BOOK EXTENSION ACTIVITY - LESSON PLAN

Mary Lake Genre of the Book: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Book Title: Officer Buckle and Gloria Author: Peggy Rathmann

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Date: 1995

1. Pre-K/ CCSD K-2nd Grade Core Standards: SAFETY, (K)5.5 discuss safety rules
and practices to follow at home and at school (e.g., general practices, fire safety procedures,
traffic safety)

2. Objectives:
SWBAT – Explain the safety rules, answer questions about different situations, and talk about
which safety rule would apply.

3. Materials/Equipment: Book – Officer Buckle and Gloria, worksheet, crayons.

4. Teaching:
A. Reading the book.
Questions to ask before reading the book.
• Has anyone ever seen a police dog?
• Has anyone ever talked to a police officer?
• Does anyone know why we need to have rules about safety?

Questions to ask during the reading.

• Does anyone know any safety rules?
• Why would it be important?
• Does anyone know why the kids are listening now that Gloria came with Officer Buckle?

Question to ask after the book has been read.

• Does anyone know why Officer Buckle stopped going to the school for his safety speech?
• What was the last safety tip?
• has anyone made any safety rules that they and their family use to keep safe?
B. Extension activity: Identify a problem and the safety rule that would apply to the situation.
We will be working on the handout as a class. (I will read the rules and students will match the
pictures).

5. Closure:
Here are some follow up questions to ask after the activity.
Have the class raise their hands and wait to be called.
• How many of the safety tips that we had on our worksheet do you do?
• Can anyone tell us a safety tip that we didn’t talk about today?

6. Assessment:

Officer Buckle and Gloria Activity Assessment

Student

Assessment: Check the appropriate box below to assess student learning

Not
Objectives In progress Approximated Met
approached

Matching the picture Less than More than Everything

No Matches
with the rule half matched half matched Matched
 Cross in the cross
walks

The buddy system

Always clean up spills

before someone falls

Never play with

matches

don't lean back in

your chair

Always wear your

bicycle helmet when
you ride your bike

always buckle your

seatbelt
Fiction Evaluation Form
(Picture Books, Folklore, Modern Fantasy, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Multicultural Books)
Mary Lake Book Title: Officer Buckle and Gloria
Author: Peggy Rathmann Illustrator: Peggy Rathmann
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction Publisher/Year: G.P. Putnam’s
Sons / 1995

EVALUATE THE BOOK USING THE FOLLOWING ELEMENT

STYLE and Language: Explain the language used – word choices, sentence length, dialogue, rhythm,
rhyme. Explain unexpected insights or interesting
information the reader learns from the story. Give examples form the book
The language used is small words, easy to understand. There is a lot of repetition of phrases
that are similar like Officer Buckle knew more safety tips, Officer Buckle shared his safety
tips, and Officer Buckle checked on Gloria. The story is being told in narrative style in the
third person, by an outside narrator. The insights are that before Gloria, Officer Buckle
couldn’t keep the attention of his audience. After Gloria joined with Officer Buckle, then the
kids paid attention and had a great time. The reader learns that Gloria is quite the show-off
when Officer Buckle is giving his safety speeches. An example is when Officer Buckle is
giving the safety tip about never leaving a thumb tack on a chair. Gloria acts out what it
would look like if you were to sit on a thumb tack. Also, Gloria acted out what
slipping and falling in a spill that was not cleaned up would look like.

CHARACTER – Who is the main character? Explain the character’s personality traits. How can the
reader relate to the character, become involved in the story?
Who are the supporting characters? Give examples of both.
The main character is Officer Buckle. Officer Buckle is very safety conscious. He is always
writing down safety tips to share with the students at Napville School. As an example, “this
morning” he thought up Safety Tip #77. Never stand on a swivel chair. The reader will
relate to the story because like the students at Napville School, they became very engaged and
involved in the safety speeches when Gloria started coming with Officer Buckle. The
supporting character is Gloria. Gloria is a police dog. The reader will become involved in the
story when he or she sees how Officer Buckle and Gloria work together, as a team, to deliver
the safety speech. An example is when Officer Buckle gives a safety tip, unbeknownst to
Officer Buckle, Gloria would be acting out the Safety tip.

