teacher's guide online final -...
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to the Guide
Written by Kristie Miner, Intermediate Literacy Coordinator for the Whitney Point School District in Whitney Point, New York.
This guide may be downloaded for home and classroom use. Not for resale.
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On Bird Hill written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Bob Marstalloffers rich cross-curricular learning opportunities for children. The content in this common-core aligned, standards-based teacher’s guide is designed for students in pre-kindergarten through second grade with the goal of deepening their thinking about and engagement with text through reading, writing, science and art connections. The guide provides an interactive read-aloud with teaching moves and a line of questioning that encourages students to think literally and analytically about the text. The guide also provides opportunities for shared and performance reading, which develop students’ reading processing systems in a supported manner. Writing connections that are provided in the guide allow students to express and expand their thinking about the text through authentic writing tasks. In addition, a number of science and art connections have been provided to promote integrated learning, and a resource page has been included to encourage students to delve more deeply into the study of birds. This teacher’s guide was designed to be used as a flexible teaching tool, and it is anticipated that teachers will adapt each activity to fit the needs of their students.
Meet the Author & IllustratorJane Yolen has authored more than 350 books including the Caldecott-‐winning Owl Moon, loved by children and bird watchers of all ages; You Nest Here With Me, a popular new favorite co-‐authored with her daughter Heidi E. Y. Stemple; and the New York Times bestselling series How Do Dinosaurs. . . Jane Yolen’s books have been translated into over 20 languages. Many of Ms. Yolen’s books are about wildlife subjects, especially the winged kind. She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Her website is: www.janeyolen.com.
Bob Marstall is the illustrator of nine nonfiction children’s books, including The Lady and the Spider, which sold over a quarter-‐of-‐a-‐million copies and was a Reading Rainbow selection. Bob has also been honored with an Orbis Pictus Award; an ALA Notable; an IRA Teachers’ Choice; a Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children; and three John Burroughs selections. In addition, two of Bob’s books are included in the New York Times Parent’s Guide’s “1001 Best Books of the Twentieth Century.” Bob lives in Easthampton, MA. His website is: www.marstallstudio.com.
Biographical information from On Bird Hill (2016), Cornell Lab Publishing Group 2
About the Book
As day breaks in a magical valley by the sea, a child and companion dog leave the warmth of their glowing cabin behind and set out for a stroll on a winding trail where a fanciful surprise awaits. On a distant hill, the child spots an unusual looking tree and slowly draws the reader in from trunk to limb to twig to nest where a “bird at rest” is serenely sitting on an egg. A chick emerges from the egg and inside the shell, a world within a world is revealed piquing the reader’s sense of wonder. Presented in rhyming couplet fashion, On Bird Hill is loosely based on the cumulative children’s song “The Green Grass Grew All Around” (Jerome & Von Tilzer, 1912).
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Reading Connections
Interactive Read-‐‑AloudPre-‐K-‐-‐K
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Book Introduction• Show the cover, introduce book title, author and illustrator and ask, What do you see?• Give a brief book summary, e.g., This book is about a child who takes a walk along a winding trail that leads up a hill where something surprising is about to happen.• Ask: • Have you ever been surprised by something when you’ve taken a walk?•What do you think the surprise in this book might be?
• Say: As I read the story, watch for the surprise, and see if you’re right.
During Reading• Ask (after reading several pages):•What do you notice when you look at the pictures? • Do you think Bird Hill could be a real place?•What do you notice about the words the author chose to use on each page?• How do you think the child felt when the chick came out of the egg?
After Reading• Ask:•Was the prediction you made at the beginning right? • What did you notice about the way the story began and the way it ended?
Extension Activity• Involve children in a sequential retelling of the story using props, e.g., a flannel board set that includes a trunk, limb, twig, nest, egg, bird, chick.
