Woof! Woof!: The focus of this lesson is to emphasize safe summertime play and responsibility with activities that support social skills through reading, language, and cognitive thinking.

Teaching with Clifford's Big Idea: Play Fair and Be Responsible

Teach: Story Timeline!
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• language and literacy skills
• social and emotional skills

Ask children to identify what they do to cool off during hot weather: swimming, playing in the water hose or sprinkler, standing near a fan, cooling off in the shade, drinking extra amounts of water, and eating ice cream. Read Clifford Keeps Cool by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic). Ask children why Clifford was so hot and what he did to cool down. Help children identify safety issues during summertime activities. Stress the importance of being responsible and playing fair to keep activities safe and fun. Make a timeline of story events, using a ruler and a 3 ft. piece of white paper. Mark main events and ask children to orally express the details of what happened. Add details in writing. Have children illustrate and color original pictures of Clifford's antics to keep cool. Glue on timeline. Review the elements of the story: setting, characters, events, and ending. Before ending timeline work, create new titles that could also support Clifford's efforts to keep cool!

Practice: Practice Picnic!
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• social and emotional skills
• cognitive thinking skills
• creative expression skills

Explain to children that they are going to fill their own picnic plate with the correct number of food items for a practice picnic, including the ants! Prepare enough laminated food items to build each child's plate equally. Prepare large menu board showing children items needed to fill their plate: 1 hamburger patty, 2 buns, 1 leaf of lettuce, 2 onion slices, 3 tomatoes, 4 pickles, 5 chips, 1 serving of baked beans or potato salad (made with index cards), and ants (real raisins to munch on!). Review playing fair by encouraging students to not cut in line. Don't forget napkins and plastic spoons. Serve real juice, eat raisins, and talk about good manners. Practice being responsible by sorting food items and cleaning up picnic area. Place three empty boxes in the classroom. Label boxes: plastic, paper, and aluminum; for reasons of safety, omit glass. Help children identify physical characteristics and sort items daily for recycling. Set goals and reward the entire class at project's end.

Extend: It takes good planning and preparation to get ready for summertime activities!

• Create a center with vacation supplies: play iron, clothes, different kinds of suitcases, accessories like umbrellas, hats, sunglasses, maps, car keys, tickets, etc. Have children pretend they are getting ready for a summer vacation by ironing, folding, and packing!
• Plan a real classroom summertime picnic. Involve parents and caretakers. Include water activities with baby pools, sprinklers, and beach balls to end the school year in a fun, memorable way! Use this opportunity to learn about health issues like water safety and sun exposure.

Clifford’s Library: These books support Clifford's Big Ideas and reinforce early literacy skills:

• Clifford's Manners by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic)
• Clifford the Big Red Dog: The Missing Beach Ball by Norman Bridwell, Sonali Fry (Scholastic)