red ted and the lost things jlgactivityguide · red ted and the lost things by michael rosen...

Red Ted and the Lost Things

by Michael Rosenillustrated by Joel Stewart

JLG Activity GuideAvailable only from

Junior Library Guild7858 Industrial Parkway

Plain City, OH 43064www.juniorlibraryguild.com

ISBN: 978-1-93612-909-6

Copyright © Junior Library Guild/Media Source, Inc. 1

Red Ted and the Lost ThingsWritten by Michael RosenIllustrated by Joel StewartCandlewick PressText copyright © 2009 by Michael RosenIllustrations copyright © 2009 by Joel StewartISBN: 978-0-7636-4537-3

About JLG Guides Junior Library Guild selects the best new hardcover children’s and YA books being published in the U.S. and makes them available to libraries and schools, often before the books are available from anyone else. Timeliness and value mark the mission of JLG: to be the librarian’s partner. But how can JLG help librarians be partners with classroom teachers?

With JLG Guides. JLG Guides are activity and reading guides written by people with experience in both children’s and educational publishing—in fact, many of them are former librarians or teachers. The JLG Guides are made up of activity guides for younger readers (grades K–3) and reading guides for older readers (grades 4–12), with some overlap occurring in grades 3 and 4. All guides are written with national and state standards as guidelines. Activity guides focus on providing activities that support specific reading standards; reading guides support various standards (reading, language arts, social studies, science, etc.), depending on the genre and topic of the book itself. JLG Guides can be used both for whole-class instruction and for individual students. Pages are reproducible for classroom use only, and a teacher’s edition accompanies most JLG Guides. Research indicates that using authentic literature in the classroom helps improve students’ interest level and reading skills. You can trust JLG to provide the very best in new-release books, and now to enhance those selections by giving your school the tools to use those books in the classroom. And in case you think we forgot the librarians, be sure to check out the Library Applications page, shown on the table of contents in each guide. From all of us at Junior Library Guild, we wish you and your students good reading and great learning . . . with JLG Selections and JLG Guides.


Red Ted and the Lost ThingsWritten by Michael RosenIllustrated by Joel Stewart

Table of Contents

.............................................................About the Book, Author, and Illustrator 4................................................................Library Applications: Lost and Found 5

..................................................................Prereading Strategies and Activities 6.................................................................................Activating Prior Knowledge 7

...............................................................Concepts about Print/Print Awareness 8...................................................................................Visual Arts and Writing 8–9

........................................................................................Alphabetic Awareness 10............................................................Phonemic Awareness: Rhyming Words 11

.....................................................................................................Making Faces 12............................................Understanding the Story: Comprehension Skills 13

...........................................................................Visual Arts: What Is Missing? 14...................................................................Correlation to National Standards 15

.........................................................................................................Answer Key 16

A school may reproduce copies of the pages in this book for use in its classroom or library. Any other reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Copyright © 2009 by Junior Library Guild/Media Source, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, or recorded in any form without written permission from the publisher. For permission questions, contact Junior Library Guild.


About the Book, Author, and Illustrator

Red Ted and the Lost Thingsby Michael Rosenillustrated by Joel Stewart

A stuffed bear named Red Ted finds himself in a train station’s gloomy Place for Lost Things. A crocodile tells him, “I’ve been here a very long time, and no one has ever come to find me.” But Red Ted is determined to make it back to his owner, Stevie. “I know!” he says. “I’ll get out of here and find her myself!” Full-color graphic-novel-style illustrations.

JLG Reviewers say: A sweet, enjoyable book with wonderfully detailed illustrations. Red Ted is charming and courageous. It is enjoyable that the line between stuffed animals and real animals

is blurred, with each having animal characteristics. Illustrator Joel Stewart keeps the focus on Red Ted and his friends by

using color selectively: saturated colors for the figures, and soft grays and browns for the buildings and backgrounds.

Thought bubbles add humor, especially at the end, when Stevie understands the animals’ thoughts and her mother is unaware.

Michael Rosen is renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster, and scriptwriter. He was the British Children’s Laureate from 2007 until June 2009, and has, as an author and anthologist, helped create more than 140 books. He has visited schools around the world to share his passion for books and poetry. Mr. Rosen lives in London, England.

