Staff member:

• to provide a storytime or other activity to occupy the children during the parent preparation time.

Staff member:

• to prepare parents to read "Amanda and the Mysterious Carpet" with their children.
  
• to review the survey "Our Feelings."
  
• to collect participant evaluation forms at the end of the program.

Parent Preparation:
Work with the parents to do a "pre-reading" activity. The "pre-reading" activity is the presentation of questions that relate to the subject of the book or to the topic of the activity. These questions are asked and discussed before reading the book.

Pre-Reading Activity
These are questions to ask the parents before reading the book.
Ask the parents, have you ever heard of flying carpets? What are they? How does their magic work? How are they controlled? How would you feel if you had a magic carpet? How would your children feel?

Note to the Facilitator: The pages in the book have been numbered so that it is easier to refer to events in the story without describing the pictures.

Model reading "Amanda and the Mysterious Carpet"
Parents can share books.
Have the parents look at the book's cover and share what they think the book is going to be about. Introduce Amanda as the story's central character.
Have the parents turn to the inside cover page and look for the clue in the picture that sets the context of the story. (Amanda is reading "Arabian Fairy Tales." These fairy tales have magic carpets in their stories. The story of Aladdin is an Arabian fairy tale.)

Have the parents read through the entire book. Have the parents look for WHO the story's characters are, WHERE the story takes place, and WHAT (events or situations) are happening during the story.
After everyone is through reading the book, summarize the story with parents contributing their ideas about the story's who, what and where. Since there are no words, ask how the parents got their ideas about the story's content. (Possible response: through the pictures.)

Take the parents page by page through the book, discussing how Amanda's and her mother's feelings are illustrated in the story's pictures. Have the parents share how the characters are feeling. Explain the readers can gain insight into how the characters are feeling by looking for clues in the pictures. These clues can be in the facial expressions, the body language, or the preceding events in the story. Also, personal experience affects how readers think a character is feeling. Readers will ask themselves how they would feel if it were happening to them.

In addition, have the parents explore WHY the characters are feeling that way. Ask what has been happening in the story that has brought out a specific emotion? The following are selected pages that can be used to discuss the character's feelings:

Page 9 - a possible response - Amanda's smile and closed eyes shows how much she is enjoying rolling around in the rug.
Page 14 - a possible response - Amanda's slight smile shows that she is feeling good about grabbing onto the carpet.
Page 16 - a possible response - Amanda is angry because the carpet is not following her directions.
Page 19 -- a possible response - Amanda seems irritated and is still trying to control the carpet.
Page 20 - a possible response - Amanda seems pretty proud of herself. She's got the carpet doing what she wants it to do.
Page 21 - a possible response - Amanda is excited. She is flying on the carpet and it is moving where she wants it to go.
Page 23 - a possible response - Amanda looks a little confused. Suddenly the carpet is moving and she doesn't seem to know why.
Page 24 - a possible response - Amanda is not pleased. She might be a little frightened because the carpet has flown out of the house and she doesn't know where it is taking her.
Page 26 - a possible response - Amanda and her mother are both afraid of Amanda falling off the roof.
Page 28 - a possible response - Amanda's mother is angry because she was so scared when Amanda was on the roof.
Page 29 - a possible response - Amanda looks confused, as if she is not sure if it happened at all.

Suggest to the parents that they can write questions about the character's feelings on the post-its and put them on the appropriate pages of the book. The posted questions can be used when they are asking their children to look for pictorial clues with regard to how the characters are feeling.

Discussion: How the Parents Can Work With The Children
Have the parents share what questions they can ask their children to elicit ideas about how Amanda and her mother are feeling at certain times during the story. Parents should also encourage their children to explain what clues in the pictures suggest how the character is feeling. The contextual clues can be found in the facial expressions, body language, or in preceding pictures that illustrate previous experiences the characters have encountered.

Stress that personal insight is also important. Parents can encourage their children to put themselves into Amanda's or her mother's place, and tell how they would react if it were happening to them.

This discussion time should be a time of clarification and review for the parents of the techniques the parents experienced during the modeling of the reading activity. This time is intended to build the parents ability and confidence for working with their children.

How To Complete the "Our Feelings" survey
Review the questions on the survey to ensure that the parents understand what is being asked. Parents and children complete these surveys together, comparing their answers. The surveys can be completed orally or in writing depending on the writing skills of the parents and the ages of the children.

Description of Family Activity:
In parent-child pairs, parents will read "Amanda and the Mysterious Carpet" with their children.
In parent-child pairs, parents and children will complete the "Our Feelings" survey.
Parents and their children will reunite with the large group and share their responses to the survey.

Note to Facilitator: Limited English adults may want to do the family activity in their native language. Since it is hoped that these activities will enhance parent-child communication, they should use any language in which they are comfortable.

Recommended Age of Children:
Three to ten year old children. This activity crosses a large age range because the activity is a discussion of feelings, appropriate at any age.

Ways to Alter Activity for Younger or Older Siblings:
It is not necessary to use the post-its. Simplify the language used to describe the emotions for younger children.
The parents can assist their children with the writing of the survey or the facilitator could provide J and L stickers for younger children to use on the survey.

Extension Activity:
Talk about the displayed books and hand out the prepared lists of related books.
Talk about where to find the wordless or limited text books in the library.
Encourage parents to borrow other titles.

Related Books:
Books by Fernando Krahn: "The Mystery of the Giant Footprints," "Robot-Bot-Bot," "The Self-Made Snowman," "Who's Seen the Scissors?" "Catch that Cat." These titles are out of print but are probably available in the public library.
Other books on feelings: "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst, "Alicia Has a Bad Day," by Lisa Jahn-Clough, "Andrew's Angry Words," by Dorothea Lachner, "Feelings" by Aliki, "Julius, Baby of the World" by Kevin Henkes.

Evaluation:
There is a brief Participant Evaluation Survey included in the Facilitator's Guide.
These can be completed in writing or orally (by interview of staff one to one or in a group) depending on the English reading and writing abilities of the participants.
Explain that by telling us what they liked and what they didn't like, they help us put together better activities and they teach their children to think about what they liked.
The Participant Evaluation form asks about their satisfaction level and what they learned about reading wordless books, specifically finding contextual clues in story illustrations.
It asks what they plan to do with what they learned. It asks for their suggestions to improve this activity and suggestions for future activities.

To make suggestions and comments, email: ccolletti@ilsos.net

Notes to Myself - Lessons Learned for Next Time:

Table of Contents

Previous Page: Changes, Changes

Next Page: I Spy