Alexander’s Outing
This book is best for:
- prepositions
- describing means to a goal
- identifying obstacles to an action
- concepts of floating & sinking
Review
Alexander’s Outing follows a duckling who always seems to straggle behind even with his mother’s warning to stay close. Alexander lands himself in a bit of trouble when he falls down a deep dark hole. Lucky for him there is a very kind group of people who make a plan to rescue him. This story emphasises the importance of always listening to the group leader and staying close to the group.
The rhythmic text makes Alexander’s Outing a delight to read aloud. There are many basic concepts that can be targeted in this book, but it is particularly good for working on prepositions. The ducks walk past a bottle tree, through some gates, and along a road. Then little Alexander falls down the hole and the people work together to get him up and out! Although not mentioned explicitly in the text, the illustrations lend themselves to a teaching moment about the concepts of floating and sinking. Alexander’s Outing is also a great choice for targeting the higher level semantic skills, such as describing means to a goal (i.e. how can they get Alexander out of the hole?) and obstacles to an action (e.g. why can’t the man reach Alexander?).
Book Details
Narrative Structure: Complex Episode
Story Plot: Warning Tale
Themes:
- animals - birds
- location - park, city
- following rules
- listening
Speech and Language Targets
Speech Sounds:
- /s/ (sisters, so, sunny, search, set, such, see, sandwich, disappeared, gates, close, arms)
- /s/ blends (stay, straggle, stopped, still, started, distant, plastic, most, past)
Grammar:
- adjectives (deep, dark, long, small)
- conjunctions (and, but, so)
- modal (could)
- negative (not)
- possessive pronoun (his)
- possessive nouns
- prepositions
- present progressive tense
- regular past tense
- irregular past tense (e.g. heard, came, knew, rose)
- subjective pronoun (they)
Semantics:
- antonyms / opposites (float/sink - from illustrations)
- explaining means to a goal,
- identifying obstacles to an action
- figurative language - simile (like the cork out of a bottle)
Concepts:
- location (past, through, along, behind, down, up, out)
- quantity (one, two, all, empty)
- temporal / time-related (when, then, before, now, until)
Social-Emotional:
- follow rules
- listening skills
Narrative:
- character description
- time
- setting
- weather
- initiating event
- plans
- resolution
- direct character speech
- repetition for emphasis
Rhyme & Sound Awareness:
- rhyme
Book Info
Published by Puffin Books in 1993 (ISBN: 9780140554786)