The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base

I have saved my favorite Graeme Base book for last!!  The Eleventh Hour is the book that started it all.  I read it with my mom when I was younger and spent days trying to find all of the clues to determine who stole the feast.  When I started working in the schools, one of the first books I created a unit for was The Eleventh Hour.  Some of the activities I use for this book came from The Magic of Stories: Literature-Based Language Intervention by Carol J. Strong and Kelly Hoggan North.  You can buy it on Amazon here.

Some activities to do with this book:

1) SMART Board Lesson: I created a SMART Board lesson for The Eleventh Hour complete with pages to use to discover who the feast's thief is.  I tried to make it as easy as possible for the kids, so some of the pages have "hint", which is normally the cypher for the code they will find somewhere on the page that will give them a clue as to who is or is not the thief.  If you have SMART capabilities, this is the easiest way to do the lesson.  If not, I broke up what is in the SMART lesson below.

Get your SMART lesson here!!

2) Story Map and Retell: This is a great book to story map and retell.  It has several distinct events: Getting ready for the party, revealing the feast, the party and it's games, the feast's disappearance, and Horace's solution.  This would also be a great time to review transition words. (If you need copies of the story map or transition words I use, please see my posts on Uno's Garden and The Worst Band in the Universe.)

3) Vocabulary: As I have said before, Graeme Base uses tons of tier 2 vocabulary words in his stories so vocabulary is always something you can work on when reading his books.  Here is a short activity using context clues.

Get your Vocabulary activity here!!

4) Figurative Language: Graeme Base uses figurative language throughout his books to paint the picture in an interesting way.  Take a walk through the book with your kids to find it.  Here are a few examples:

"No sooner had they entered then a rumor filled the air."
"And one by one the guests were drawn within to feast their eyes."
"The elephant was shaky: it appeared he'd lost his nerve."
"But every mind was on the feast."

5) Inference: There are some great questions  provided in The Magic of Stories I use to work on inference:
    1) Why did Horace pick the eleventh hour for the time of the feast?
    2) Why wasn't there a winner in the game of Musical Chairs? 
    3) How did the pig cheat while playing cards?
    4) Why did Horace miss his chance to make his speech?
    5) How did Horace save the day?
    6) Why was the birthday cake safe?

Another great way to work on inference is to try to figure out who the thief actually is.  There are clues in each picture (sometimes around the boarder, some in the letters on Horace's refrigerator or in the banners in the dinning room, or they may be using a cypher like hieroglyphics, cards, or Morse Code).  Use these clues to prove the party guest's innocence or guilt.  (FYI, this takes a long time to complete so I normally let them spend one day trying to get as far as they can and then I periodically let them complete one page over then following speech sessions until they figure it out so that we are not spending an exorbitant amount of time on this.) I made a chart of the characters and a detective's log for my kids to keep their information in for my SMART Board lesson.  Here is a paper version if you don't have SMART technology.

Get your Detective's Log here!!

6) Recipe: While perusing Pinterest I found a recipe for Cake Batter Puppy Chow.  It looks AMAZING and so easy to make.  I am "borrowing" that recipe to use with this lesson because The Eleventh Hour is about a birthday party and what better to serve at a birthday party than cake!!!  Thank you Becky at So Very Blessed for this recipe.

Get your Recipe and Permission Slip here!!

The Sign of the Seahorse by Graeme Base

In The Sign of the Seahorse, Graeme Base takes a break from land animals and journeys down into the sea.  It is written partially as a play with acts and scenes.  This is a great way to introduce a new type of literature. 

Some activities to do with this book:

1) Sequence the Scenes: Print out the scene titles and descriptions and ask the students to sequence them.  This activity is like the sequencing activity from Uno's Garden.  Have them sequence and then use transition words to retell.

Get your Scene Titles and Descriptions here!

2) Character Study: Describe each character (type of fish, personality, hero/villain, purpose in the story).  Use can use this information to compare and contrast different characters.

Get your Character Study sheet here!

3) Real Marine Life: Look up real fish that correlate with the characters.  Answer the following questions: What do they eat? How do they live? Where do they live?

4) Plays: Talk about what a play is, the different parts of a play, cast, scenes, etc.  Compare a true play to The Sign of the Seahorse.

