When I was a child my mom used to read me bedtime stories. Many of those stories are still some of my favorites today. Whenever I see a book I once remember as a child nostalgia takes over and I promptly purchase the book for my children. Amelia Bedelia is one such book that lives fondly in my heart. I could not wait to share it Amelia’s antics with my children. So, it only made sense that Amelia would find her way into one of my weekly Book Focus Lessons I design for my little girls.
My Book Focus Lessons are created to engage young children into literature. I feature a new book every Friday on my blog to help you enjoy reading with your child. The week is filled with simple short activities and lessons inspired by the story we are reading.
Day 1: Who is Amelia Bedelia and why did she draw the drapes?
The first day we read the story aloud. This is the time to get familiar with the book and Amelia. Once you finish reading the book engage your child by asking a few questions about the story.
What was Amelia hired to do for the Rogers family?
What was the funniest thing she did in the book and why?
How would you dust the furniture or draw the drapes or put out the lights?
What did Amelia do to make Mr. Rogers happy?
Activity:
Draw the Drapes
Get out your favorite colored pencils, markers or crayons and paper. It’s time to draw your favorite scene from Amelia Bedelia. You may even want to draw your drapes!
Day 2: Fun with Homophones
Homophones are words which sound the same (may or may not be spelled the same) yet have different meanings. For example “night” and “knight” or “cast” and “cast”. This is a fun lesson since many children do not consider homophones until brought to their attention. My five year old was amazed how many homophones we could think of.
Activity:
Rebus Story
If you have young children you will want to write a simply paragraph or two before you begin the lesson. Using a magnetic dry erase board makes this activity easy and fun but you can certainly use paper and cut out pictures.
Simply write a paragraph on your board leaving blank spaces where the homophones would go. Cut out or draw pictures of the homophones and attach to magnet stickers. Now read the paragraph to your child and have her place the correct homophone in the black space.
You may want to allow your child, based on ability level, to make her own sentences or paragraphs using the homophones.
For some fun use the opposite homophones to visualize what the silliness the sentences would imply.
Activity:
Homophone Pictures and Memory Game.
For younger children use homophones which are visual like flower/flour or berry/bury. Paste the pictures of the homophones on index cards. Place all the cards on a table and have your child match the homophones. In addition, you can turn the cards over and play a memory game with the homophones.