Amelia Bedelia is one of my all time favorite characters. She is such a sweet person, she always has the best intentions, but she will take everything that you say literally, and she doesn't seem to understand that words or phrases can have more than one meaning (colloquial). The situations she gets herself into will make anyone laugh. These books are also a great way to teach children about colloquial words. Many times children will not know what calling the roll is, or being a hand at singing, so this can open them up to more of our language that they may not hear everyday. Readers should use the illustrations to figure out what Amelia should be doing, and what Amelia actually ended up doing. In
Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia, Amelia is mistaken as the new substitute teacher, and the laughs never end as she attempts to follow the days lesson plans. I have read this book so many times, and I still keep laughing. I read this with reading groups during my student teaching, and had a lot of fun with it, because I was having my own new teacher experience, so I could really relate to Amelia! It was a lot of fun!
About the Author: Peggy Parish
Genre: Humor, Fiction
Theme/Skill: Understanding synonyms and colloquialisms. Amelia Bedelia takes everything literally; read along to find out what Amelia Bedelia will do next and use the pictures to see what she is up to.
Grade Level: Kindergarten-3rd grade
Pre-reading activity: Have a reading group discussion on synonyms and colloquialisms. Give students examples of words that have multiple means. Teach children to use context clues, and clues from the illustrations to understand which meaning of the word in intended. Give examples.
Post-reading activity: Students will work in a small group to review the book and to make a list of examples in which Amelia Bedelia misunderstood the meaning of something. Then give students a t-chart and on each side it should say "Amelia Bedelia calls the roll". Students should draw a picture on one side of what Amelia Bedelia was supposed to do, and on the other side draw a picture of what Amelia Bedelia thought she was supposed to do
This sounds like a funny book, I haven't read it yet but I have read other Amelia Bedilia books, and she just cracks me up! Sometimes at work we forget that our students can take us very literally at times as well, so the text would probably be relatable. I like the pre and post activities that you have laid out, and I think you could start as early as Kindergarten with the ideas of literal meaning. Can't wait to read this :)
ReplyDeleteAmelia Bedelia is awesome, isn't she! My sons homework last night was to read 'Amelia Bedelia Under Construction', so of course we had alot of fun with that! I think Amelia Bedelia is just as fun for adults as it is for kids...
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked my activities. Since this lesson was so popular while I was student teaching, I used more Amelia Bedelia books later on, and I came up with a lot of fun activities!