HUSH! by Minfong Ho models a variety of grammatical forms in a repetitive and lyrical text that invites you to sing rather than read the words. In this post, I highlight the negative contraction. The mother of a toddler admonishes a host of noisy creatures that threaten to awaken her sleeping toddler. On each page she begs, "Can't you see that Baby's sleeping? . . .don't you cry, My baby's sleeping right nearby." We The contraction of "not" is subtle: the /n/ attached to the verb and the voiceless sound of /t/ follows. A child needs careful listening ears to notice it. Illustrator Holly Meade adds visual humor to lighten the mother's heartfelt surveillance. This was one of my earliest Picture Book Talk lessons, which explains why it's only 8 pages.
Peace Love and Speech has a lesson called Answering with Negative Contractions. I don't know how many pages it is, but it offers a clever idea to expand upon. Jongkit Wongpinit has a Folktale from the Northeast of Thailand for grades 3-5. Smiley Teacher has a 53-page power point presentation for grades 1 and higher, Thailand Thai Asian Studies Power Point Presentation.
My Picture Book Talk for this story is here.
