Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web www.homeschoolshare.com

Billy's Picture

Social Studies:

Human Relationships-- This story was written in 1948.  Were your parents (your children’s grandparents) alive when this was written?  Did they read it as a child?  Did you?  If your child’s grandparents were alive at this time, this could be a fun way to introduce American history and storytelling.  Have your child interview their grandparents, using the following questions and questions the two of you come up with on your own:

- How old were you in 1948? 

- What grade were you in?  What was your favorite subject?

- Did you have any brothers and sisters? How many?  What were their names?

- What were your favorite books to read as a child?

- What do you remember being different then it is today? (ie: fast food restaurants, prices for things, safety in walking or biking far distances, etc;)

Manners-- In the story, any time that a character wanted a turn to draw on Billy’s picture, they always complimented the picture first, and always said “Please let me do it.”  Did your child notice this?  Role play with your child ways that would have been impolite (for instance, grabbing the pencil and drawing without warning, or making fun of the picture not being the way they thought it should be)as well as the polite way.

Problem Solving – During this story, we see Billy becoming upset because all of his friends kept drawing on his picture.  At the end of the story, they all realized that they wanted a picture that looked like them!  They way they decided to solve this problem was for all of them to draw their own picture that looked just like them!  Talk about this with your child.  Maybe they have recently had a disagreement with a sibling or friend.  How did the disagreement end?  Role play with your child creative problem solving techniques they could have used.  If your child does not have an experience to draw from for this exercise, it would be helpful to come up with some ideas to give them practice in creative problem solving without leading to arguing and tears!

Emotions – At the end of the story, before the characters came up with their creative solution, Billy began to cry.  He was upset because he wanted to draw a picture that looked just like him and everyone was trying to change it!  After reading the story, ask your child what feeling or emotion they thought Billy was experiencing? (sadness, disappointment, hurt, etc).  How would they have felt?  Has your child felt sad or hurt recently?  What are they feeling now?  Discuss different emotions with your child.

Something else to discuss or think about is our own children’s artwork.  Have they drawn a picture recently and had someone try to “help” them make it better?  How has that made them feel?

Language Arts:

List Making – Can your child list all of the animals in this story? Have them write down or dictate to you all the animals.  A way to make this more challenging is to see if they can list them in order of appearance.  (Rabbit/Bunny, Puppy, Goose, Porcupine, Rooster, Owl, Mouse, Elephant)

Alliteration – Alliteration is the repetition of the first consonant sound in a phrase.  Maraget and H.A. Rey used this throughout the story. The names of all the characters in the story begin with the same first letter as the type of animal they are. (Billy the Bunny, Penny the Puppy, Greta the Goose, Paul the Porcupine, Ronny the Rooster, Oliver the Owl, Maggie the Mouse, and Eric the Elephant).   Can you or your older child think of other examples of this device?
 

Imaginary vs. Real – After all of the characters had put their own additions on Billy’s picture, Billy called it a “Puppygoose” or a “Porcuphant.”  Ask your child if they had ever heard of such an animal?  Have fun with your children coming up with new animal names, either based on the picture or others. 

Literature – This story was written by Margaret and H.A. Rey.  These authors also wrote the Curious George books.  Has your child read those stories?  Are there any similarities in style?  If they haven’t yet read any of the Rey’s works, this would be a great time to do so!   You may not want to point out that the stories have the same author.  This will be a fun discovery for your child someday.

Art/Music:

Drawing – In the story, all of the characters wanted a picture that looked like themselves.  Sit down with your child and each of you attempt to draw a self portrait.  You can either choose to do this from memory, from a picture, or by looking into a mirror!   Have fun with this!

Group Art – In the story, each of the characters added their own “spin” to Billy’s artwork.  Mimic this theme with your child, sitting down with a big piece of paper.  One of you begins, setting a timer and drawing for 30 seconds – 1 minute (whatever time frame you decide).  When the timer goes off, have someone else take a turn, each of you taking turns drawing on the paper for the designated time frame.  What is the end result?

Supplemental idea for an older student: Visit author Jan Brett’s site for instructions on how to draw animals!

Math:

Geometry – Drawing involves a lot of geometry.  Geometric shapes are the basis for many artworks that you see today.  Discuss these shapes with your child (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, etc).  After discussing this, have your child try to draw only using shapes – what animals and or pictures can you create just using shapes?  (a house would be a good one!) You can continue with this, if you so choose, by discussions fractions (a circle can be divided. . . a pizza or pie , for example, is a circle.  Show how cutting pieces of these treats results in a fun edible fraction lesson!)

Science:

Animal Classification--  This story had lots of different animals! There was a bunny, puppy, goose, porcupine, rooster, owl, mouse and an elephant.  Have fun with your child classifying the animals in the following categories, and any you can come up with on your own.

- Which animals have feathers? (goose, rooster, owl)  Which do not? (bunny, puppy, porcupine, mouse and elephant)

- Which animals can swim?  Which animals cannot? (This one is challenging, but interesting to discuss with your child.  According to Wikipedia and other online encyclopedia and reference sources, almost all mammals can swim by instinct, with the exception of a few animals including the Porcupine! Some breeds of dogs swim recreationally and Elephants are capable of swimming even in deep water.  Rabbits can swim and obviously Geese swim. Owls were tricky – apparently some species, in particular the Snowy Owl, eat fish and snatch prey off water surfaces with their talons.  There have been stories of owls being rescued from swimming pools as well, so while it appears that they can survive once in water, and do get close enough to eat water creatures, they do not swim.   Roosters, too, were difficult to determine.  They do not like huge bodies of water and if dropped in will exit by flapping their wings.  According to one test on a poultry farm, they concluded that chickens (a Rooster is a chicken!) can swim, having put a 5 week old chicken in a water tank for 30 minutes – the chicken swam round and round the tanks happily with no signs of struggle, distress or anxiety.  And finally, mice swim quite well, as noticed in laboratory settings, although they do panic when first placed in water.)

- Which animals are small? (Mouse for sure, the rest can be discretionary) - Which animals are big? (Elephant for sure, the rest can be discretionary)

- Which animals could you find at the zoo? (Depends on your local  zoo. Commonly found would be, Elephant, Owl, Porcupine).  Which animals could you find on a farm?  (Rooster, Bunny, Puppy)