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DANCE Y'ALL
LANGUAGE ARTS AND VOCABULARY
* Have students bring photographs of grandparents for a classroom photo gallery. They
might write journal entries about these relatives including what makes them special.
* Use dictionaries to define such words and terms as Y'all in the book's title, younguns,
corn meal, recollection, cornstalk tepee, hayloft, sleepwalking, croaker sack, afore, and
smokehouse.
* Have students act out strong verbs in story: goose bumps rippled, the two glared, Jack Henry
lagged behind, snake's body reared, dancers circled and spun, fumbled, Sam lay
crumpled, Grandpa pranced a little jig, the snake crowded Jack Henry's mind, etc.
SCIENCE
* Research coach whips and other whip snakes. Discuss how people may have thought
snakes were running toward them when in fact, they were running toward their holes
or hiding places. Note their braided, whip-like tails. Why are they so fast?
* What small animals may have made the night scurrying sounds in the barn?
* Research sleepwalking.
* Discuss mules. How are they different from horses? How are they alike?
* What is a Victrola? How does it work? How did it get its name?
SOCIAL STUDIES
* How do students' families celebrate? For what occasions do they gather? What
traditions have they created?
* Celebrate diversity and cultural differences of students in the classroom. Teach pride in
heritage and family history.
* Have students begin a family tree. They might start with relatives in the Grandparents
Gallery.
* Borrow rocking chairs and invite parents and family members to a Rock and Read
where everyone dresses in clothing representing their cultural backgrounds. Serve
ethnic foods and allow family members to discuss their "good old days" and family
traditions.
MATHEMATICS
* Allow students to plan the food for the Rock and Read. How much food is needed to
serve the number expected?
* Take students on a shopping trip with a shopping list in hand. How much will food cost?
What microwave or oven temperatures are needed to heat foods? How long?
WRITING
* Students might write a newspaper article announcing the Fall Celebration held at Jack
Henry's home at the end of the harvest season. Emphasize the rule of "who, what,
when, where, and how."
* Have students select words and terms from a Word Jar for writing sentences.
* Students might write in their journals about what they are most afraid of. How do they
think they might overcome their fears?
* Pair students to act as Jack Henry and as an interviewer. They should write scripts of
what they would ask, and/or how they would answer. Tape performances, and give
small awards. Each participant might receive some small token.
ART
* Collect shoe boxes and have students create dioramas of their favorite scenes from the
story.
* Use clay to model coach whips, using correct colors and perhaps, forming the serpentine
motion of a crawling snake.
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