#1896. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs": DRA

Reading/Writing, level: Elementary
Posted Thu Nov 9 10:53:15 PST 2000 by Shawna Smoker (rvfh@grove.iup.edu).
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA
Materials Required: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett
Activity Time: One week
Concepts Taught: Reading Comprehension, Compound Words, Cause and Effect

Directed Reading Activity

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs- Judi Barrett

1. Motivation
Teacher will teach students the song, "If all the rain drops were gum drops." Teacher will lead the class in a discussion by asking questions like, "What do you think it would be like to live in a place where food really did come from the sky?" "Would you like to live in a place like this? Why or Why not?"
2. Concept and Vocabulary Development
Vocabulary:
Students will become familiar with the bold faced words in the following sentences.
1. For lunch one day, frankfurters, already in their rolls, blew in from the northwest at about five miles per hour.
2. The Sanitation Departments of Chewandswallow had a rather unusual job.
3. The people could watch the weather report on television in the morning, and they would even hear a prediction for the next day's food.
4. Then they emptied some of it into the surrounding oceans for the fish, turtles, and whales to eat.
5. Roofs were damaged.
6. A decision was made to abandon the town of Chewandswallow.
7. Violent storms blew up frequently.
These sentences will be written on a poster-board. The bold-faced words will be written on strips that are able to be removed from the paper. Teacher and students will read the sentences aloud. If the students do not know the vocabulary word, teacher will pronounce it for them. The teacher and students will work together to construct the meaning of the vocabulary words by using strategies like context clues.
As a follow up activity, students will be asked to write their own sentences for the vocabulary words. They can incorporate the words into a story if they would like.
Concepts:
3. Directed Reading
After the motivation that was described earlier, students will be told to read pages 1-15. They will be asked to imagine what this town is going to be like before reading and will read with the purpose of finding out.
Prior to reading pages 1-15 the class will be given the following questions to think about while reading.
1. What are some of the differences between the town we live in and Chewandswallow? (literal)
2. Do you think that you would like to live in this town? Why or Why not? (application)
After reading these questions will be discussed.
Prior to reading pages 16-23, the students will be asked to discuss the following questions.
1. "What kinds of problems do you think that this town may face?" (inference)
2. "What are some things that you would do to fix the problems you think these people face? (application)
The students will be told to read pages 16-23 and look for the problems that the townspeople faced.
After the students read pages 16-23, the questions will be discussed again.

Prior to reading pages 24-30, the students will be asked the following question.
1. "What do you think that the people of Chewandswallow are going to do?" (inference)
After reading pages 24-30 (end), the students will be asked to discuss ways that the people in the story used what they had creatively to solve their problems.
4. Prepared Oral Reading
The students will be asked the following questions. Each students will look for the answer in the book. Students will be called to give the answer and read the part of the story where they found it.
1. Where is Chewandswallow located?
2. What did the people do with their leftovers? Why?
3. What was the biggest change the townspeople faced when they moved to a new area?
4. Strategy and Skill Development
Word Recognition Skill
Students will learn the structural analysis of compound words. They will use their knowledge to gain understanding of the meaning of the word.
Teacher will explain that there are some words that are combined together to make one word. Often we can use our knowledge of the words individully to construct the meaning of the compound word.
A transperency will be made with the following words in the sentences that they are shown in the book.
· bedtime
· schoolhouse
· sidewalks
· townspeople
· overcooked
· backyard
· downpour
· stomachache
· downstairs
The teacher will model the first word. Start by reading the sentence. Ask the students if they know what bed means. Ask if they know what time means. Combine the two meanings to say that bedtime means that it is time to go to bed. Work with the class to do the same for the rest of the compound words. Context clues may also be used.
Comprehension Skill
Students will learn to identify cause and effect.
The following statements will be on a transparency. The italics is what the students should say. The first one will be modeled by the teacher.
A big pancake fell on the school. . .. . .. school was closed.
(cause) (effect)
Too much spagetti fell on the town. . .. . ..spagetti ties up town.
The townspeople ate too much cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. . ...people got stomachaches.
The food fell from the sky. In order to be prepared. . ..the people carried around forks, spoons, and plates.
There was a pepper storm. . ...people sneezed.

In conclusion, the students will be asked, "What caused the people of Chewandswallow to leave the town?"

5. Enrichment Activity
Students will get in groups and pick part of the story to give a weather report on. The students will present their report to the class.