Pekoe and Olive are friends even though they are very different. Olive is old and Pekoe is young. They find they have many opposites but they can still be friends and enjoy spending time together.

Materials

• Young and old animal match pictures
• Package of dot or star stickers
• Sheets of sandpaper
• Foil
• Several shoebox sized boxes and stuffed animals of pets

Vocabulary

• Appreciates (to understand and welcome the gesture)
• Regrets (wishes had not done something)
• Impressed (Interested or excited about something)
• Chipmunk (a little animal kind of like a squirrel)

Before Reading the Story

Start a discussion about how no two people are just alike.  Pick two children in your classroom and have them stand up.  Explain that both the children might be the same sex and the same age but that does not mean that they are alike.  Ask the two children several questions about themselves that you know will make for different responses.  (Jamal says he likes broccoli but Andrew does not, Susan says she has two brothers but Lisa has only one sister).   Explain to the class that these two can and are friends even though they are different.  Ask the children if this is ok?  Of course it is!  Everybody is different and likes different things, that’s what makes having friends so much fun.  Sometimes we like the same things and sometimes we do not.  Introduce the story by saying that today’s story is about two friends who are different in many ways but are still good friends.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; progresses in understanding similarities and respecting differences among people such as genders, race, special needs, culture, language, and family structure.

Reading the Story

On page 6 when Pekoe brings the stick to Olive, explain that Olive appreciates the gesture because she understands that Pekoe is just being a good friend even if she does not really like playing with sticks.  On page 9, ask the children what they think the dogs will eat for snack?  Then ask several children what they like to eat for snack, note that not everyone likes the same things but they can still be friends.  On page 16, note the dogs faces, ask the children how do you think they are feeling?  Introduce the word disappointed.  Ask the children why they think Pekoe and Olive are disappointed.  (They cannot play outside, They have to go home, They wanted to play together).  On page 20 ask the children if they can see where the chipmunk went?  Do the same on page 22 and 25.  On page 28 ask the children to look at the dogs faces.  Why do you think they look so angry?  How does it make you feel when other children fight with you?  On page 31 comment on how Olive is being a good friend to Pekoe by standing up to the bully dog with him.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions,; and for other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

Explain again to the children that no two people, or dogs, are alike.  Note that in the story Pekoe and Olive are opposite in several ways.  Ask the children if they can recall any ways that the two dogs are different.  (Pekoe is fast and Olive is slow, Pekoe likes sticks and Olive does not really like them, Pekoe is afraid of the thunderstorm and Olive just does like to get wet, Pekoe wants to chase chipmunks, Olive just wants to watch, Pekoe wants to play with the other dogs, Olive just wants to watch, Pekoe is a puppy and Olive is an old dog). 

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in ability to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Make a graph that includes all the pets that the children in your classroom have.  Then ask the children if their pet is a puppy or an old dog, a kitten or an old cat, etc.?   Mark each animal with a Y for young and an O for old.  Count how many of each pet there is and then count how many are young versus old. 

Mathematics/Number & Operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantities. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Give the children a few moments to talk about any pet that they might have.  What does your pet like to do with you?

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions,; and for other varied purposes.

Discovery

Make a match game using pictures of young and old like animals.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Music and Movement

Remind the children that in the story, Pekoe and Olive were opposite in many ways.  Sing the Opposites Song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW4OQxUVjiE

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Sing I have a Dog his Name is Rags.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjiH_pj1_Lw

Creative Arts/Movement; expresses through movement and dancing what is felt and heard in various musical tempos and styles.

Tell the children that they are going to go on a listening walk.  Give a direction and see if the children can follow it.  Walk in front of the window, walk past the door, walk along the wall, walk around the table, walk to a corner of the room, walk beside a friend.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

Blocks

Encourage the children to work cooperatively in their structures today.  Remind them that nobody is the boss but that each child involved gets to help make decisions on how the structure will be built.  As the children are building, ask them to point out the part of the structure that they helped design.  Compliment the children on working together even though they all had different ideas and opinions.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games or using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Art

Attach sheets of sandpaper and sheets of foil to the easel.  Allow the children to experiment painting on the two surfaces; Rough and Smooth, opposites.

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

Sand and Water

Tell the children that float and sink are opposites.  Put water in your table today along with a variety of objects that float or sink.  Put out two containers, one to hold the objects that float and one to hold the objects that sink.  Challenge the children to gather objects from around the room and hypothesis whether it will float or sink.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Library and Writing

Remind the children that today’s story was called Olive and Pekoe in Four Short Walks.  Suggest to the children that they are going to take a pretend walk and to imagine where they might be going (to the park, the zoo, the beach, the grocery store).  Give each child five to ten dots or star stickers.  Have them stick them anywhere on their piece of paper.  Now have them draw a line using a marker from dot to dot/star to star.  As they connect the dots/stars, ask them to tell you what they might see on their walk.  Write their responses on the bottom of the page or beside each dot/star.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Dramatic Play

Set up a pet store or veterinary clinic today using boxes and stuffed animals.  Add a cash register for pet store or your doctor kit for veterinary play.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended or complex.

Math and Manipulatives

Explain to the child that more and less are opposites.  Put out two sets of like objects and ask the child which has more?  Which has less?  Start with sets that are easy to see the differences (3 cubes and 7 cubes).  Continue playing this way until the child seems comfortable being able to recognize which set has more and which set has less.  Then put out one set of objects and ask the child to make a set with more and a set with less.  With older children they can make sets for each other.  Encourage the children to count the number of objects in each set.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, fewer, greater than, equal to.

Outdoor Play

If possible, take your children on a walk around the neighborhood or school.  Talk about the many things that you see along the way.

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

Transitions

Ask a child to name their favorite food.  Now ask the rest of the children to raise their hand if they like that food too.  Ask a child to name their favorite color, now ask the class to raise their hand if that is their favorite color also.  Continue asking the children to name a favorite something (animal, snack, TV show, song, center, etc.).  After each, remind the children that for some it might be their favorite but for others it is not and yet, we can still all be friends.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, or preferences.

Resources