Summary of Book
Rooster has a sore throat and can't cock-a-doodle-doo.  Farmer Ted is sleeping, and there's no one to gather the eggs, milk the cows, sheer the sheep, and feed the pigs.  Rooster needs help and fast!  Working together, Rooster and the other animals come up with some creative but effective ways to wake Farmer Ted and complete the day's chores, but can they do it all before sunset?      

Before Reading
Talk about what is on the cover, and have the child predict what s/he thinks the book will be about based on what they see.

Conduct a picture walk through the book - just briefly scan through the pictures of the book without reading the story to allow the child to guess what may be happening in the story.   After the picture walk, have the child do a pre-telling of the story - based on the pictures the child tells you what s/he thinks is happening in the story. Briefly discuss basic details of a farm with the child - types of animals, buildings, equipment, etc.

During Reading
Ask questions as you read this book, such as:

1. What do you think the rooster will do to wake everyone up?
2. How will the farmer get his work done?
3. Where does milk come from?  Eggs come from?  Wool come from? 
4. Do you think animals can really talk or do the chores they've done in the book?
5. When the animals are standing on one another trying to reach the farmer's window, how many animals are there?  How many chickens:  How many cows?  How many pigs?  How many sheep?
6. On the page of the book where the farmer is in his bedroom getting dressed, can you identify most of the objects in the room?     

After Reading
Have the child draw a favorite part of the book and talk about what is happening in the picture - a good way to make sure the child has understood what happened in the story.

Using household items, such as cotton ball, brown grocery bag, paper, crayons, and feathers (if you can find some), have the child make masks of the farm animals in the story.  You and the child can use the masks and pretend to be the animals as you read various parts from the book.

Summary of Book
Peter has lots of adventures in the snow on a winter's day.     

Before Reading
Look at the cover.  Predict what this story is going to be about.  Has your child ever seen snow?  Talk about how the world looks, what snow feels like, and what kind of clothes you have to wear in the winter.  Ask your child what s/he likes to do in the snow.

During Reading
Talk about each of the things that Peter does in the snow.  Imagine that your child is Peter and add more details (e.g., How would the snow feel when it lands on your head?  How does a mountain climber climb?).      

After Reading
Movement:  Try some of the things that Peter does on the snowy day.  Play pretend:  toes pointed out, toes pointed in, drag feet, throw snowballs, make snow angels, climb up a mountain, etc.  Take cut-up pieces of material and glue.  Create a picture, just as the illustrator does in The Snowy Day.  Talk about the things that you see in your picture.  Take cotton balls and add snow to your picture. Using Dreft or Ivory Snow flakes in a pan, make footprints in the "snow" using your fingertips.  Then make angel wings using the side of your palms.  Take shaved ice and mold it into snowballs.  Watch as the snowball melts.  Talk about how the heat of your hands, of the room, or of the sun can melt ice and snow.  Talk with your child about all the things that you can do in the snow.  What does your child like to do best?  Let him/her draw a picture of this.  Write down what s/he tells you about the picture.   Talk about all the different games that you can play outside.  Talk about how these games change according to the weather.  Include pictures of different kinds of weather to help the discussion, for example a windy day, a rainy day, a hot and sunny day.  Brainstorm with your child all the different kinds of things you can do outside on these days.  Remember, in the book the boy used simple things like a stick.

Summary of Book
This is a story about the house that a boy named Jack built. Jack has many people and things that fill up his house. Jacks house starts out empty and ends up as a full house.      

Before Reading
Talk about houses and homes where people live.  Draw a simple house with a door and windows.  Talk about who might live in that house.

Do a picture walk with the book - go through the book talking about the pictures on each page.  Ask your child questions, such as:  What do you think will happen to the house that Jack built?  What looks different about Jack's house on each page?      

During Reading 
Since this is a repeating story, let your child join in on the repeating parts.

After reading the verse on each page, find the different elements of the story in the large picture.  For example: Where is the cat?  Who is eating the bag of Malt?  Stop to explain briefly the more unusual words (such as malt, worried, crumpled, tattered and torn, shaven and shorn, etc.).    

After Reading
After reading the book the 1^st time, take the opportunity to allow your child to assist you in reading through the story again.  Since it is written with rebus pictures, it is an excellent opportunity for your child to be a part of reading the story.  Allow him/her to supply each word represented by a picture.  Can they recognize all the rebus pictures by the end of the story?   Together, you and your child may write your own story using the same format.  You write the words and allow your child to draw the simple pictures representing the missing word.  You can simply use a large sheet of paper by itself, or pages stapled together to represent a small book.  Start with one short sentence and then add one new thing on each new page so the story becomes longer and longer.  

Make stick puppets to represent each of the characters in the story.  You will need 12 popsicle sticks and paper/paper plates.  Draw each of the characters, color, and attach to a stick.  (Jack, the house, rat, cat, dog, cow, maiden, cook, farmer, etc.)  You may use each of the stick puppets to help retell the story (the characters can be numbered on the back to help recall the order in which they appear in the story).

Summary of Book
Many years ago, when the peoples traveled the plains, a young Indian boy had a dream in which he was told he would create a painting that was as pure as a sunset. He tries and eventually succeeds in fulfilling the dream.           

Before Reading
Talk with your child about the cover of the book and what the story might be about.  

Talk about sunset and point out the sunset to your child.         

During Reading 
Talk about the colors in the sunset.

Ask your child if s/he has ever had a dream.  What was it about? 

After Reading
Paint a picture of a sunset.   Watch the sunset.   Tell about a dream you have had.    

Summary of Book
Zinnia plants a flower garden.  The book goes through the cycle of taking care of the seeds to seedlings to plants and back to seeds.  In the end she sells her flowers and saves the seeds for the next year.     

Before Reading
Look through the book, asking questions about the pictures, such as:

1. What types of flowers are there? (Colors, shapes, names are all okay.)
2. What are the different garden tools?  Do you know what they are used for?  Let the child demonstrate.

During Reading 
Ask questions as you read the book, such as:

What kinds of bugs stay in a garden? How many days does it take for seeds to sprout?

Be sure to point out pictures and diagrams in the margins.  

After Reading
Draw flowers and plants or cut out magazine pictures (you can help the child cut these out).  Glue the flowers on a square piece of paper (a pot) and you have a paper flower garden.   Go outside and take a flower walk to see how many different flowers and plants you can find.  You can point out trees, weeds, bushes, plants of any kind.