Cock-a-doodle-doo! Barnyard Hullabaloo By: Giles Andreae

Book Genre: Non-fiction

Publishing Info: Tiger Tales (March 2002) 32 pages

Awards or honors received: N/A

Summary: The story's introduction is a picture of the barn from outside the fence showing all the animals that live inside the barnyard. Then the rooster, chickens, cow, sheep dog, barnyard cat and all the other animals introduce themselves through a rhyming, first person verse. As night falls the barnyard animals get ready for bed and the story introduces the night time animals. (Fox and owl) The conclusion of this story ends the same as it started but all the animals are fast asleep.

Personal rating and reason for rating: ****Great! This book would be the perfect book to introduce a farm unit because it briefly describes the animals with a kid friendly illustrated picture attached. The book is designed so that on every page there is a rhyming verse that teaches about a different animal. For example: Rooster
Cock-a-doodle doo!
Cock-a-doodle doo!
I’m the rockin’ rooster, baby,
Tell me, who are you?

It also has rhyming words throughout the book which is a kindergarten skill that is very hard to grasp. It also has animal sounds/motions written in words next to each animal which the children will love making sounds to when I’m finished reading the page. For example, next to the turkey are the words gobble, gobble. I was very please with this book selection.

Reading level: Accelerated Reader Level 3.7

Interest level: K-3

Possible uses of the text in integrated units of study:

Math: I would print out pictures from the story and have children sort them by size. (Little, medium, big)

Students could pick their favorite character from the story. They would get a large paper plate and they would need to create their animal’s face. I would glue a large popsicle stick to the inside and it would become a mask. Once everyone is finished, we would graph what our favorite animals were from the story.

Science: Have students touch magnets to various farm tools and have them describe what is happening. If you have enough materials you could make a little container for each table so students would not have to wait doing this whole group.

Writing: As an opening activity after reading this story have children draw a barnyard setting along with all the animals they think should be in a barn. Students would then write 1-2 sentences about their picture. When teaching kindergarten make sure you always model first. This really teaches good technique at an early age.

Connecting home with school: At the beginning of my farm unit I would send home a letter to parents about a farm project that they are expected to do. I would give two weeks for this to be completed. As a culminating activity have students/parents complete a farm diorama. It could be as simple as gluing paper farm animals inside a shoe box to actually purchasing plastic farm animals and making it 3-D. I really like trying to create projects where the child and parent needs to work cooperatively with each other to complete a task. This would also reinforce what I have been teaching over the last two weeks. We could place the farm dioramas in the library for all students to see.

Potential problems or difficulties: I do not see any potential problems.