March 26th: Amelia Bedelia

One of my favorite books as a kid, Amelia Bedelia, is what we read today. Written by Peggy Parish, these hilarious classics are full of fun twists. Through this book, I was able to talk to the kids about what the words literal and idiom mean. We discussed the literal meaning of some phrases and I told them to notice how Amelia Bedelia always takes things literally. When she was told to draw the curtains, instead of closing them, she literally drew a picture of them. Amelia Bedelia books are funny, thoughtful, and spark the imaginations of children. Before we read, I asked them to name some of the idioms they had heard. I told them an idiom is a word or phrase that says one thing but means another. I was happily surprised that they already knew lots of idioms, they just didn't know those phrases were idioms. It brought a smile to my face when one little boy said "I broke my ankle". I knew that wasn't really an idiom, but I didn't have the heart to tell them that. I let them write their idioms on the board and then we read the book.

After we read, we pointed out all the idioms in Amelia Bedelia. This is a list I made:

Dress the Chicken
Draw the Drapes
Dust the Furniture
Prune the Hedges
Change the towels
Put the lights out

Then, I passed out activity sheets and the kids enjoyed doing word searches and mini quizzes.

After they had filled out the worksheets, they each showed me all the words they found in the word search. Then, we went back to the list of Amelia Bedelia idioms from the book and I passed out slips of paper with an idiom on each one. I told the kids to get in groups of 2 or 3 and come up with a charade based on each idiom. The kids had fun acting out scenes like dressing the chicken and changing the towels.

This week's snack would have to be the best yet! I brought in two whip cream topped lemon meringue pies, like the ones Amelia Bedelia made!

 

 

The kids were so excited and demanded 2 pieces...giving in to them wasn't the best idea.