Joel Stewart has written and illustrated many children’s books, including earlier JLG selections Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie and Shark and Lobster’s Amazing Undersea Adventure. On his Web site, Mr. Stewart writes, “I am trying to make the kinds of images and picture books I thought, or half remembered existed, but couldn’t quite find when I went and looked.”

www.joelstewart.co.uk


Library Applications

Books about Being Lost and Found

Set up a special area in your library where students can find books with a lost-and-found theme. You could make a display with a “Lost and Found” sign and add some things that are typical found in a lost-and-found box, like one your school may have. Some well-reviewed and award-winning books would include:

✦ Looking for Luna by Tim Myers and Mike Reed✦ A Mountain of Mittens by Lynn Plourde and Mitch Vane✦ Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers✦ Lost and Found by Mark Teague✦ Patches: Lost and Found by Steven Kroll and Barry Gott✦ Arthur Lost and Found by Marc Brown✦ Iris and Walter: Lost and Found by Elissa Haden Guest✦ Lost and Found by Rebecca Doughty✦ Pup and Hound Lost and Found by Susan Hood and Linda Hendry✦ Lost and Found by Adrienne Mason and Pat Cupples✦

Lost and Found at School

Ask your school secretary or other office personnel about housing the school’s lost-and-found box in the library for a month, in conjunction with your display above. You might be surprised how effective this is in helping find the rightful home for some of those poor, lost items. In addition, have students choose one item in the lost-and-found box and write or illustrate (in panels, like Red Ted and the Lost Things) a story about it. Some questions they can ask themselves as they start this project are:

How might this item have become lost in the first place?

How long do you think it’s been lost?

How do you feel when you have lost something?

If the item could think and feel, what would it do to try to be found?


Prereading Strategies and Activities

Set a Purpose for Reading Students are better prepared to read something when you help them set a purpose for reading. Some common purposes include: reading for information, for enjoyment, for practicing a specific skill such as finding the main idea, or for learning how to do something. Set a purpose for reading Red Ted and the Lost Things. Two purposes may be reading for enjoyment—this is a lovely book!—and learning about cause and effect. You may determine other purposes for reading that apply to your class or to an individual student who will read the book.

Make Predictions Activate students’ prior knowledge and generate interest in the book by having students make predictions about the book before you read it aloud or they read it to themselves. Below are some statements and questions that will get students thinking about the story and ready to make predictions.

• Who is Red Ted and why do you think he got that name?• Where do you find “lost things”?• Who do you think is going to be a part of this adventure with Red

Ted? • How do things become lost? • Have you ever lost something that was important to you?• Did you ever find it? How did you feel?

Now read the back cover aloud to the students and ask:• Do toys talk in real life?• What do you think will happen to Red Ted and Crocodile?• Are you excited to find out?


Activating Prior Knowledge

Before reading the book aloud to the children, allow them to share some prior knowledge they have gained from their own experiences. Ask them:

• Have you ever been lost, even for a little while? What happened?• What is the most important thing you’ve ever lost?• What are some good ways to go about finding a lost thing?• Would you help someone find something he or she has lost?• How would you help?

Recognizing Frequent WordsThe following words are found in the text of this book. Help students practice recognizing these words:


train lost cheese brave thought station crocodile signs please there they’re happy

Concepts about Print

Parts of a BookIdentifying and Analyzing Visual Arts

Show the students the book cover, front and back. Ask:

✏ What is on the front cover? ✏ What is on the back cover? ✏ What do we call the biggest words on the cover? ✏ Who are the people named on the cover? ✏ What do you call the flat edge of the book?

Next, show students the title page. Ask:

✏ What is this page called?

Point out the illustrations on the covers. Say or ask:

✏ Name some of the lost things you see on the cover. ✏ Why do you think some things are in a box? ✏ What are the two main colors the illustrator uses for Ted and

Crocodile?

Print Awareness: Inside the Book

This book is created in a graphic storybook format. That means the story happens in panels, like you would find in a comic book. Show students that the main narrative of the story (what a narrator would be saying) is shown in boxes that seem to lay on top of the panels. The only words found inside the panels are the words and thoughts of the characters.

Application: Visual Arts and Writing

Ask: What else have you seen that is written and drawn like this? Many students will say the Sunday comics. Let students bring in their favorite comics, either from the newspaper or comic books to share with the class. Use the following reproducible page (My Own Comic Book Story) to have students create their own stories by drawing, adding narrative, and creating speech bubbles for the characters.


My Own Comic Book Story


Alphabetic Awareness

Alphabetic Awareness: Capital (Uppercase) LettersAs you do reading sweeps with your finger or a pointer, encourage students to look for uppercase and lowercase letters. Explain that uppercase letters are mostly used:

• at the beginning of a sentence

• for words that name a certain or special person, group of people, place, or thing

• for words that are being emphasized, such as words that stand for a big sound: CRASH!

In Red Ted and the Lost Things, the author uses capital letters for naming special people, places, and things. For example, on page 4, “Red Ted” and “Man in a Hat” use capital letters. Explain to the students that these are capitalized because they are like names for those characters. As you go through the book, you will find more words treated like this. Write the following list on the board and have students circle the letters that are capitalized in the book. Then have each student write his or her name on the board and circling the beginning capital letter.


red ted man in a hat place for lost things stevie crocodile mom (add your name)

Phonemic Awareness

Rhyming Words

Although Red Ted and the Lost Things is not a rhyming story, it does include many words that easily rhyme with other words. You can play “’Round the Room Rhymes” with your students. Just read aloud the following sentence starters and randomly select a student to complete the sentence with a words that rhymes with the last word in previous sentence.

