- buckets
- boxes
- craft sticks
- trash can lids
- markers
- imagine
- sound
- tap
- thundering
MA Standards:
Literature/RL.PK.MA.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about a story or a poem read aloud.
Literature/RL.PK.MA.3: With prompting and support, act out characters and events from a story or poem read aloud.
Literature/RL.PK.MA.9: With prompting and support, make connections between a story or poem and one’s own experiences.
MA Draft STE Standards:
Physical Sciences/Matter and Its Interactions/PS4.B: Apply their understanding in their play of how to change volume and pitch of some sounds.
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 6: Listen to a wide variety of age appropriate literature read aloud.
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: Max Found Two Sticks #1
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Sounds have a source; An action has to happen to make a sound; Different objects make different sounds
ELA Focus Skills: Active Listening, Make Connections, Parts of a Book, Speaking and Listening, Story Comprehension, Vocabulary
Before You Read
Hold up the book Max Found Two Sticks by Jerry Pinkney and ask children to describe what they see on the cover. Ask questions such as,
- What do you think the boy is doing with the sticks? Have you ever done that?
- How did you make sounds with the sticks when you were exploring the materials?
Point to each word in the title as you read it aloud.
As You Read
Ask questions about the sounds Max makes, such as,
- Have you ever heard the sound of pigeons flying? What do you think that sounds like? Point to your thigh and say, Let’s pat our thighs and see if we can make a sound like the one Max made by patting his sticks on his thigh.
- Can you imagine the sound of a train thundering down the tracks? Let’s try to make that sound by stomping our feet.
- Do you think the chiming of a church bell is louder than a train thundering down the track? Why do you think so?
- Have you ever been to a parade? Can you share some of the sounds you hear at a parade? What sound did you like best from the parade?
After You Read
Display materials. Tell children they will have a chance to try to make some of the same sounds Max made in the story.
- Open and reread the page where Max tapped the bucket. Demonstrate tapping a bucket and ask children to imagine rain falling against the window like Max did.
- Demonstrate tapping softer and harder.
- One at a time, have children choose an object. Read the page in the story that reflects that object.
- After reading, have a child make the same sound. Does it sounds like <Max’s description>?
- Ask children to describe the sound.