Reading Connections
Interactive Read-‐‑AloudGrades 1-‐2
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Book Introduction• Show the cover, introduce book title, author and illustrator and ask, What do • you see?• Give a brief book summary, e.g., This book is about a child who takes a walk along a winding trail that leads up a hill where something surprising is about to happen.• Ask: • Have you ever been surprised by anything when you’ve taken a walk?•What do you predict the surprise in this book might be?
• Say: As I read the story, watch for the surprise, and see if you’re right.
During Reading • Ask (after reading several pages):• Through whose eyes are we seeing the valley at the beginning?•What do you notice when you look at the pictures? • Do you think Bird Hill could be a real place?•What did the author do on each page to give the phrases rhythm?• How do you think the child felt when the chick came out of the egg?• Through whose eyes do we see the valley at the end?
After Reading• Ask:•Was the prediction you made at the beginning right?•What did you notice about the way the story began and the way it ended?
Extension Activity• Read There Was a Tree (Isodora, 2012) and/or The Rain Forest Grew All Around (Mitchell, 2007) and compare and contrast with On Bird Hill.
Reading Connections
Shared and Performance Reading
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Shared reading1. Enlarge the book’s text in chart form (refer to Resources for complete text). 2. Lead the group as they read aloud in unison, pointing to words and
phrases on the chart.3. Emphasize phrasing and fluency as you read together.
Choral reading 1. Enlarge the text in chart form (refer to Resources for complete text).2. Request students to read the text from the chart in unison, in
subgroups, in pairs or individually.3. Emphasize interpreting the text through expression, tone, volume and
rhythm.
Readers’ Theater1. Prepare a script with individual parts (refer to example provided in
Resources).2. Assign individual parts to students and provide time to rehearse.3. Emphasize vocal interpretation of the text.4. Arrange for students to perform the rehearsed script before a live audience.
Pre-‐K-‐-‐K
Grades 1-‐2
Writing Connections
Students can interactively or independently: •Write a summary to reflect a literal understanding of the story• Describe the young child’s feelings about his/her walk on Bird Hill by inferring them from the story• Create a new story that has some of the same characteristics as On Bird Hill, e.g., beginning, ending, events in a sequence• Compare and contrast different versions of the same story, e.g., There Was a Tree (Isodora, 2012) and/or The Rain Forest Grew All Around(Mitchell, 2007)•Write a book review to share an opinion about the book
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Students can interactively or independently: • Represent a funny or exciting part of the story through drawing or writing • Create drawings to show the sequence of events in the story• Borrow the style of writing from On Bird Hill to create a similar text• Notice and record details found in the illustrations• State an opinion about the book through drawing, dictating or writing
Grades 1-‐2
Pre-‐K-‐-‐K
Science Connections
Feed the BirdsVisit The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Sleuth K-‐12 for simple suggestions to make your own bird feeders.
Set Up a Bird ObservatoryPlace a bird feeder outside your classroom window and then set up a display of bird books and binoculars next to the window. Refer to Resources page for suggested book titles. Encourage children to sit quietly, look closely, and sketch the birds that come to visit.
Make Your Own Bird NestAfter examining a real bird’s nest, take students outside to gather the items needed to make a nest—mud, sticks, twigs, pine needles, pebbles, grass or leaves—and encourage them to create their own bird nest.
Hatch a Baby ChickStudy the life cycle of a chicken. Order eggs from a local hatchery and use an incubator to hatch baby chicks.
Investigate a NestPlace an unoccupied bird’s nest on a tray and provide students with gloves and tweezers so they can take turns closely examining the nest. Make a chart listing the items students find in the nest. Be sure they wash their hands thoroughly at the end of their investigation.
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Art ConnectionsMake Your Own Bird BookSupply the classroom with a Backyard Birds book, a Peterson’s Field Guide or the like. Have a pair or two of binoculars for students to share. Use the book and binoculars to identify the birds seen outside your window. Find or take pictures of birds and organize them in a photo book. Add an index card on each adjacent page that includes the name of the bird and its features. Keep the book close by and watch for more birds that can be added to your collection.