The cat in the story likes cheese.

To be polite, always say ______________. (please)

Cover your nose whenever you ______________. (sneeze)

That dog is covered with _______________. (fleas)

I like carrots and _______________. (peas)

A forest is full of _______________. (trees)

That hive is swarming with _______________. (bees)

I gave my toothpaste tube a _______________. (squeeze)

Ted got his name because he is red.

Every night I sleep in my ______________. (bed)

My grandma bakes really good ______________. (bread)

In the winter, I take rides on my _______________. (sled)

We put the garden tools out in the _______________. (shed)

Continue with this exercise by choosing other words from the story.


Making Faces

Name _________________________________________________________Draw a face on each bear to show how he feels. Color the bears.


sad mad

happy asleep

Understanding the Story

Comprehension Skills

After you read the story or the students have read the story, have them answer the following comprehension questions.

1. Where did the Man in a Hat put Red Ted?

2. What had happened to Red Ted?

3. Who starts talking to Red Ted?

4. Who is Stevie?

5. What does Crocodile smell?

6. Why does Red Ted start crying?

7. How does Red Ted plan to get out?

8. In the train station, what does Red Ted follow to find his way out?

9. Who do they meet outside the station?

10. What does the cat smell? How is this a clue?

11. Where did they wait while it rained?

12. What animal do they meet next?

13. How does Crocodile scare it away?

14. They find Red Ted’s home, but what happens that seems bad?

15. What does Stevie ask her mom about the crocodile and the cat?

16. Why is Red Ted happier than anyone?

17. How did cheese help them find their way to Stevie’s house?


What Is Missing?

Name _________________________________________________________Look at the pictures below. Draw what is missing in each one.


Correlations to National StandardsFor Grades K–4

Content Area Standard Number Standard Objective

Visual Arts NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes

Visual Arts NA-VA.K-4.3 Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas

Language Arts: English NL-ENG.K-12.1 Reading for Perspective

Language Arts: English NL-ENG.K-12.2 Reading for Understanding

Language Arts: English NL-ENG.K-12.3 Evaluation Strategies

Language Arts: English NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills

Language Arts: English NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies

Language Arts: English NL-ENG.K-12.6 Applying Knowledge

Language Arts: English NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills


Answer Key

Page 6: Make Predictions Answers will vary.

Page 7: Activating Prior Knowledge Answers will vary.

Page 8: Concepts about Print Parts of a Book

• What is on the front cover? (Red Ted, crocodile, shelves, various other objects)

• What is on the back cover? (words, Red Ted, crocodile, part of the story, price, numbers, etc.)

• What do we call the biggest words on the cover? (title)• What do you call the flat edge of the book? (the spine)• Who are the people named on the cover? (the author and illustrator)• What is this page called? (title page)• Does the cover make you want to read the book? (Answers will vary.)• Why do you think some things are in a box? (They are small items.)• What are the two main colors the illustrator uses for Ted and

Crocodile? (Red and green. NOTE: Ted’s red is kind of brown, actually.)

Page 10: Capital (Uppercase) Letters

Page 11: Phonemic Awareness: Rhyming Words To be polite, always say please. Cover your nose whenever you sneeze. That dog is covered with fleas. I like carrots and peas. A forest is full of trees. That hive is swarming with bees.


red ted man in a hat place for lost things stevie crocodile mom (add your name)

I gave my toothpaste tube a squeeze. Every night I sleep in my bed. My grandma bakes really good bread. In the winter, I ride on my sled. We put the garden tools out in the shed.

Page 13: Comprehension Skills 1. He put him on a shelf. 2. Red Ted got left on a seat on the train. 3. Crocodile talks to him. 4. Stevie is Red Ted’s owner. 5. He smells cheese. 6. He thinks he won’t ever see Stevie again. 7. He plans to get out the way he came in: through the door. 8. He follows the signs. 9. They meet a cat. 10. The cat smells cheese. It reminds her of a place. 11. They wait in a bus shelter. 12. They meet a mean dog. 13. Crocodile shows the dog his big teeth. 14. Nobody is home. 15. She asks if they can stay with them. 16. Red Ted has found Stevie and isn’t lost anymore. 17. The cat used her nose to find the way to where the cheese was: at Stevie’s house.

Page 16: Interpreting Visual Arts: What Is Missing? bee: needs eyes bike: needs a seat flower: needs a petal watch: needs hands shirt: needs a sleeve ice cream cone: needs the cone snowman: needs an arm


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