Andy and the Lion

Andy and the Lion

If you’ve stumbled here from Pinterest, or some other site … welcome! While each of these books/lessons can stand alone, they are also a part of a year-long series that we have taught at our homeschool co-op. Each lesson builds in part on the one before. Some stories also have similar themes with the books that go before/after them. If you are interested in more information, or to see the complete booklist, check out our main page, More FIAR – Inspired Literature-Based Lesson Plans, especially for homeschool and homeschool co-ops. Thanks for looking around, and welcome to the site! 

 

Andy and the Lion

by James Daugherty

Things I Need:

Andy and the Lion Book
Andy and the Lion Handwriting Sheet (below)
Map of the United States that Shows New York
Androcles and the Lion (Optional – to compare stories)
Adding Adjectives Worksheet (below)
Lion’s Paw Adjectives (below)
Bread/Biscuit Dough / Raisins / Cinnamon Sugar Mixture / Cookie Sheets and Parchment Paper

Preview Andy and the Lion:

If you haven’t seen the book yet, you can get a preview below. There are several recordings on YouTube, but I like this reading of Andy and the Lion best. It is simple, clean, clear – with smooth reading and expressive voice. Everything an audio book should be – without all the distracting frills and extras.

Review:

Andy and the Lion is really a stand alone book in this More FIAR – Inspired Literature-Based Lesson Plans series. However, there are several connections that can be made to previous books
Ask the class what book they read last week (Something from Nothing)
One lesson we learned from Something from Nothing, is that there are often context clues hiding in the pictures. Sometimes there may be another story or some details that the author doesn’t tell us, but if we look closely, we can figure it out by the context (the things surrounded it). This can be picture context or word context, but in today’s example, we are using the picture context.
Also, see if they can remember another book you’ve done this year that includes something similar to a  circus. Remind them of the lesson on Daniel’s Duck, and how the County Fair was such a large gathering for all the people because this was their main get together to share together. No TV’s, no Internet, no Video Games, etc.  

Introduce the Story:

Today’s story is called, Andy and the Lion. Tell the class this story is FICTION, and ask if anyone knows what that means. (Fiction = false or made up story)
However, it is based on another story called, Androcles and the Lion, which is a Fable.
Ask if anyone knows what a fable is?
(a story written for the purpose of teaching a lesson)

The book doesn’t tell us where the story is located, but if we use our context clues in the pictures – we can tell that *maybe* it is located near NYC, because of the Library Lions that stand in front of the iconic New York Public Library. (to the left of the Title page).  There is also a sign that says, “Andersonville”

Interesting Fact: These Lions were origionally named for John Astor and John Lennox, major benefactors who left money for the library to be built. This John Astor is from the great Astor family, the great grandson of whom died in the sinking of the Titanic.
Also, the story doesn’t tell us when the story took place, but again, we can use our context clues in the pictures – the boy is wearing overalls, he goes to school barefoot, he washes his face in a bucket outside the house, they cook on the woodstove, the dress of the mom and dad – all tell us something about the time period

Read the Story:

Continue to point out the context clues that tell us the “where” and “when” of the story.  If you have a chalkboard or white board, go ahead and write these words on the board. Let the class try to find things in the pictures that answer these questions – where and when.

Additional context clues to notice/point out: After dinner, Andy is reading on the rug, while his dad reads the newspaper. The newspaper article says, “Lion escapes from the circus”. This is something to point out to the class as it gives quite a bit of context to the story; the lion didn’t just appear out of nowwhere, he isn’t just imagining or dreaming everything, etc. It took me a few times reading through to find this – before I did, I was actually a bit confused as well.

Class Activity – Bake a Lion’s Paw Biscuit

 
*I was going to have the class do the “adding adjectives sheet” first, but because of the time it takes to bake these, we went ahead and make the lion’s paws first. that way we could complete the next worksheet while they were baking in the oven.
 
Now … it’s time to head down to the kitchen. If you don’t have access to a kitchen, these could be baked in a toaster oven. They also could be created at their desks, and then dropped on a cookie sheet and baked and returned to the students 15 minutes later – a perfect end of lesson snack.
This idea has been on the internet for a little while, but no where did I see directions – so here’s what we did:
Make sure you have enough biscuits for each child two have two. Leave one biscuit whole, and cut the other one into quarters. Give each child a paper plate with the two biscuits.
Place a small paper plate of cinnamon and sugar at each table, or between every few kids.
Show them how to create a paw by making one large “paw” and rolling the four  quarters into four fingers.

