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    Peter and Polly Series by Rose Lucia Peter and Polly by Rose Lucia    

Lesson 1: Two Children and Their Pets

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Note: It is recommended to keep a notebook to hold the enrichment work for these lessons. Alternatively, you can print notebook work pages by clicking the 'N' printer icon on the main textbook page.

Do you know Peter and Polly Howe? Polly is a little girl. She is about as old as you.

She has blue eyes. She has red curls. She has freckles on her face.

Peter is Polly's little brother. Have you a little brother, too? Perhaps your brother is like Peter.

Do you play out of doors every day? Do you pick flowers? Do you go fishing? Do you wade in the brook? Peter and Polly do.

In the winter they play in the snow. Perhaps their games are just like yours.

They roll snowballs and make snowmen. They slide and they build snow forts.

Often they play with their pets. Their father's cow, Black Bess, is one of them. Their mother's horse, Mary, is another.

Their father gave them a dog. Their mother gave them a cat.

The dog has a short tail. He wags his whole body when he wags his tail. So they named him Wag-wag.

You can guess why the cat is called Blacky.

One of Blacky's kittens never grew large. She stayed as small as a little kitten. She was a dwarf.

Peter named her Black Baby. Wag-wag likes Black Baby. He lies close beside her. He laps her with his soft red tongue.

Black Baby likes Wag-wag, too. She cuddles up to him and goes to sleep.

Best of all she likes Black Bess. She sits for hours in the cow's manger.

One evening Peter and Polly went to the barn. They were hunting for Black Baby.

At last they found her. Where do you think she was? Why, she was curled up on the cow's back!

After that she took many naps there. At night, she nearly always sleeps with Black Bess.

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    Peter and Polly Series by Rose Lucia Peter and Polly by Rose Lucia    

Lesson 1: Two Children and Their Pets

Directions

Study the lesson for one week.

Over the week:

  • Read the story multiple times.
  • Review the synopsis.
  • Study the vocabulary words.
  • Learn the concepts.
  • Complete the enrichment activities.
  • Study the review questions.

Synopsis

The chapter introduces brother and sister, Peter and Polly. Peter is four years old, and Polly is eight years old. They live on a farm and enjoy outdoor activities such a playing in the snow, picking flowers, and wading in brooks. They have many pets including a cow, a horse, a dog named Wag-wag, and cats named Blacky and Black Baby.

Vocabulary

Brook: A small stream.
Snow Fort: A walled structure made from snow.
Manger: A food box from which cows, horses, or other animals eat.
Bone: The hard, whitish tissue making up the skeleton in humans and other vertebrates.
Backbone: Series of bones extending from the back of the neck to the tailbone. Also called a 'spine.'
Lungs: Two elastic sacs used for breathing and located in the chest area of some animals.

Concepts

Peter, Polly, and all of their pets (cows, dogs, cats, horses) are mammals.

Facts about mammals:

  1. They are warm-blooded. They stay warm even when their surroundings are cold.
  2. They have a backbone (unlike worms).
  3. They breathe with lungs (not with gills like a fish or through skin like worms).
  4. They have hair or fur (not feathers like birds or scales like snakes).
  5. Females usually give birth to live babies (not born from eggs like turtles).
  6. Females feed babies their milk (unlike birds that feed babies food such as insects, worms, berries, and seeds).

Did you know humans are mammals? Feel your forehead. Unless it is an extremely hot day outside, your forehead is warmer than the air around you, because you are warm-blooded. Feel your back and find your backbone. Feel the hair on your head. When human babies are born, they are born alive and often crying and wiggling. Many human mothers nurse their babies with their milk.

Enrichment

Activity 1: Narrate the Story

  • After reading or listening to the story, narrate the story events aloud using your own words.

Activity 2: Mammals

Objective:

Reinforce that mammals have hair, lungs, and backbones.

Materials:

Crayons or markers and paper.

Did you know?

  • Dolphins are not fish, and neither are whales. They are mammals.
  • Like many mammals, Dolphins have hair. Dolphins are born with chin hairs that fall out shortly after birth.

Procedure:

Use the picture below as a guide to draw a baby dolphin including the dolphin's backbone and lungs. Draw a few chin hairs on the baby.

Review

Question 1

Who are Peter and Polly?
1 / 7

Answer 1

A brother and sister who live in a small farming town.
1 / 7

Question 2

The story mentions a barn and a horse. Do you think Peter and Polly live in the city or in the country?
2 / 7

Answer 2

Peter and Polly live in the country.
2 / 7

Question 3

Peter and Polly build snow forts in the winter. Why can't they build the forts in the summertime?
3 / 7

Answer 3

There is no snow on the ground in summer. It is too warm to snow.
3 / 7

Question 4

What might you find in a brook?
4 / 7

Answer 4

Water, fish and other aquatic animals, rocks, sand, mud, and plants are all things found in brooks.
4 / 7

Question 5

What do people typically put in mangers?
5 / 7

Answer 5

People put food for animals in mangers.
5 / 7

Question 6

Is a chicken a mammal? Why or why not?
6 / 7

Answer 6

A chicken is not a mammal. Unlike mammals, chickens lay eggs, have feathers, and females do not feed their babies milk.
6 / 7

Question 7

Name one mammal in addition to humans, dogs, cats, horses, and cows.
7 / 7

Answer 7

Other mammals include squirrels, racoons, deer, whales, etc.
7 / 7

  1. Who are Peter and Polly? A brother and sister who live in a small farming town.
  2. The story mentions a barn and a horse. Do you think Peter and Polly live in the city or in the country? Peter and Polly live in the country.
  3. Peter and Polly build snow forts in the winter. Why can't they build the forts in the summertime? There is no snow on the ground in summer. It is too warm to snow.
  4. What might you find in a brook? Water, fish and other aquatic animals, rocks, sand, mud, and plants are all things found in brooks.
  5. What do people typically put in mangers? People put food for animals in mangers.
  6. Is a chicken a mammal? Why or why not? A chicken is not a mammal. Unlike mammals, chickens lay eggs, have feathers, and females do not feed their babies milk.
  7. Name one mammal in addition to humans, dogs, cats, horses, and cows. Other mammals include squirrels, racoons, deer, whales, etc.

References

  1. 'Mammal.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

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