Take a Guess, and Make an Inference

Grade Level: Pk-2
Classroom Time: One 45 minute period

Skills Addressed

ELA skill: making inferences
ELA skill: using predictions
Music skill: predicting musical passage
Music skill: listening, analyzing and describing music

Process: Day One

Teacher introduces the skill of inference by telling students that an inference is a “guess” that is made about what will happen in the story, or about how a character may do in a story. She tells them the reason that they can “guess,” is because of something that they already heard in the story, or maybe because of what they already know from personal experience.
Give this example to the students: It’s very cloudy outside, the trees are blowing in the wind, the sky looks dark like nighttime, it is lightning and thundering, and the streets are flooded with water. Can you guess what might be happening? (Answer: It could be a storm) Let the students know that the new word that they will now use for “guess” is “infer”. They can infer that there could be a storm from what the teacher described to them. Many of them have been in storms before, and know what happens from their own personal experience.
Today we will read a story entitled, “The Little Red Hen.” As I read the story, I would like for you to see if you can “infer” what one of the characters will say to the hen, when she asked him to do something. I also want you to tell me what in the story made you think he would answer that way. If they can infer what a character will do in the story from what is read, or from what they already know from their own personal experience, they can make an inference.
To access the story, go to http://www.starfall.com/ and follow these directions: Click on # 4 “I’m Reading”, click on “Folk Tales,” and then finally click on the story “The Little Red Hen.”
When you get to page 6, ask the students to infer what the turkey’s answer will be when he is asked by the hen to help make the muffins. Ask them to explain “why” in order to support their answer.
Music Connection: Using the song “Old MacDonald “, have your students infer what would be the next animal noise. (Song text below) A link to a recorded version: http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/songs/oldmac.html Click “START” to hear the music.

Suggest other animals and let your students infer what their response would be (such as horse: neigh neigh; sheep/lamb: baa baa; frog: rib-but, rib-but, etc.)
Old MacDonald

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
And on that farm he had a duck, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
With a quack, quack here and a quack, quack there
Here a quack, there a quack
Everywhere a quack, quack
Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
And on that farm he had a cow, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
With a moo, moo here and a moo, moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Everywhere a moo, moo
A quack, quack here and a quack, quack there
Here a quack, there a quack
Everywhere a quack, quack
Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
And on that farm he had a dog, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
With a woof, woof here and a woof, woof there
Here a woof, there a woof
Everywhere a woof, woof
A moo, moo here and a moo, moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Everywhere a moo, moo
A quack, quack here and a quack, quack there

Here a quack, there a quack
Everywhere a quack, quack
Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
And on that farm he had a pig, ee-eye, ee-eye oh
With an oink, oink here and an oink, oink there
Here an oink, there an oink
Everywhere an oink, oink
A woof, woof here and a woof, woof there
Here a woof, there a woof
Everywhere a woof, woof
A moo, moo here and a moo, moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Everywhere a moo, moo
A quack, quack here and a quack, quack there
Here a quack, there a quack
Everywhere a quack, quack
Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-eye, ee-eye oh

National ELA Standards

Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g. sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics)
Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among those texts are fiction and non-fiction, classic and contemporary works.

National Standards for Music Education

Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Music extension:

An Argentine folk song similar to Old MacDonald is “Mi Chacra” (My farm). You can hear an instrumental version of this: Activate the Active X control and click on the right facing arrow under the “play song” icon): http://kididdles.com/mouseum/m076.html
Wee Sing around the world also has a version of this song.

The mission of Project GRAD is to ensure a quality public education for all students in economically disadvantaged communities so that high school and college graduation rates increase.