puddle with her boots.
I opened my umbrella.
Bears live in the mountains and sleep in caves.
We sat under a tree to eat our lunch.
Message from Ms. Zhu
Please upload a picture of your child's work or of your child working on their e-Portfolios on Portal. Thank you.
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