There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea
Twenty-one kindergartners in Mrs. Abramson's class at Kyrene de los Lagos Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona loved the picture book There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea written by Jennifer Ward and illustrated by Steve Gray. This book was shared for enjoyment, and also to sharpen students' sequencing skills and ability to make predictions, meeting standards for the Kyrene School District in the areas of reading, writing, science and health education.
The students were very familiar with coyotes. In our opening discussion, they supplied that coyotes are nocturnal; they live in the desert; they howl at the moon, and are members of the dog family. When we discussed what a coyote eats, one student informed the rest of the class that "coyotes eat dogs and cats right out of people's front yards in our neighborhood." (Sadly, she was correct.) However, that led us right into this silly story about what one coyote ate in a day.
Following the story, the students completed a whole group cut-and-paste sequencing activity. This resource came from the author's web site at www.jenniferwardbooks.com
Tyler and Noelle are concentrating very hard to do their personal best work.
In the final line of the book, the coyote wonders:"Is breakfast soon?" The kindergartners went back to their desks and predicted what that coyote might be eating for breakfast. They were to draw a picture and complete the prompt: "Coyote's breakfast will be…"If the students were up to the challenge, they were asked to try to make up a rhyme for their writing.
Tatum predicts that breakfast will be "rabbits because he has habits."
Brooke believes Coyote will eat "flies in a big pie."
Some of the students chose not to rhyme, but still predicted breakfast that could be found out in the desert.
Kyle believes the Coyote is going to eat sand.
Adam thinks that a saguaro cactus is on the breakfast menu. Coyote must have really liked the cactus he ate the day before.
While they worked, the kids snacked on chips and salsa.
