Preschool to Grade 4
March 25th, 2008
AMATO, Mary . The Chicken of the Family . illus. by Delphine Durand. unpaged. CIP. Putnam . 2008. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-0-399-24196-3 . LC 2006003606.
K-Gr 3—The dynamics of sibling relationships are played for laughs with enormous success in this picture book about three sisters. Henrietta is usually the brunt of her older sisters’ teasing. When they trick her into believing that she is a chicken by planting an egg and two feathers in her bedroom, she runs away to a nearby farm to find her real family. Accepted by the farmer and the fowl as one of their own, Henrietta makes her sisters squirm when they are sent by their parents to bring her home. The wacky plot is made all the more comical by the straightforward, almost deadpan, delivery. Durand’s colorful cartoon illustrations add to the silliness with the antics of the farmyard residents and the girls’ expressions (the egglike appearance of their wide eyes continues the chicken theme). When using this book as a read-aloud, be sure to share Amato’s dedication, which notes her inspiration for the story.—Maura Bresnahan, High Plain Elementary School, Andover, MA
ANDERSON, Peggy Perry . Chuck’s Band . illus. by author. 32p. CIP. Houghton/Walter Lorraine Bks. Apr. 2008. RTE $16. ISBN 978-0-618-96506-9 . LC 2007021728.
PreS-K—A simple rhyming tale of latent musical talent let loose. Each barnyard animal—except a green cat—finds its instrument and joins the hoedown. A large red hound strums a guitar as a small white Terrier blows on a harmonica. A duck pecks on a washboard, and a donkey taps on a bucket. Drawn in bright crayon, the characters are complemented by the green grass, a blue acrylic sky, and the outline of the yellow farmhouse. One page reads, "Tuck plays the guitar—/strum, strum,/strum! Nip plays harmonica—hum,/hum, hum!" To the right of the spread a spotted cow and pink pig seem to be repressing a jig ("The big cow Lou and the/little sow Sue wanted to/make some/music, too"). Emerging readers will find the large print accessible as well as the mirroring relationship between text and illustration. Preschoolers will delight in this read-aloud that has much potential for participation—spoons, knee slapping, and clapping. One caution: the foot-stompin’ rhythm may leave some adults with a fiddle sound reeling through their heads.—Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA
Tags: disturbed, fire, inside, lyrics
March 25th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
If you want strangers to raise your children give them up for adoption or better yet, don’t have children. They need their parents. It’s irresponsible to have a children then pawn the off on strangers every day while you chase the almighty dollar.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Well said saska1st let me say my wife is an assistant director at a pre school, and I have a two year old.All in all this atricle in the NYT is pure sensationalism at best, and designed to make parents feel guilty about sending their kids to daycare. I for one will never feel guilty about taking my son to daycare, he has lots of friends he otherwise wouldn’t have and he loves the teachers there. I agree, peer to peer contact for kids is irreplaceable, they need to spend time with other kids. Spending all day everyday with one adult even their mommies, creates kids who have a really lop sided set of developmental skills. They lack P2P social skills but may have a high level of bizarre memorization skill that make them seem advanced. Another important thing is the fact the teachers and administrators at pre schools have benchmarks for kids developmentally that most parents don’t know about, or don’t care about. So if a kid is lacking in say, verbal skills, the teachers and admins can tell, and do something about it because they have seen thousands of kids come through there and they have a good idea of what is considered “normal.” This isn’t the case for s first or second time stay at home mom. Not to mention 95% of parents think their kids are gifted, so they are oblivious to signs that their child may be lacking in certain areas…My wife and I have had this discussion a lot, and honestly I was always on the other side of the fence, that if a kid “COULD” stay home they “SHOULD” but now I think that spending as much time with kids of the same age is a good thing. Provided there is a good teaching foundation and well focused learning type environment…
March 25th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I wonder if this applies solely to children in an outside childcare environment or also to children being cared for in their own home by nannies.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Oh, just bury this comment.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I say we all get together and buy doom a parent of the millenium award, because it’s obvious his or her parenting skills are in a league of their own. All us poor working-so-that-our-children-can-one-day-have-a-better-life-than-we-had saps should take note of what he has to say.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Not all daycare situations are created equal. Some, such as ours, have a very small number of kids, around 5. And when you have provider who actually disciplines in a manner the parents agree upon there aren’t any issues. In fact I would consider our daycare a very good thing as it gives our daughter the ability to socialize with children her own age. Skills that will be very valuable later in life.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Granted that the study is flawed, if there is any shred of truth in the findings whatsoever, I believe they can be attributed to the fact that many daycares (early childhood education center, whatever you want to call it) have a more progressive approach to the learning environment than schools. Children have much more freedom of movement, speech, and action in a daycare than they do in a traditional school. Schools are very rigid institutions that have changed very little in the past 100 years or so. So when a child moves from a progressive daycare environment to a rigid school environment, there are problems to work out, new boundaries and rules for the child to learn.See… the daycare has a financial incentive to create a positive learning environment for my child. That’s what I pay for and I expect nothing less. What incentive does the school have to teach my child? The altruistic nature of a few good teachers? The school system desperately needs fixed before we attack the inadequacies of daycare. The school system impacts all children, not just those whose parents are awesome enough to buy jet skis.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
From reading these comments, it’s clear that if you don’t have a trust fund and aren’t able to spend 24 hours a day with your child he will become Jeffrey Dahmer.Huh. Who knew?
March 26th, 2008 at 12:08 am
wanna know what my parents did to keep me in check!?? they whooped my ass when i did something wrong! and guess what!!??? i NEVER did it again!! if more parents would beat their kids lil asses when they acted up the world would be a better place..well maybe not the world but at least restaurants and grocery stores..
March 26th, 2008 at 12:59 am
@veritatei get what your saying..yes my advice was a “bit” broad. but im not going to bother to get into the details of what going to far is..i was simply referring to the punishment that i received when i was younger..i got whopped ’till my but was nice and rosy or i squirted some real tears. And the fact that the teacher can’t/couldn’t implement any form of physical punishment, to me is invalid. I know that a whoopin would more than likely be waiting for me when i got home if the teacher decided to make a phone call. and yes i understand that some kids are not as mentally stable as i was back in the day but no matter how ADD ridden the child is or stubborn, they can all fully comprehend the idea that “if i do something wrong, i will be punished.” the children who don’t choose heed their conscience’s advice simply wish to roll the dice and hope to not get caught…I for one weighed the consequences with the action..most of the time i hung back and let my buddies get in trouble. oh and thanx ur the 1st person to reply back to one of my comments
March 26th, 2008 at 1:49 am
The Magic 8-Ball says: “ask again later, data inconclusive …”Like anything else, there’s good and bad. Put your kid in a really good daycare situation and he or she will benefit. Put your kid in a crap ass daycare and he or she will suffer.Does money play a part in this? Well, duh …
March 26th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Quite doubtful. What an epatage! http://musiclabs.blogspot.com
March 26th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Simply put I do not believe that there can be a blanket statement such as this. I believe that it all comes down to what/how you do things with your children. This can be after day care or such. Parents who then focus on their kids when they are with them will likely have stronger children mentally.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:21 am
“On the positive side, they also found that time spent in high-quality day care centers was correlated with higher vocabulary scores through elementary school.”That’s why the kids act up, they are bored as heck in the classroom while the teacher teaches to the tests so they act out. Good for them, let the teacher do the job and TEACH!
March 26th, 2008 at 5:12 am
You know, the study does say that being in day care improves the vocabulary of the children.If they get pissy later on, they’ll be able to tell you to go pound sand in much more entertaining ways than their home-cared mates.