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Build a Bird HouseVisit Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birdhouses page to learn how to make homes for our feathered friends. Download the plans and enlist the help of a parent or community member to provide pre-‐cut bird houses, ready for assembly. Students can work in small, supervised groups or together as a class to assemble and decorate the bird houses.
Design a Fantasy LandProvide students with a large piece of construction paper (at least 12x18-‐inches) and the medium of their choice, e.g., watercolor, colored chalk, colored pencils, crayons. Reflect on the fantasy-‐like setting of On Bird Hill, and encourage students to create their own fantasy land.
Create a BirdProvide students with the opportunity to create their own bird species by supplying them with a variety of materials such as tissue paper, scraps of yarn and ribbon, small tiles and buttons along with a 9x12-‐inch piece of poster board or construction paper that will serve as the canvas. Before beginning, examine pictures of birds that are common to your geographic area. Students’ creations can resemble an existing species or can combine features from a variety of birds.
Illustrator’s Note
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For as far back as I can remember, I doodled. In elementary and high school I filled reams of blank paper and the margins of my textbooks with tiny little drawings, one-‐offs that sort of just fell from my brainpan and were soon forgotten (except perhaps by the next users of my textbooks). Only a handful survived.
Several years ago, as I was working on the drawings for a book idea by Jane Yolen that was based on one of my doodles, I got stuck – as often happens (in this particular case, I’m still stuck years later). So I did what I usually do in that situation – I doodled. I found a blank piece of paper, an HB pencil and a kneaded eraser, cleared my mind, and started by drawing a curved line. This time, the curve happened to be pretty rounded and when I followed it, it became an egg which suggested a mother bird who quickly materialized around the egg. Her back, as it sloped away, reminded me of a favorite hill, which led to more hills, which led to a tiny house perched on top on one of them with a winding path leading down and a small figure walking along it. The curve of her tail followed the first curve and quite naturally arched over her back, thereby creating a self-‐contained little world. All of this occurred very quickly and with little thought – though I should add that winding paths and little houses on hilltops have sporadically appeared – unbidden – in various doodles over the years. Soon after, Jane, my friend of thirty-‐five years, stopped by my studio to see how the sketches were coming along. She saw my still-‐unfinished pencil drawing of an egg/bird/landscape and asked me to print a copy for her. On her drive home, it turned out, she was already composing a draft in her head for what became “On Bird Hill”. Less than two hours after she left my studio, I received this email from her: "I was reciting lines over and over to myself as I drove home and halfway there I realized that it had to cycle all the way down again to the perfect ending. Attached is the first full draft.”
I prepared thumbnails and sketches, and then color sketches. As it happened, it took several more years to find just the right publisher – and it took Jane more than a dozen revisions to be happy with her text. Last year, happily, Cornell Lab of Ornithology was developing a brand-‐new imprint for young children and, as Jane and her family had a long association with the Lab, they approached her about submitting something. She sent them her text and I sent sketches and color samples – and they liked it all. So that’s how “On Bird Hill” became the very first book -‐ in fact, the only book -‐ on Cornell Lab’s very first list for ages 2-‐6. And it has now become a series – I’m currently working on “On Duck Pond” (pub. date: spring ‘17), with “On Gull Beach” following not long after that.FYI: If you follow the “doodles link above and view the slideshow, there is a seven-‐slide sequence in about the middle that shows the pencil drawing that became the “On Bird Hill” cover, plus several early color samples and close-‐ups. “On Bird Hill” is my very first fiction picture book. To view a few examples of my nonfiction work, follow this link.
