- blueprint
- build
- instruction
- machine
- plan
- tool
- worker
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Literature/RL.PK.MA.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about a story or a poem read aloud.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Book Appreciation and Knowledge Asks and answers questions and makes comments about print materials.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 10 Engage actively in read-aloud activities by asking questions, offering ideas, predicting or retelling important parts of a story or informational book.
Read Together: Building a House #2
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Understand that tools and machines help people do things faster and/or more easily; Understand that different materials are useful for making different structures and different parts of structures; Recognize that walls, roofs, and bridges need to be supported in special ways; Identify tools used for a specific purpose
ELA Focus Skills: Active Listening, Comprehension (Recall and Retell), Main Idea, Sequencing, Vocabulary
Tell children you are going to read Building a House again. Set a reading focus by asking children to listen to the different steps the builders took to build a house and to compare them to the steps they took in building their houses.
Before You Read
Talk about following the steps of a process when you build or make something. Ask children if they have ever helped someone make something, for example, building a birdhouse, baking muffins, making a mask, etc. Discuss how you have to do steps in order (first, next, last) if you want to make it correctly.
Then turn to the title page of the book and ask children to look at the blue picture. Say, This is called a blueprint. A blueprint is a builder’s instructions. It shows him or her how to build the house.
- Turn to the next to last page in the book. Help children compare the features in the blueprint to those in the picture of the finished house.
- Ask, What shape are the windows in the blueprint? What shape are the windows in the house?
- Ask, How many doors are on the blueprint? How many doors are on the house?
- Then ask, Do you think the builders followed the instructions on the blueprint to build the house?
As You Read
Read the text through without stopping so children can follow the sequence of events in building a house. Have children act out the steps the builders take as you read, for example, First, dig a hole; then, hammer and saw (mimic the motions); then, build a fireplace (lift a heavy brick and spread some concrete on it); last, a family moves in (walk like you are carrying a big box full of things).
After You Read
- Ask children to repeat some of the steps the builders took in building the house. You may want to hold up different spreads of the book. Encourage children to use the words first, next, and last as they name the steps.
- Display the last page and say, Imagine your family is moving into this new house. What is the first thing you would want to do in your new house?