1. PLOT: (Explains the major events in the story.) Summarize the plot
The plot of the story is that when Officer Buckle went to the Napville School to give his safety
speech the students were bored. Most of the time Officer Buckle put the kids to sleep with his
safety speeches. Then when the police department bought a police-dog named Gloria, Officer
Buckle started bringing her along with him to the school. The student started paying attention
to the safety speeches. Gloria would act out the safety tips as Officer Buckle would tell them
to the students. Officer Buckle didn’t know what Gloria was doing because Gloria stayed
behind him on the stage. Officer Buckle and Gloria became quite in demand. Grade schools,
high schools, and daycare centers were calling and asking Officer Buckle to come to their
schools and give his safety speech to their students, and be sure to bring Gloria. After doing
over three hundred speeches the television news team filmed Gloria and him. That night
Officer Buckle watched himself on the ten o’clock news. When Officer Buckle was watching
the news, he saw Gloria behind him on the stage and that what she was doing was what
everyone was laughing and clapping for, not him. It was Gloria that was getting all the
attention. The next day the school called to ask Officer Buckle to come back to Napville
School and give his safety speech. He informed them he wasn’t giving the safety speeches
anymore. Mrs. Toppel asked if he could send Gloria to the school. Gloria just sat on the stage
looking lonely. It just wasn’t the same without Officer Buckle there, too. The students just
slept during Gloria’s time on the stage. After Gloria left, Napville School had its biggest
accident ever. The next day a pile of letters arrived at the police station. Every letter had a
drawing of the accident. It turned out that when Officer Buckle or Gloria went to the school
separately no one was interested. Only when they came and gave the safety speech as a team,
that was the winning combination.

2. SETTING – Explain the place and time of the book. THEME- What is the story’s theme or lesson?
Setting: The story is set in present time in a small town.
Theme: The theme or lesson and Safety tip #101 is “ALWAYS STICK WITH YOUR
BUDDY.”

ILLUSTRATION –Analyze the illustrations in the book (see Chapter 4) with the categories below:
Choose a 2-page spread in the book to answer the following:
What Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? Cartoon art.

Media (paints, oils watercolors, pencil, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk): Watercolor and ink.

Visual elements:
Line: There are thin lines making up the books, book shelf, award frames, and the pattern on Officer Buckle’s PJs. Thicker
lines make the TV, mirror, radio, and cords.

Shapes: Circles are used for Officer Buckle’s head, eyes, the lamp, light bulbs, the knob on the radio, the cup, and the base of
the antenna. A square is used for the TV. Rectangles are used for the radio, the frames, the tank, and the books.

Color: Officer Buckle has a blue robe and black hair. Gloria is white and brown. There are different colored books including
red, blue, green, purple, and orange. The award frames and trophies are gold. The slippers and the TV are brown.

Texture: The couch looks soft where it is kind of sinking in where Gloria is sitting. The lamp, the TV, the tank, and the
mirror all look hard. Officer Buckle’s head looks smooth. Overall, the wall that has the books and bookshelf looks soft. I’m
not sure why? I think it’s the watercolor paint. It makes things appear soft.

Explain how illustration and text are combined to tell the story. What do illustrations show that text does not
explain? The illustration of Officer Buckle watching himself on the news doesn’t tell us about Gloria stealing the show.
Instead it shows the reflection of the TV in the mirror so we, the reader, can see what Gloria is doing. Officer Buckle gets his
feelings hurt because he sees that it’s Gloria getting the applauds not Officer Buckle.

Describe the Page design: the borders, use of white/dark space, text placement & size, font, placement of illustrations: There
are borders and use of white space. The text is at the bottom of the page under the illustrations. The two-page spread is one
big picture.

3. CHILD DEVELOPMENT THEORIES – CHOOSE 2 of theories below and evaluate the book according to the
developmental theories. (How the book fits the developmental stage and age?)
PIAGET-COGNITIVE-INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
Name the stage Preoperational. and the age 2 to 7 years old.
Explain the cognitive development from the stage: Rapid development of concepts (friend,
death, birth, good/bad sharing, etc.).
Give examples from the book show how the book fits the cognitive stage: The book is
teaching the concepts of safety and rules. Rapid development of concepts would fit this stage
because they’re learning concepts of safety and responsibility and so the teachings of this book
fits this stage.

ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Name the stage Industry verses inferiority. and the age 5 to 12 years.

