“A hill is a house for an ant, an ant.
A hive is a house for a bee.
A hole is a house for a mole or a mouse
And a house is a house for me!”
A House Is a House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Betty Fraser, goes on rollicking and rhyming from there to tell about all the possible houses for all the creatures you can imagine. Then, it moves on to expand your creativity and that of your child by telling us that “a stocking’s a house for a knee” and “cartons are houses for crackers.” The illustrations give even more examples of people, animals, and things, each inside its own cozy house or tent or container or home. And the rhyme and the rhythm keep the story going.
Mary Ann Hoberman: “I knew I was going to be a writer even before I knew how to write! I think I was about four years old when I first understood that many of the stories I loved so much had been made up by real people, with real names, rather than having always been here like the moon or the sky. I decided then that when I grew up I would write stories, too, that would be printed in books for other people to read. But meanwhile I didn�t wait to grow up or even to learn how to write. I started right away to make up stories and poems and songs in my head, which I told to myself or to my little brother�”
Question: Do you have a child (or children) who tells stories to herself? I did. Eldest Daughter walked around and around in circles and told stories to herself. Z-baby just makes up her own songs.
We read this book aloud this morning, and now Z-baby and Bethy Bee are busy making houses for their dolls out of shoe boxes.
Mary Ann Hoberman’s website.
Go here for a short interview with poet Mary Ann Hoberman.
Try this webpage for a first grade level lesson plan about homes and neighborhoods.
Here’s another lesson plan in which the teacher guides children to write a story of their own about quilts in the style of A House Is a House for Me.
“And once you get started in thinking this way,
It seems that whatever you see
Is either a house or it lives in a house,
And a house is a house for me!”
Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. Click on the link in the sidebar if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the preschool curriculum, Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early.