Karen Engelkenjohn

Kerrin Koederitz

Todd Wolfe

Name of Activity


Village of the Tacky Dressers

Topic Logic, attribute recognition

Grade Level: 1 – 3

Materials Needed:

3 Poster board "villages"

Pictures of typical villages

Color markers

Story and sample questions

Description of Activity The children sit in small
groups (4 – 5). The teacher reads the "Ballad of Princess
Penny" to the class, hanging up the poster board villages
at the appropriate points in the story.

Show the whole class pictures of visitors, some who
belong to the villages and some who don’t. After a little of this
practice, distribute pictures of villages to the groups. Ask them
to identify the village each picture is from and to explain "why."

Some Questions To Ask: After posing the question
at the end of the story to the class as a whole, discuss it. Next,
pass out pictures of villages to each group and ask the children
to identify what village each villager belongs to.

Some more advanced questions you can use are:


Princess
Penny finds some green shoes on the road . She wants to return
them to their owner. Which village should she take them to?

Caleb wants to move to one of Princess Penny’s villages. He
normally wears a polka clotted shirt with green shoes and orange
plaid pants. What village should be move to if be wants to buy
as few clothes as possible?

Princess Penny bears some rustling in the bushes beside the
road . She sees a sw at ch of polka – dotted cloth caught in
one of the branches. "Who’s hiding back there?" Princess
Penny calls out. A little boy’s voice answers, "I’m running
away from from because because my parents won’t let me wear a
T – shirt, blue jeans, and Air Jordans!" "Wi ll you
come back with me to your village if I guess which one it is?"
Princess Penny asks. "Uh … well, maybe…" "I
have just one question for you," says the Princess. "Does
the color of your village’s shoes start with the same letter as
the color of your village’s pants?" "Yes," the
boy replies suspiciously. Can you guess what village the boy is
from?

The final section of this activity involves reviewing
the concepts of attribution, and providing closure to the activity
by presenting a final "mystery villager" problem.

Ballad of Princess Penny

Once upon a time in a kingdom far away there lived a young princess.
Her name was Princess Penny. Penny lived in a beautiful kingdom
full of wonderful flowers and trees. The princess was a very inquisitive
person, and she enjoyed taking walks through the land. One day
while she was taking a walk she came upon a village. While walking
through the village Penny met many different people. As Penny
walked through the village she noticed something about all of
the people in the village. Everyone who lived in the village was
wearing a striped shirt, blue shoes, and black pants. ( hang up
posterboard labeled village # 1)

Princess Penny continued on her walk. A little while later after
crossing the river and climbing up a hill, Penny came upon a second
village. As Penny walked through this village she met many people.
As she met the people in the village, Penny noticed that everyone
who lived in this village was wearing a polka – dotted shirt,
blue shoes, and brown pants. (hang up posterboard labeled village
# 2)

Penny thought that it was interesting that she had visited two
different villages, and that she had seen people dressed in different
ways. Princess Penny decided to keep walking. As she walked through
the forest Penny came upon a third village. As Penny walked through
the third village she noticed that everyone who lived in this
village was wearing a polka – dotted shirt, green shoes, and
black pants. (hang up posterboard labeled village # 3)

Penny left the third village and started on her way home. As she
walked home Penny thought about the different people she had met
on her journey. Some people had been wearing striped shirts, while
others wore polka – dotted shirts. Some people wore brown pants,
while others wore black pants, and Penny had seen people wearing
blue shoes and green shoes. Each village had been dressed different
from the other two villages, yet there was something similar about
all of it.

Penny continued on her walk home. It was getting late, and night
was beginning to fall. The princess walked quickly so that she
would be home in time for dinner. About a mile away from the castle,
Princess Penny met up with a group of travelers. The travelers
were on their way home to their villages for dinner, but there
was a problem. The villagers forgot which village they belonged
to. Can you help the visitors get home to their village for dinner?
See if you can tell me which village each of these travelers belongs
in.