Over the River: A Turkey's Tale

Title: Over the River: A Turkey's Tale

Derek Anderson (Illustrator)

based on the song by Lydia Maria Child

Comprehension Strategies: Visualizing, Inferring                  

Art Modality: Music

Summary:

Over the River Mama, Papa, and Baby Turkey embark for their vegetarian Thanksgiving feast. But when a hungry boy and his dog start sniffing around, the turkeys have got to think fast before they become the main course! Readers of all ages will be wondering who's going to gobble up whom until the dessert finale. (Summary from www.derekanderson.net.)

Materials:

Over the River: A Turkey's Tale

Lesson:

Thanksgiving is coming up on us like a hound dog on a turkey! Here's a quick side dish for your reading lessons this week. I saw this book at my local big-book-store chain last night. I "gobbled" it up, and thought you might like it, too. The recipe is quick and simple. Just cover the outside of the book. Read or sing the words; then have students discuss, draw or write what they visualized. Reread or resing the story. This time invite students to carefully view the illustrations to discover the story of the turkey family on the way to their feast. Can your students infer how the turkeys are feeling along the way? Now it's time for all your little turkeys to sing along.


Over the river and through the woods, off to the bookstore you go!

For more information about the illustrator:

http://www.derekanderson.net