Storybook Week 9: I Stink!

I Stink! was written by Kate McMullan and illustrated by Jim McMullan. The first thing to do for Storybook Week 9 is to get hold of a copy of I Stink! from your local library, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, or favorite brick-and-mortar book store.

1. Read the Story

Language Arts

Read the storybook or watch the Weston Woods storybook video from Scholastic Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics. Or do both.

2. In Your Community

Social Studies/Story Interest/Arts and Crafts

Talk about your community: Do you see police officers in your community? Fire trucks? Where are the library, city hall, fire station, grocery stores, haircutting shops, and post office? Do you see garbage collectors in your neighborhood? What do they do? Where does your trash go?

Set up a play community using building blocks. Or, if you have them, use play sets. Here is one that we used for a while. And here is a great idea for building a Safety Town out of cardboard boxes, paper, glue, and markers or crayons. (The craft idea is at the end of part two of this great safety tips video. It is not step-by-step instructions, just a demonstration of what the children made. They use cardboard boxes of different sizes, glue white paper onto the surfaces, and allow the children to decorate them into whatever "safer buildings" they like.)

3. Parts of a Garbage Truck

Story Interest/Fine Motor Skills/Arts and Crafts/Language Arts

This eHow page describes types of garbage trucks and their parts. You and your child can learn vocabulary words like: cab, hopper, passenger cabin, compactor, packer blade, rear-loader, front-loader, hydraulic, and lift.

Here you can see pictures of actual trucks to apply your new vocabulary.

Here you can print off garbage truck pictures for coloring.

If you don't already have a garbage truck in your toy collection and your child is very interested, consider investing in a toy garbage truck with working parts (this one has removable trash bins and figures).

For an older child: This is also an investment, but you might consider buying the Melissa & Doug Mighty Builder Garbage Truck which requires a lot of assembly using a screwdriver. We have not used this product, but from reading the reviews, it seems like a big hit with young children. It needs assembly by an older person, so it might be a good fit for a family with both older and younger children. (I've included links in this post solely based on relevance; we have not tried these products and I don't receive any benefit from mentioning them.)

4. Your Own Alphabet Soup Recipe

Story Interest/Language Arts

In the story, the garbage truck gives his recipe for alphabet soup, made in the back of his truck. It includes apple cores, banana peels, and other trashy items. You and your child can think up your own alphabet soup recipe by going through the alphabet and finding words that start with each letter. It would be an added learning tool to use a chalkboard, dry-erase board, or Magna-doodle to write the words you come up with next to each letter. Your alphabet soup recipe-making could even extend across twenty-six days if you assign one letter to each day.

The very most ambitious among you might even come up with a food item for each letter and make that food with your child, although it would take some stamina to do all twenty-six letters this way!

 5. And Even More Garbage Truck Activities!
Arts and Crafts/Gross Motor Skills/Social Studies

This eHow page has additional fun and educational activities about garbage collection.


To see previous Storybook Weeks, click one of these links:

Storybook Week 1: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-1-chicka-chicka-1-2-3.html

Storybook Week 2: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-2-chicka-chicka-boom.html

Storybook Week 3: Chrysanthemum: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-3-chrysanthemum.html

Storybook Week 4: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-4-click-clack-moo-cows.html

Storybook Week 5: Curious George Rides a Bike: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-5-curious-george-rides.html

Storybook Week 6: Diary of a Spider: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-6-diary-of-spider.html

Storybook Week 7: Harold and the Purple Crayon: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-7-harold-and-purple.html

Storybook Week 8: How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/06/storybook-week-8-how-do-dinosaurs-say.html