Explain the social development for this stage: Work in multi-ability groups with their peers
working together

Give examples from the book that support the social development of this stage: One of
the main lessons I took away from the book was that it worked out best when they worked
together. An example from the book is that before Gloria came along Officer Buckle would put
the kids to sleep with his speeches. When Gloria went alone the kids still fell asleep. Together
is when they had the best result.

4. Overall Rating of the book (3 highest - 1 lowest) 3

Comments: (Support your overall rating) I liked this book because it was a fun story about
Officer Buckle and how he couldn’t keep the kid’s attention. After Gloria kids loved his
speeches, but it was Gloria stealing the show. This is fun as a self-selected book or to read to
the class.
Fiction Evaluation Form
(Picture Books, Folklore, Modern Fantasy, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Multicultural Books)

Mary Lake Book Title: Pigsty

Author: Mark Teague Illustrator: Mark Teague
Genre: Realistic Fiction Publisher/Year: Scholastic Inc. /
1994
EVALUATE THE BOOK USING THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS
STYLE and Language: Explain the language used – word choices, sentence length, dialogue, rhythm,
rhyme. Explain unexpected insights or interesting
information the reader learns from the story. Give examples form the book
The word choices are descriptive. Your room is becoming a pigsty. Wendell went upstairs.
There was a pig sitting on his bed. He shoved some toys into his closet. The pig was hiding
under the bed. He didn’t even worry. They have a wonderful time. The sentence length
varies. The dialogue is sometimes his mom talking to Wendell, sometime Wendell talking to
the pigs, sometime Wendell talking to his mom, the pigs “grunted and said good bye,” and
other times a third person narrator. The author is using a metaphor to tell us about Wendell
and the state of his room. One pig is a small amount of clutter. Two pigs, the mess is
growing, and four pigs, things are getting broken. This combined with Wendell good
imagination makes for a good lesson for the reader. For example, Wendell, after being allowed
to keep his room messy if he wants, finds that a messy room gets old very quickly when his
toys and books start getting damaged.

CHARACTER – Who is the main character? Explain the character’s personality traits. How can the
reader relate to the character, become involved in the story?
Who are the supporting characters? Give examples of both.
Wendell is the main character. He is like many other young kids, not seeing the importance of
keeping his room clean. For example, when he is told to clean his room all he does is push
things under the bed and in the closet. The reader will relate to Wendell because kids would
think it would be fun if their moms told them that they didn’t have to clean their room if they
didn’t want to. Kids will become engaged in this story because as the plot unfolds it becomes
clear why you need to keep your things picked up. Example is when Wendell’s basketball got
flattened, when his book got hoof prints on it, and how his baseball card got chewed up. The
supporting characters are Wendell’s mom and the pigs.

1. PLOT: (Explains the major events in the story.) Summarize the plot
Wendell comes home to his mom who tells him he needs to clean his room, it’s turning into a
pigsty. When Wendell goes to his bedroom, to his surprise, there is a pig laying on his bed.
Don’t mind me Wendell tells the pig. The pig didn’t seem to mind Wendell’s mess, and
Wendell was alright with it too. When mom comes to check on Wendell’s progress the pig is
hiding under the bed. Clearly Wendell hasn’t cleaned his room, he has just shoved thing in his
closet and under his bed. Wendell’s mom says, it’s your room. “If you want to live in a pigsty
that’s up to you”. Of course, what kid who basically has his mom’s blessing to leave his room
a pigsty isn’t going to do just that? By the next day, he wasn’t even surprised to see another
pig was there. Wendell’s room was getting messier and Wendell thinks it’s ok if it’s only one
or two pigs. Wendell and the pigs were having fun, playing games, having pillow fights, and
making his bed into a trampoline. Then two more pigs showed up. The room is getting even
messier. The pigs were taking over. Wendell told himself it was alright. Then Wendell’s
things started getting broken. Someone had sat on his basketball and flattened it, they left
hoofprints on his comic books, and his baseball cards were chewed up. That was it, Wendell
had had enough. When he tried to tell his mother. She said “sorry but it’s your
responsibility.” Wendell was given the broom and as he was going back to his room, he
decided that many hooves make like work. He put the pigs to work and with all of them
cleaning the room, before long Wendell and the pigs had cleaned his room. In fact it was too
clean for the pigs liking, so, one of the pigs called for a ride back to the farm. Sometimes the
pigs come by for a game, they just don’t get to stay over.

