A Great Read and a Fun Trip

Summer is a perfect time to schedule special days to special places! One place that is always great to visit is the farm. There are so many things to see, hear, touch, smell, and maybe even taste. In our Kindergarten classroom, we spend a couple of weeks learning about the farm. We as teachers believe that it is important for our little ones to understand how important farms are to our daily life. We learn about the many types of foods that farms can provide for our communities. Visiting a nearby working farm is our favorite way to experience the inner workings of a real life farm.

If you live in northern Illinois, there are two farms that I highly recommend:

Volkening Heritage Farm at Spring Valley, in Schaumburg

You can find more information at: http://www.parkfun.com/spring-valley/heritage-farm

Royal Oak Farm, in Hebron

You can find more information at: http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com/

A fun book to read before you head out for your excursion (or if you are just looking for a great book to read with your child) is Jim Aylesworth’s Cock-a-doodle-doo, Creak, Pop-pop, Moo.

This book highlights the simplicity of family life on a farm. There are chores to be done and games to be played in a day of this family's life. The illustrations are fun and funny and are a perfect fit with the rhythmic text of this beautiful story.

Before reading this book together, read and talk together about the title. Talk about what your child already knows about farm life. Ask them to make predictions of what each sound in the title may be referring to – remind them to think about things that happen on the farm/what lives on the farm as they make their predictions. Don't forget to mention the names of the author and the illustrator, too.

Part of the experience in reading this book is the significant amount of onomatopoeia that the author uses. Onomatopoeia is when words form the sounds of what they name. Talk to your child about how these sounds, that appear throughout the story, will add a fun element to the reading of the book. After you know that they understand what onomatopoeia is, tell them that as you read you want them to hold their thumb up every time they hear these special words for sounds throughout the story. Doing this will help them practice listening for these sounds.

After reading the story together, go back through the book and ask your child to find ways that the illustrations support the story. For example, on page 3 the text reads, “come fast as you can.” In the illustration we see one of the boys sliding down the stair railing. On page 13 we read, “Breezes swish through fields of wheat.” In the illustration we see the wheat bending as a result of the blowing breeze.

Another important thing that can be discussed after reading this story is the support of family. Throughout this book, the farm family is working together to make everything go smoothly throughout the day. You can have a great discussion with your child about how your family works together each day to make things go smoothly. And, maybe, this would even be a great time to help them see what else they can do to help support your family each day.

If you do go on a Farm Field Trip, ask your child to pay attention to the sounds they hear while you are visiting. When you get home, they can write their own story of their day at the farm and include onomatopoeia in their story – just like JimAylesworth did in his!

Aimee