The
Monarch
Award:
Illinois'
K-3
Children's Choice Award
2009
Master List
Sponsored by
the
Illinois
School Library Media Association
2009 Nominee: The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar CountyA young girl tries to catch her favorite chicken, until she learns something about the hen that makes her change her mind.
Author: Janice Harrington
- biography and photo
- Author teaches at the University of Illinois
Illustrator: Shelley Jackson
Book
Activities
- Questions: How would you catch a chicken? What animals have
you tried to catch? Did you succeed? What are you the queen (or king) of?
- Language arts: Discuss the descriptive language, figures of
speech, onomatopoeia in the story.'
- Writing: Think like a chicken. Write the story from Miss Hens
perspective. Or write from Big Mama's viewpoint.
- Math: Make up math problems about chickens and eggs.
- Science: Make a Kidspiration picture of all animals that lay eggs. Research chickens. Put facts in plastic eggs for sharing.
- Social Studies: This boo is based on author's childhood in Alabama. Find Lamar County on a map.
- Drama: Act out a part of the story using props such as corn, grass, a chicken house, etc.
- Cooking/Food: Make a list of favorite "egg" dishes or
chicken dishes.
- Art: Have each child make a collage hen with various media.or use
patterns in Kid Pix. Display. Draw a large oval, use the pencil to
divide the "egg" into sections. Paint with solid color, rainbow or
wallpaper designs.
- Music: Show the end of the Rumpelstiltskin Reading Rainbow video where madrigal singers sing "My Hen Has Laid an Egg" but sound like chickens.
- Movement: Play the "Chicken Dance" and perform the motions.
- Technology Draw a large open oval in Kid Pix. Use the pencil to divide the "egg" into sections. Paint with solid color, rainbow or wallpaper designs.
- Compare and contrast: the heroines and art of this book and
Precious and the Boo Hag another Monarch book.
Related Books
- Going North by Janice Harrington
- Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
- Zinnia and Dot by Lisa Campbell Ernst
- Minerva Louise books by Janet Stoeke
- Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox
- Chicken Little by Steven Kellogg
- Little Red Hen by Jerry Pinkney
- Henny Penny by Jane Wattenberg
Websites
2009 Nominee Resources