2. SETTING – Explain the place and time of the book. THEME- What is the story’s theme or lesson?
Setting: The story is set in Wendell’s house in present time.

Theme: The lesson is about keeping your space clean and clutter free. If you remove the pigs
and see that Wendell is letting his room get so messy that things are getting broken and
torn up, this shows Wendell that if he has his room in order things will stay nice and it
is just better to have a clutter free room.

ILLUSTRATION –Analyze the illustrations in the book (see Chapter 4) with the categories below:
Choose a 2-page spread in the book to answer the following:

What Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? Cartoon art.

Media (paints, oils watercolors, pencil, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk): Painted in acrylic.

Visual elements:
Line: There are thin lines that make up baseball cards, broom handle, and stairs. Some thicker lines on Wendell’s shorts,
socks, and the parts of the stairs. The lines for the stairs are making it look like Wendell is going down the stairs. On the
other page the stairs look like they’re going up.

Shapes: The stairs are made up of rectangles. The baseball cards are some square and some rectangles. There is a sphere on
the stair case. Mom and Wendell’s heads are round.

Color: Mom’s sweater is green and there is some green in the baseball cards. Mom’s skirt, Wendell’s shorts, and the walls
are blue. The stairs and Wendell’s shirt are white. The railing on the stairs is brown. The carpet is light brown. There are
black lines in Wendell’s shorts. Wendell’s shoes are red and white.

Texture: The carpet and walls have the same texture, which is probably why I thought at first the blue and light brown was
carpet, turns out the blue part was the wall. Mom’s sweater looks soft. Wendel’s shirt looks wrinkled.

Explain how illustration and text are combined to tell the story. What do illustrations show that text does not
explain? At first Wendell is ok with the pig being there. The room is a little messy. As the room gets messier Wendell
thinks, it’s ok for the pigs to be there if it’s just one or two. Then the room gets a little messier. When the room gets so messy
that things are getting broken, there’s four pigs now. The pictures add nothing to what we’re being told by the text. The
pictures do a good job of reinforcing the text though. For instance, as the room is getting more and more messy it is being
represented by more pigs showing up. I would say for this book; the text and illustrations go hand in glove.

Describe the Page design: the borders, use of white/dark space, text placement & size, font, placement of illustrations: There
is a border on one of the pages. The white space is making the picture standout. The text is on the bottom of each of the
pages. On one of the pages the picture is taking up almost the whole page. The other page has a lot of white space. This is
not my favorite picture in the book. I picked these two pages because of the illusion that Wendell is going down the stairs.
The other page has the staircase, no one is using it but it still has the illusion that you can walk up them.
 3. CHILD DEVELOPMENT THEORIES – CHOOSE 2 of theories below and evaluate the book according to the
developmental theories. (How the book fits the developmental stage and age?)
PIAGET-COGNITIVE-INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
Name the stage Concrete Operational. and the age 7 to 11 years old.

Explain the cognitive development from the stage: Reasoning skills include two-way
thinking (more than one point of view).

Give examples from the book show how the book fits the cognitive stage: Wendell is given
the choice of how to keep his room. At first, he chooses to let a mess build up, but after a few
days of taking things out and not putting them away, Wendell’s belonging start getting broken.
Now it’s not so much fun to have his room so messy.

ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Name the stage Industry verses inferiority. and the age 5 to 12 years old.
Explain the social development for this stage: complete tasks successfully, persevere and
receive praise
Give examples from the book that support the social development of this stage: Wendell
cleaned his room and did such a good job that the pigs said it was too clean for them and the
pigs didn’t want to stay.

4. Overall Rating of the book (3 highest - 1 lowest) 3

Comments: (Support your overall rating) I liked the way mom left it up to Wendell to keep
his room the way he wanted to. In the end though it was Wendell’s upbringing that showed
through and he cleaned his room.
Short Form (All Genres)
Mary Lake
Title: Try Again Sally Jane Author: Mary Diestel-Feddersen
Illustrator: Yvonne Ashby Publisher/Year: Gareth Stevens, Inc. / 1986
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Summarize the content of the book –
For Fiction Form Genres—Explain the characters, the setting, theme and plot of the
book. Sally Jane is the main character. The story is set in present time. Jane is trying to learn
to skate like the other kids. They make it look easy. I think it’s set in a country town as
opposed to the city because of the pond and the animals in the story. The theme or lesson is
things are hard but we need to learn how to do them. If you fail, try again. The plot has Sally
Jane trying to learn to skate. She is finding out that it is not as easy as the other kids make it
look. She runs off the road and into the pond. She also manages to run over a frog’s toe. This
starts a barrage of different critters asking Sally Jane if she had to learn what they had to learn,
telling her what they had to learn, and asking her if she thought that was easy? In the end,
Sally Jane did learn to skate, with a minor problem, she ran over the frog’s other toe.

