Educational outcomes:
Parents and children will be able to place the pictures from the book in sequence chronologically by considering cause and effect.
Parents and children will be able to identify the humor in the story's illustrations and events.
Parents and children will learn that the story's pictures can support the text by providing contextual clues.

Directions for Implementation Summarized:
Divide participants into two groups, one is an all child group and one an all parent group.
Provide storytime or other activity for the children while the parents are preparing for the family activity.
Reunite parents and children for the family activity of reading "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" and making the storyboard.
Offer related books and the extension activity.
In conclusion, complete the Participant Evaluation forms.

Materials Provided:
"The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate The Wash," 30 copies of the book, 15 in English and 15 in Spanish.
Laminated set of the story's pictures
List of the Picture Descriptions in chronological order (numbered 1 to 22)
Model of the Storyboard
Masking tape
Original of participant evaluation form in the Facilitator's Guide, in English and Spanish.

Materials You Need to Collect:
None

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 "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" with their children and to develop a storyboard illustrating the events in the book in chronological order.
  
• to collect participant evaluation forms at the end of the program.

Parent Preparation:
Note to Facilitator: Before beginning the preparation for parents, select which books will be used, English or Spanish. If the Spanish copies are selected, be sure that the parents are literate in Spanish and will be able to read the text. If not, the book can be read to them while they follow along with their own books.

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: Why do school children take class or field trips outside the school? Where do they go? When you have asked your children about their class trip or field trip, what do they say? Did you ever hear about something funny that happened or about something that went wrong on the trip?
Ask the parents: Do they know what a boa constrictor is? Would you be afraid if you saw one next to you?

Model reading "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash"
Parents can share books.
Have the parents look at the book's cover page and share what they think the book is going to be about.
After ideas about the story line have been discussed, provide a summary of the story. For instance, "This is the story of a first grade class trip to a farm. The story is being told by a little girl to her mother who has asked her, "How was your class trip to the farm?" Her daughter's reply, " oh, boring...kind of dull... until the cow started crying." She then begins to tell her mother the story backwards starting with why the cow started crying. The funny pictures show the chaos that breaks out as Jimmy's boa constrictor gets loose on the farm. By the end of the book you know that the trip was anything but boring for the children, farm animals and the farmer and his wife."

Have the parents read through their books in pairs. Remind them to look at the pictures for contextual clues.
Circulate to see which words need clarification.
After the story has been read silently, discuss what funny things happened during the trip to the farm. Have the parents refer back to the picture(s) that illustrates the funny things that happened. Ask the parents which pictures they found humorous and why. The book may be read aloud by the facilitator as needed.
Pass out the laminated story pictures, 2-4 pictures for each pair. Then discuss cause and effect, how each mishap relates to the previous and following events. For example, in pictures 9 - 11, the children went to the pigpen to throw the corn at each other because they had already thrown all the eggs in the henhouse and wanted to continue throwing things. However, because the children were throwing the pigs' corn, the hungry pigs decided to go to the bus to eat the children's lunches.
The parent pairs can hold up a picture when it's being discussed and become familiar with the pictures that precede and follow their pictures.

How To Make the Large Group Storyboard
Starting with the picture of the class getting off the bus, have the large group lay out the pictures in chronological order ending with the last scene of the farmer, his wife and the boa relaxing in front of their fireplace.
After the storyboard has been reviewed, collect the pictures and redistribute them to the parents to use for the family activity. Each parent should get 1 - 2 pictures to use with his or her children.
Outline to the parents what they will be doing with their children during the family activity.

In parent-child pairs they will:
Read the book with the children using the reading techniques they have learned.
Share what's funny about the story and the pictures.
Looking at the one or two laminated pictures they have, develop a brief description of what's happening, highlighting any humor in the pictures.
Decide where in the order of events the 1- 2 pictures you have fit into the story's sequence.

In the large group they will:
As a parent-child pair, they will share their picture(s) with the rest of the group, briefly describing what's happening in their pictures and what they find funny.
Together the families will build a large group storyboard with the other parents and children.

Note to the Facilitator: In the Facilitator's Guide in the "Story Kit" is a list of each picture in the story in chronological order. Each picture's description is numbered and a corresponding number has been put on the back of the laminated picture. Another training aide to help in making a group storyboard is a model of how the completed storyboard should look. This too is in the Facilitator's Guide.

Discussion: How the Parents Can Work With The Children
Have the parents share what kinds of interaction they can do with their children while reading the book. (Possible responses: How are the text and pictures connected? What funny things happened during the trip? What is funny in the story? What picture do you think is the funniest, why? What happened that started all the confusion?)
Close the discussion by emphasizing that this book is not written in chronological order and they should have their children think about cause and effect when looking at a story's event, taking into account what happened before and after.
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 - the contextual clues from the pictures, the humor illustrated in the pictures and the sequencing of the story's events. This time is intended to build the parents ability and confidence for working with their children.

Description of Family Activity:
In parent-child pairs, parents will read "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" with their children.
In parent-child pairs, parents will guide their children in developing a description of the laminated picture(s) they have by looking at the action taking place and the humorous situation being illustrated.
Parents will guide their children in determining where their laminated picture(s) fit into the story's sequence of events.

Note to Facilitator: Spanish speaking adults may want to use the Spanish edition of the book. 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.

Parents and children will reunite with the large group to contribute to describing the book's story in sequential order. Each parent-child pair will describe their picture(s) as their turn comes in the story.
Build the large storyboard together.
Tape the pictures to the wall.
Once the storyboard is complete, the story can be retold in sequential order from the time the class gets off the bus to the last scene in front of the fireplace.

Note to the Facilitator: By going over the story orally in sequential order while families provide picture by picture descriptions, each family has the opportunity to review the order of the story's events and where their picture fits into the sequence. This provides an opportunity for the group to develop an oral storyboard.

Recommended Age of Children:
Six to ten year old children. This activity requires an understanding of cause and effect that may be too advanced for younger children.

Ways to Alter Activity for Younger or Older Siblings:
This is not an appropriate activity to alter for younger children. Drop the storyboard and sequencing activity completely for children younger than six years old. Instead, substitute dramatic and musical activity. Read "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" book and both sing and act out the song, "I'm Being Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor," to change this to an activity suitable for younger children.