5) Recipe: I use a take on dirt pie to create an ocean in a cup.  I like starting with all of my kids having individual clear cups to put their ingredients in instead of making one big "ocean" and then scooping it out to eat.  It doesn't really matter in the long run because they will end up with the same amount of food, I just like for each person to be able to do as much of the cooking as possible (and it is cleaner than a lot of scooping).

1) Smash up some vanilla wafers in a Ziploc bag and put them at the bottom of your cup to represent the sand.
2) Make blue jello per the package instructions and add it to each cup to represent the ocean.
3) Add jelly fish (I like Swedish Fish the best) to the jello.
4) Enjoy!!!

Get your Permission Slip here!

Animalia by Graeme Base

Animalia is Graeme Base's response to an ABC book (except it is definitely not written for a preschooler).  I don't remember if I have already said this or not, but Graeme Base is an amazing wordsmith.  He uses the English language like no one I have ever seen.  Just take a look at the "V" page.  His vocabulary is vast and voluptuous. ;)

 Some activities to do with this book:

1) Word Wall: Have your students pick out words they do not understand and create a word wall with them.  Give each kid a letter and have them create definitions (either by using context clues or looking them up in the dictionary) for the words they found by filling out a definition sheet.  Add them to your word wall. 

Get your Definition Sheet here!

2) Alliteration: Every page is full of alliteration based on what letter it is talking about.  Teach what alliteration is (the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases).  Use the alphabet to play an alliteration game using the phrase, "I took my friend to (place) with a (noun) and (verb)."  For example, "I took my friend to Seattle with a snail and sweated."

3) App: Graeme Base created an Animalia app with several fun activities you can play with your iPhone or iPad.  It is $3.99 and has four different activities to choose from.  I took screen shots from the app store you you could see them. 

Get your App here!

4) Recipe: As I said before, I believe the "V" page has the best string of vocabulary words in the book.  In honor of that page, I thought a play on a bird's nest would be a fun cooking activity for the kids.  I call them vulture's nests.  If you are doing this book around Easter, you can find some great candy shaped like eggs to put in the nests.  

Get your Recipe and Permission Slip here!

The Water Hole by Graeme Base

The Water Hole is probably the shortest of all of Graeme Base's books (or at least the shortest of all of the books that I own), but there are a TON of things to do with it.  It is similar to Uno's Garden in terms of counting up from 1 to 10 animals and talking about over use of resources, so you can pair them if you want or spread them out and put several books in-between them. 

Some activities to do with this book:

1) Questions: Because the book is short, there are not a ton of questions but here is what I have:
                    1.  What happened to the water? Why do you think that?
                    2.  Why do we all need water?
                    3.  When the water hold is getting smaller, how do you think the animals are feeling?
                    4.  Of all the animals in the book, which one is your favorite and why?

2) Alphabet Animals: Write the alphabet and find an animal that is depicted in the book that matches each letter.  Once you have done that, you can either draw the animals with your lower/younger kids and make them into a book or chart, or define the animals with cloze sentences.  Here is the sentence I usually use:

3) Animal Classification: Sort and classify animals into categories such as reptiles, birds, cats, insects, etc.  I have a bunch of magazine pictures on file that I will pull out to do random sorts with to work or classification and categorizing.  Old National Geographics are great to get nature and animal pictures from.  I just throw them on the floor and have the kids create the guidelines for the sort.  They have to work together to come up with the categories based on what pictures they have.  They could sort by type of animal, location of animal, carnivore/herbivore/omnivore, let their imaginations run.  To make it harder, you can reduce the number of categories they are aloud to sort into and have them start over using new parameters. 

4) Animal Conversations: On each page Graeme Base has the animals talking to each other.  This could be an activity for introducing speech balloons.  Ask each child to draw and write their own interpretation of what the animals are saying to one another.

5) Onamonapias: Speaking of animal conversations, you could talk about how the words look like the sounds they are making.  Have your kids come up with other onamonapias we use in everyday life.

6) Animals of the World: There are several things you can do with just animals in general.  One might be to find the countries or regions depicted in the book on a map, and match a least three animals to each region.  Another could be to pretend some of these animals are your pets and imagine what they might need to be a happy pet.  You could choose animals from each region that are not the main animals in the pictures and come up with adjectives to describe them.  (It might be fun to use alliteration here.)