Explain how the book appeals to children, their interests, developmental levels, fun
illustrations etc. Give specific examples from the book: This book will appeal to children
because everyone doesn’t succeed on the first try when learning something new. The different
animals and insects explain what they had to do. Children will be interested in this story
because of all the different animals that encourage Sally Jane through her struggles. Each
animal or insect shares the things that it had to do. We learn that the chameleon can change
colors so that it can hide from things that want to harm it. We also learn that the butterfly starts
out life as a caterpillar and then becomes a butterfly. The illustrations depict the story line and
help the reader envision what is stated by the words. The book would appeal to different ages
because we’re always learning new things. I think, kindergarten age especially would find the
book appealing because they are curious and learning new things all the time, but might
become more easily frustrated with the huge number of new things to learn and the difficulties
of the learning process. My favorite picture is on the last page. Sally Jane has succeeded in
learning to skate and while doing so she has run over the frog’s toe AGAIN, and the frog says,
“Now she’s squashed my other toe!”

Rate the book 3

Explain your rating.

I love the message this book gives, to not give up when you’re trying to learn something new.
Short Form (All Genres)
Mary Lake
Title: Never Let a Ghost Borrow your Library Book Author: Karen Casale

Illustrator: Cecilia Rebora Publisher/Year: UpstartBooks / 2012

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Summarize the content of the book –
For Fiction Form Genres—Explain the characters, the setting, theme and plot of the
book.
The main characters are the two LIBRARY SECRET SERVICE (L.L.S.) agents. The book
doesn’t give us their names, maybe it’s a secret. The setting is present time. It is set at the
library, the book borrowers home, and at the beach. The lesson is the importance of treating
books properly. The plot is basically the L.L.S. introducing us, the reader, to the VERY
OFFICIAL GUIDELINES (V.O.G.), all sixteen of them.

Explain how the book appeals to children, their interests, developmental levels, fun
illustrations etc. Give specific examples from the book: This book will appeal to children
and their budding love for reading and books. It has fun ways to teach children the proper way
to treat a book. For example, the book has rules put in place by the L.S.S. The L.S.S. has
issued 16 V.O.G. I think if introducing books and proper treatment is taught early in life, the
children will have the potential to be life-long lovers of books and reading. I don’t think it’s
ever too early to introduce books and the way we treat them, age appropriate, of course. It was
hard to narrow my choice but I would have to say that my two favorites would be V.O.G. #1,
“Do NOT let your pets eat library books. Example of pets include dogs, cats, turtles, hamsters,
and inchworms-basically anything that eats and burps.” My second favorite is V.O.G. #8, “Do
not dog-ear, dog-slurp, or dog-slime your books. Use a bookmark! If you don’t have one use
a slip of paper.” After careful consideration, I’ve decided that it’s too hard to limit my choice
of just two out of sixteen. With that said, I would like to amend my list to include V.O.G. #2,
“Do not let a baby drool on your library books. Especially if he’s just eaten strained peas. Do
not let elves or ogres drool on them, either. They have very smelly drool.” Then it would be
V.O.G. #16, “Remember to say thank you to the librarian. Your librarian cares for all those
great books in the library that you love. And ALL librarians are members of the L.L.S.” And
my last and most important V.O.G. is V.O.G. #15, “Finally and most important… drum roll
please… READ THE BOOK! Read it to yourself, to your parents, to your sisters, to your
sister’s smooshed-up sandwich, to your stuffed animals, to space aliens, to ants, to your mom’s
coffee cup, to your brother’s freckle… to anyone or anything. (Well, maybe not to a vampire.
See V.O.G. # 14).”
Rate the book 3 bold and underlined.

Explain your rating.

This book has a fun way to teach or remind children how to take care of books.