El cumpleaños del rey 6-pack Author: Dot Meharry ISBN: 9780790328164 Copyright Date: 2007 Grade Level: 2 Reading Level: I Strategy/Skill: Making predictions, Prior knowledge, Using graphic sources Genre: Tall Tale Theme/Topic: Celebrations and Traditions Classification: Fiction Fluency: Fluent

Overview

The king is upset because no one has remembered his birthday.  Lunch, however, reveals a lovely surprise.  This is a sequel (with lots of delightful links) to the Dragonflies fluent title The Hole in the King’s Sock.

Suggested Purposes

This text supports the comprehension strategies of using prior knowledge, making and confirming predictions, and noting details in illustrations. The “royal” vocabulary and complex sentences provide opportunities for exploring language, while the repetitive structure provides support for less confident readers.

Text Features (Focus on only one or two per session.)

• the clear narrative structure
• the fairy tale elements
• the characterization of the king and queen
• the humor and the medieval illustrations
• the inclusion of complex sentences
• the expressive dialogue, including italics for emphasis, an imperative (on page 7), questions, and contractions
• the alternatives to “said” – asked, ordered, sang, thought, wondered
• the compound words – birthday, courtyard, everywhere, footmen, into, maybe, something, today, upset, upstairs
• the possessive apostrophe in the title

For more information please see our Lesson Plan.