7) Vocabulary: Although the words in this book are not difficult, you could bring in science vocabulary words to work in some curriculum.  Some words could be: habitat, environment, resource, precious, cycle, seasons, jungle, woodlands, deserts, mountains, and forests.  You could even look up where those types of habitats are located in the world or just in the US.

8) Frog Floats: There is a frog jumping through the "o" in the title, so I thought frog floats might be applicable to this book.  They are really easy:

Put one scoop of lime sherbert into a cup
Pour some Sprite into the cup
Add some mini marshmallows with mini M&Ms for eyes
ENJOY!!!

Get your Permission Slip here!

Enigma by Graeme Base

Enigma is the second of Graeme Base's mystery children's books.  He learned some "code breaking" lessons from his first book, The Eleventh Hour (which is my FAVORITE Graeme Base book and will be saved for last because of its AMAZINGNESS!!!), and put an actual "enigma machine" in the back cover of the book.  This way you can just reset the "machine" and a whole new group of kids can break the code.  This man is a genius!! Did I mention how much I like him?  OK, back to business...

Some activities to do with this book:

1) Decide a Definition: What is an enigma?  The dictionary gives four definitions of the word: enigma.  Ask your kids what they think an enigma is then present the four definitions to your kids before reading the book.  You can keep them posted on your white board while reading and then go back to them after you are done.  Have your kids decide which definition best fits with the story.  (Deciding a definition is a question is every Reading TAKS/STAAR test I have seen so this is a great way to support that).

Get your Definitions here!

2) Lost/Stolen Items Chart: Create a chart with the names of the residents of the retirement home, what type of animal they are, what type of performer they are, and what they lost.  This is an easy way to work on classifying.

3) The Enigma Machine: Watch WWII Enigma Machine: The Enigma Project on YouTube to learn how a real enigma machine worked.  It is about 5 minutes long and provides an inside view of a real machine using during the war.  Before watching the clip you can talk to your kids about why it might be important to send your messages in code and how it was used during the war by the Nazis.  The allied forces had code breakers that cracked the code of the enigma machine and may have helped to cut the war in Europe by two years. 

Get a the Clip here!

4) Decoding Enigmas: After learning about a real enigma machine, try to open the book's machine.  If you can't figure out the code, Base gives you a clue on the copyright page.  Look for the missing items with the enigma clues and add their location to the chart you have previously made.  I like to have the answers in advance in case my kids have a hard time decoding and to make it go faster.  I let them figure out one location and then pull out my previously decoded answers so they can just locate stuff. 

Get your Enigma Answers here!

                                          Photo curtsey of Furiosity's Flickr account

5) Magic Potions:  For this book's cooking activity we make magic potions (a la Magic Time Machine).  They are really easy, taste really good, and bubble!  All you need is equal parts orange juice, pineapple juice, and sprite.  Add a bit of food coloring to change the potion's color, a few bits of dry ice for the bubble, and then ENJOY!!! (Don't forget that dry ice is dangerous to touch so make sure your kids are careful!)

Get your Permission Slip here!

Jungle Drums by Graeme Base

In Jungle Drums, Graeme Base moves from the animals of Australia and imaginary animals to the animals of Africa.  He uses the Swahili words for those animals as their names.  This book is great for cause and effect, predicting, and discussing inner/outer beauty.

Some activities to do with this book:

1)  Comprehension Questions: With every book there are always discussion questions you could go though at the end.  If you don't feel like making them up, here is a list you could just steal from me.

Get your Questions here!

2) Cause and Effect: Like I said before, this book is great for cause and effect.  Every time Ngiri hits the drums Old Nyumbu gave him, crazy things happen to the animals; things he was not expecting.  You can create a cause and effect chart.  There are several ways you could do this.  The easiest way, of course, is to just write it down, but you can also create one where your kids can come up with their own answers on post-it notes and then have them stick them to the cause and effect spots on your chart.  That way, all of your kids are answering completing all of the parts of the chart and you can take data on everyone.  If you are a worksheet person, I have created one for you.

Get your Cause and Effect Chart here!

