About this book
Overview
Any dog owner will see themselves in this hilarious take on owning a pet. I include Good Boy, Fergus! as part of a David Shannon author study. Students love making connections to their own pets.
Objective
Students will "identify, reproduce, describe, extend, and create color, rhythmic, shape, number, and letter repeating patterns with simple attributes, e.g., ABABAB . . ." --Massachusetts Mathematics Curriculum Frameworks
Materials
- Good Boy, Fergus! by David Shannon
- strips of paper, roughly 2" X 11";, 2 or 3 strips per student
- scissors
- glue sticks
- writing pencils
Set Up and Prepare
Make multiple copies of the end papers from the book. These are the pages at the very start of the book that feature dog toys, bones, and treats. You will need to reduce them on the copy machine so that they will fit on the paper strips.
Directions
Show students the copies with the various dog toys. Cut one apart and generate a pattern with students. Use a glue stick to paste the pattern to a paper strip.
Back at the desks, have students cut out the various dog toys and sort them into piles. Once they have enough pieces, they can create patterns which they can then glue to their paper strips. (Remind them to write their name on the back of the strip before they start gluing. This should help to keep some of the glue off of the table and help with any ownership confusion.)
Supporting All Learners
As always, remind students to be safe with their scissors.
Lesson Extensions
Have students use the pencils to label their patterns. For example, if they have glued on a pattern of bone, rope, bone, rope, they might label it A, B, A, B, or 1, 2, 1, 2.
- Subjects:Reading, Math, Arts and Crafts, Animals, Early Math, Sorting
- Skills:Reading
- Duration:50 Mins
