The Cricket in Times Square

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Students are reading The Cricket in Times Square. this book is about a cricket named Chester who arrives in the Times Square subway station after he is trapped in a picnic basket. Chester makes friends with a a young boy named Mario, a mouse called Tucker, and Harry Cat.

Many skills are taught using this book including:

Reading

  • pages 8-9 Compound Words 4.1.7
  • page 10 Adding Endings 4.1.3
  • page 11  Syllables 
  • page 13-14 Where When How 4.1.18
  • page 16 Fact and Opinion 4.1.12
  • page 17 Sequencing Events 4.1.16
  • page 18 Synonyms 4.1.9
  • pages 19-20 Classifying Words 4.1.11
  • page 23 - Determining Feelings
  • page 25-16 Inferences 4.1.22
  • page 28-29 Main Idea 4.2.1
  • page 30-31 Meaning Through Context 4.1.10
  • page 32 Cause and Effect 4.1.20
  • pages 33-34 Special Meaning

English

  • Plurals, Possessives, and Contractions 4.3.8, 5.3.3, 5.3.8, 5.1.3
  • Root Words  4.1.3, 5.1.1
  • Comparative & Superlative 4.3.1, 5.3.3
  • Fourth Grade Tennessee Vocabulary
    • possessive nouns 
    • cause/effect    
    • thesaurus   
    • analogy

Students have enjoyed several projects with this book. The day Mario took Chester to the soda shop for a strawberry soda we made strawberry sodas. The day Mario took Chester to the soda shop for a strawberry soda we made strawberry sodas. Mickey, the soda shop attendant,  took a table spoon and put a drop of strawberry syrup into it. They he added a drop of cream, a squirt of soda water and a dip of ice cream about as big as your fingernail. That is how you make a cricket's strawberry soda.

 

When Mario went to Chinatown to buy Chester a cricket cage, we also made cricket cages.

 

We had a Chinese dinner in our class the day we read about Mario's Chinese dinner. We decorated the room with Chinese lanterns and fans. We ordered take out from a local Chinese restaurant. We enjoyed trying to eat with chopsticks.

 

 

 

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