3) Adjectives: It is always great to find a book with obvious adjectives.  This one has a bunch!  Several of them are synonyms for pretty!  So you can work on adjectives and synonyms with the same activity.

Here is a list of the obvious ones: small, stunning, striking, impressive, curly, graceful, gorgeous, grand, beautiful, silly, ugly, old, wise, magic, eager, fabulous, plain, jungle, dismay, awful, fake, colored, new found, wild, terrible, long, squeaky, little, clever, roaring.

You can use die-cuts of feathers, horns, circles (for spots), strips of paper (for stripes), and just cut out necks and trunks and have your kids write adjectives on them.  I added the ones from the story to get them started.

4) Coupe Mount Kenya:  In honor of the African animals, I have found a fun African dessert fron Kenya (one of the countries where Swahili is spoken):  Coupe Mount Kenya (mango ice cream with zing).  There is technically a second part to this recipe (a "zingy" sauce) but it calls for rum so I just left the zing off.  It would probably taste better with a pineapple sauce, but I think the parents may get a little upset if you start "serving" their kids.  This recipe has to freeze before it is eaten but the kids don't seem to care when you ask them to wait to eat their creations.

Get your Recipe and Permission Slip here!

5) Drums:  Thought I would tack this fun addition to the end because it is just for fun (but you can make it a following directions activity if you want).  Talk to your music teachers and see if they have any bongo drums you could borrow for your session.  Depending on how many, one or all of your kids could get some drums and drum along during the drumming sections of the story.  If you don't have access to drums, they can drum on the table (sounds corny but they love it).  After the book you can give them directions like (clap once, drum twice, stomp once, and repeat) to work on following directions. 

The Worst Band in the Universe by Graeme Base

While doing this author unit I was introduced to several new Graeme Base books.  This one is a favorite!  How could aliens, music, and gak go wrong? 

Some activities to do with this book:

**SMART Technology:  Our district provides air slates with SMART technology and it is periodically fun to do the lessons on that.  The kids love using the air slate to maneuver the words and write.  This is one such time so if you have those capabilities, here is the entire lesson for you ready to go!

Get your SMART Technology lesson here!

For those of you who don't have SMART technology, here is a list of activities for you...

1) Predicting and Drawing Inferences:  This book has some incredible language (both real and completely made up) so you will have to constantly go back and check for understanding while reading it.  It normally takes about three thirty minute sessions to get through the book, but that is OK because you are doing so much while you read.  Every couple of stanzas you should go back and ask what is happening.  Your kids will have to use their skills of drawing inferences to understand what is going on.  There are also some great parts of the books that are good for making predictions.

**If you have older kids this book has some great historical tie ins.  The underground music venue in Sector 9 could be compared to a Speak Easy from Prohibition and the Musical Inquisitor with his "wanting to create a pure musical world" and his ProdMen could be compared to Hitler and his Nazis.

2) Story Mapping:  With Uno's Garden, we sequenced the story by page and retold it using transition words.  Now we are using a story map.  Before completing the map, it is important to teach what each part of the map is.  There are tons of maps out there but here is one I created when I was first starting out if you want another one for your arsenal.  You can then use your completed map with the transition words from Uno's Garden to retell the story.

Get your Story Map here!

3)  Vocabulary:  Like I said before, great language in this book.  I picked out a ton of words to go over and wrote them in the sentence they came from so you can teach understanding vocabulary words based on context clues.  This activity could be done while you are reading because they are separated by page, but I just waited and went through all of the words at once using the air slate.  When I got to each new page, we talked about what was happening in the story so we were doing more retelling as we went.

Get your Vocabulary Matching activity here!

4)  Comparing and Contrasting:  You can compare and contrast Blipp and Squaag as well as Sprocc and Skat or Sprocc and the Musical Inquisitor.  Use the "during words" to create sentences like with Uno's garden but this time try it without the visuals.

5)  Gak:  Like I said earlier, I love to do cooking activities at the end of each book to work on following directions.  This time we made gak!!  It is made with glue and Borax so, of course, it is not to be eaten, but the kids loved it.  They especially loved mixing the solution with their hands.  An added bonus was getting to take it home.  My 6th graders even went back to class and explained how to make it to their science teacher.

Get your Recipe here!