Green Eggs and Ham Language Arts Lesson Plan
Teach Reading Comprehension, Types of Sentences, and Food Vocabulary
Feb 22, 2009
After a wager with his publisher, Dr. Seuss wrote the children’s story Green Eggs and Ham [Random House, 1960] using only 50 different words. Elementary teachers can use his unique sentences as the foundation for a variety of language arts lessons for first, second and third grade students.
How To Use a Felt Board to Teach Comprehension
To help students understand and recall the events in the trade book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, primary teachers can use felt board props. During repeated readings of the story, teachers place felt cut-outs of the nouns in the book onto a felt board. The felt board then becomes a classroom learning center and the students use the cut-outs to retell Green Eggs and Ham and increase their story comprehension.
How To Teach Interrogative, Declarative, and Exclamatory Sentences
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss contains many statements, questions, and exclamations that can be used to teach students about different types of sentences. As the class or guided reading group is reading the book the teacher calls attention to each of the sentences and points out the type of punctuation that is used for each one.
The primary students use different color highlighting tape to categorize the sentences as interrogative, declarative, and exclamatory. The teacher rereads the story and asks the students to pay attention to the way that she reads the different types of sentences. The students practice reading Green Eggs and Ham sentences aloud with a partner using the punctuation as a clue to how they should read them.
How a Have a Green Eggs and Ham New Food Feast
After reading Green Eggs and Ham primary teachers can encourage students to try new foods by hosting a New Food Feast. Teachers bring in bite size portions of a variety of new foods such as anchovies or star fruit.
Students use a Green Eggs and Ham inspired scoring guide to rate each food. A score of one star will say “I will eat in the rain.” Two stars will read “I will eat in the rain and in a box.” If they love the food the students will give it three stars or say “I will eat it in the rain and in a box and with a mouse!”
Green Eggs and Ham Career Connection: What is a Chef?
Teachers will ask the students who made the green eggs and ham in the story Green Eggs and Ham. The class will discuss what a chef is and what types of things she does in her job. The teacher can invite a local chef in to speak to the class and answer student questions.
After the presentation the class learns vocabulary associated with cooking. The primary students then get to make their own green eggs during a cooking lab. With the assistance of the teacher they take turns cracking the eggs, adding the ingredients (including green food coloring) and beating the mixture with a whisk. The teacher then cooks the eggs in an electric frying pan and offers the green eggs to the students.
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss may not contain a multitude of different words, but it can be used to teach many different concepts in language arts. Teachers can teach three different types of sentences and use a felt board in a learning center to increase student’s reading comprehension. Students build on the food featured in the story and participate in a new food feast, study food vocabulary and learn what a chef does at work.
For more Dr. Seuss themed lesson plans read: The Cat in the Hat Language Arts Lesson Plan, Dr. Seuss Themed Games and Activities and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Lesson Plan.
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