Everyone has that one certain food that they just hate to eat! Who hasn't tried the oldest trick in the book, the feed your dog the nasty food on your plate trick? When your parents weren't looking, or you thought they weren't looking, off the plate and under the table went the green beans! In the story The Monster Who Ate My Peas, the main character cannot stand peas. He is forced to sit at the table until every last pea is gone.
All of a sudden, his problems are solved!!! A HUGE, UGLY monster appears and offers to eat the little boys peas....for a price. At first, the monster just wanted the boys soccer ball in return for eating the peas. The next time around, the monster wants the boys bike in return for eating the peas. The little boy hesitates but gives his bike away. The third time around, the monster wants something so big, the boy doesn't think he can do it!!! The monster wants the little boys dog! The boy decides that he just can't give away his dog. He will just have to eat the peas. In the end, the boy realizes that everything comes at a price and that peas aren't as bad as he thought.
We would use this book to help teach the reading comprehension strategy of visualization and inference. Each of us can think of that one food we don't like to eat. Mine is bananas.... This will make it really easy for students to visualize what is happening in the book as well as make connections to their own lives.
A visualization strategy that the teacher could use is to have the students visualize that one food in their mind. They can then draw a picture of their one food they just can't eat. The teacher would then ask the students to keep that image in mind as the story is read. At the end of the story, students can share their pictures and tell what they would do if they were in the little boy's shoes.
I can relate to this story since I have a five-year old boy who doesn't even like pizza! We go through this battle on a daily basis! Having the students visualize a food they don't like will help them relate to the story. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteThis story sounds like it would be good for visualizing especially with the activity you described. I think this would be a great activity to do with a class! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete~Jennifer Deaver
This is a great way to teach children how to visualize because the children are able to relate to the book in real life. -Kaitlyn Morefield
ReplyDeleteI am a very picky eater so there are plenty of things that I can visualize! I think this is a good book because the students can relate to it fairly easy. Having them draw whats in their minds will show you what they visualize.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
This is a great way to teach visualization. There shouldn't be any trouble with students having a hard time relating since everyone has a food they don't like! This would also keep the students attention. I enjoyed reading this blog!
ReplyDelete-Fallyn
I think this a good book to present to a class, because it gives them good background connections from home that they can associate with to this story. Every student is going to have something that they do not like, whether it’s food or not, they can relate to the book and can make inferences from it.
ReplyDeleteGreat summary! I think this is a great book to teach visualization as well as being a book the students can relate to. I really liked that you would have them draw what they visualized, i'm sure their pictures would be interesting.
ReplyDelete-Ashanti