Roll the paw and each of the 4 “toes” in the cinnamon sugar and stick them together to form a “paw”.Use choclate chips or raisins to serve as the “toes”

Give each child a toothpick, to stick in the center, symbolizing the thorn.

Cook at 350 for about 15-18 minutes.

While the are baking, continue the lesson on Adding Adjectives ….

After the Paws go in the oven (we transferred them all to parchment paper with the childs initials next to them so we knew whose was whose)  we discussed –

How would they describe their Lion Paw?
When they leave co-op, what will they tell their mom’s they made?
A biscuit?
or …. A yummy, gooey, wonderfully sweet lion’s paw biscuit?

Yummy?
Sticky?
Sweet?
Gooey?
Slimy?
Gross?

Explain that if they were writing a story about class today, they could say,
“In class, I made a biscuit”
Or, they could say,
“In class, I made a yummy, gooey, cinnamon-sugar, lion paw shaped biscuit”

Which one sounds more fun? Even if you don’t have writers in your class, most of the kids will understand that the 2nd sentence is more fun.

When the Paws came out of the oven, we placed them on these papers, and while waiting, each child wrote one adjective to describe their paws. (some wrote before getting their Paw, some after)

Click here for printable version

Now, on to …

 

Activity – Adjective Sliders

Going around to each student, have them share their descriptive word out loud, and see if they can use their adjective in a silly sentence to describe the Lion Paw they just made.

Class Activity – Adding Adjectives

Continue to build on the theme you’ve been talking about … that adjectives make sentences more exciting.

You can either write a sentence on the board, or say a sentence outloud.

“The boy ate ice cream”

Tell the class this is a sentence, but it is not very exciting. Is there a better or more exciting way we could write this sentence? Using their suggestions, (and maybe dropping some hints to get them thinking, rewrite the sentence on the board again …

“The baby boy ate the cold, dripping ice cream.
(or whatever you what to add)

Explain that good writers do this all the time. They take simple statements, but they add fun words, called “ADJECTIVES” to make their sentences more fun. Pass out the Adding Adjectives paper.

Help the class cut out the two adjective sliders (blue lists of adjectives on the side),

Then, help them make cuts along the dotted lines and thread the sliders through them.
(A simple way to do this is to fold the paper in the middle of the two sets of lines (so you should have two folds), and then cut the two sets of lines, and unfold.

Then, let them take turns sliding the words up and down.

Let those in the class who know how to read take turns creating and reading the silly sentences.

Click here for printable version

 

Handwriting & Bible Memory:

“Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” Luke 6:31 (Also found in Matthew 7:12), this lesson seemed like a good time to teach the famous “golden rule”
You can mention that this is called the “golden rule”. and most people (especially in the United States) have heard this phrase, but do they know that it is from the Bible, and Jesus is the one who said it?
Take a moment to share this with the class, and give practical,
real life examples that they can relate to when sharing.
(How would you like it if your brother never shared his toys / his candy / etc with you.
How would you feel if you had a messy room and your brother/sister walked by and laughed – but what if they offered to help instead.
In the story, Andy and the Lion, he showed kindness to the Lion and helped him. Later on, the Lion remembered his kindness, and showed the same kindness back.
Take a moment to remind everyone “where do we start our letters.” (at the top)
They complete the handwriting verse, and receit the verse together as a class several times.
Click here for printable version

Option Just for Fun Extras:

This Lion Paw treat was super easy, super fun to make, quick – and all the kiddos loved it. It was a great way to fill up the extra time we had from this being such a short book. 
 
That’s it for this week! To see what we’ve done so far in our Homeschool Co-op’s Literature Series this year, click here. Each lesson  builds on the one before and seeks to cover basic geography within the book, historical contexts, a handwriting sheet and a language arts lesson, as it applies to the book. 

Or, you can check out the complete Learning the ABC’s through Literature Series, which is a similar series that we did with this same group of kiddos a year earlier. Both of these series of books have been inspired by the Five in a Row curriculum, with many of the books being the same. The ideas, implementation of it for a co-op, and printables are all my own, unless otherwise indicated. 
 

Also – I would love to hear from you! If you have feed back, suggestions, or questions … or if you have used this in some way … please, share a picture, post a note, or just say hi.  Especially if you’re using this for a co-op … it’s great to get ideas and share them around to help each other! 

 
Thanks for reading!