Learning Standards Addressed
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Interactive Read AloudPre-‐K—K• Common Core Standards: RL1, RL2, RL5, RL10, SL1, SL2, SL3, SL6 • Reading Processing Strategies: Predicting, Making Connections, Inferring, Analyzing
Grades 1—2• Common Core Standards: RL1, RL5, RL6, RL9, RL10, SL1, SL2, SL3, SL6 • Reading Processing Strategies: Predicting, Making Connections, Inferring, Analyzing
Shared and Performance ReadingPre-‐K—K• Common Core Standards: RL10, FS1, FS4 • Reading Processing Strategies: Maintaining Fluency
Grades 1—2• Common Core Standards: RL10, FS1, FS3, FS4• Reading Processing Strategies: Solving Words, Monitoring and Correcting, Maintaining Fluency
Writing ConnectionsPre-‐K—K• Common Core Standards: RL1, RL2, W1, W3, W5, L1, L2
Grades 1—2• Common Core Standards: RL2, RL3, RL5, RL9, W1, W3, W5, L1, L2, L3
Science Connections• Next Generation Science Standards: LS1.B, LS1.C, ESS3.A
Art Connections• National Core Art Standards: Creating—1,2,3; Producing—5
Resources
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Informational Books• National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America (Alderfer, 2013)• A Nest is Noisy (Aston, 2015)• Birds, Nests & Eggs (Boring, 1998)• Take a Backyard Bird Walk (Kirkland, 2013)• Every Day Birds (Ludwig VanDerwater, 2016)• About Birds (Sill, 2013)• The Young Birder ’s Guide (Thompson, 2008) • Bird Brainiacs (Tornio & Keffer, 2016)
Websites• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology• Birdwatching Bliss• Flying Wild• Project Beak
Explore the following resources to help children identify and learn more about birds:
Other Bird Books Written by Jane Yolen• Owl Moon• You Nest Here With Me• Bird Watch• Birds of a Feather• An Egret’s Day• Fine Feathered Friends•Wild Wings
Other Bird Books Illustrated by Bob Marstall• Crows! Strange and Wonderful, written by Laurence Pringle
On Bird HillWritten by Jane Yolen & Illustrated by Bob Marstall
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As I was walking on Bird Hill,Though it was day, the moon shone still.
And on Bird Hill I saw a tree,As light and bright as it could be.
And on that tree, so shining bright,I saw a trunk, both dark and light.
And on that trunk, I saw a limb, Straight and strong and long and slim,
And on that limb, I saw a twig,Not very little, yet not very big.
And on that twig, I saw a nest,And in that nest a bird at rest.
Beneath that bird there was an egg,A little chick, all beak, wing, leg.
The chick was tiny, shell was thick,But crick, crick, crack, he was so quick.
He hatched himself and left the egg,He fluffed his wings, he stretched each leg.
He saw the eggshell, hen, and nest,Then looking ‘round, he saw the rest.
He saw the twig, limb, trunk, and tree,And then he saw the moon…
…and me,As I walked down Bird Hill.
Shared and Choral Reading
On Bird HillWritten by Jane Yolen & Illustrated by Bob Marstall
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NARRATOR ONE: As I was walking on Bird Hill, though it was day, the moon shone still.
NARRATOR TWO: And on Bird Hill I saw a tree, as light and bright as it could be.
NARRATOR THREE: And on that tree, so shining bright, I saw a trunk, both dark and light.
NARRATOR FOUR: And on that trunk, I saw a limb, straight and strong and long and slim,
NARRATOR ONE: And on that limb, I saw a twig, not very little, yet not very big.
NARRATOR TWO: And on that twig, I saw a nest, and in that nest a bird at rest.
NARRATOR THREE: Beneath that bird there was an egg, a little chick, all beak, wing, leg.
NARRATOR FOUR: The chick was tiny, shell was thick, but crick, crick, crack, he was so quick.
NARRATOR ONE: He hatched himself and left the egg, he fluffed his wings, he stretched each leg.
NARRATOR TWO: He saw the eggshell, hen, and nest,then looking ‘round, he saw the rest.
NARRATOR THREE: He saw the twig, limb, trunk, and tree, and then he saw the moon…
NARRATOR FOUR: …and me, as I walked down Bird Hill.
Readers’ Theater Script
Teacher’s Notes