Amelia the Pigeon: Amelia's Story

Grade Level: K-2

Time Estimation: Allow one to two class periods.

Students will:

• Brainstorm
• Predict
• Illustrate
• Write or dictate

Materials:

• Chart paper or chalk board
• Pencil and crayons
• Paper
• Available bulletin board or equivalent display area
• Pictures of places in New York City
  (from picture books, internet, magazines or post cards) *optional

Grouping:
The students work independently.

About the Lesson

Story Prediction - Students’ explore and illustrate places around their home. They build view of their neighborhood by pulling together drawings from the class/group. Using pictures of New York City, students predict Amelia’s story and create their own story of Amelia’s flight.

Engage (5 minutes)

In the story, Maria wonders where Amelia goes. What if Amelia flew around the students' neighborhood. Brainstorm: Ask the students to think about where they live and what is around their house? (Stores, schools, parks, etc.) As students individually give their answers, record them on chart paper or the board for students to see.

Explore (20 - 30 minutes)

Ask the children to imagine they are a bird flying HIGH above a place near their home or in their neighborhood. Ask them to draw a picture of what they would see looking DOWN at this place. (They may draw objects from the side. Just repeat and be encouraging about drawing what they think the bird would see without giving too much information.)

Depending upon their level, have students label and/or write a brief description of what their picture illustrates.

Explain (15 - 20 minutes)

Have students share their pictures telling what they have drawn. Begin to tie each of the pictures together to create a neighborhood or community. You may want to take each child’s picture and place it on a bulletin board. Children can offer input on where to put each picture. The school is beside the park. The store is a near the fire station. The houses form two lines as if they were on a street. Discuss as a class where Amelia might go. In what order? Who would she meet?

Optional. Use yarn on the bulletin board to show the path Amelia might fly in their neighborhood. Add a cut out or picture of a pigeon.

Expand (optional - second class period)

Look at some pictures of New York (post cards, magazine pictures, etc.) What places do the students see in the pictures? What places do they think Amelia would go when she leaves Maria’s house and flies around her neighborhood? With the students' input, post the pictues of New York in the order Amelia might visit to predict where Amelia might go in the story. As students to look at the story to see if they can find anything that is also on their mural.

Evaluate

What the students choose to draw of their own neighborhood will provide assessment of their grasp of neighborhood features. What the students choose to include on the mural of Maria’s neighborhood will provide a clearer understanding of a higher level of thinking by being able to connect their neighborhood to one of someone else’s and recognizing similar features in the story.

Resources

"As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps", Gail Hartman
© 1993. Alladin Paperbacks
ISBN 0-689-71762-8

Follow the Eagle. Follow the Rabbit. Follow the Crow. Follow the Horse and the Seagull. From the Mountains to the Sea follow the animals and each of their maps. At the end, the world is brought together with a map of the whole story. All maps and illustrations are from side or oblique views providing a concrete approach to a new perspective of looking at our world.

"My New York", Kathy Jakobsen
©1993, Little, Brown and Company
ISBN 0-316-45653-5

A young girl's tour of New York City with elaborate painting of places in the city from Skyscrapers to the Central Park Zoo.

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