Teacher’s Guide for
My Chair By Betsy James
Illustrated By Mary Newell DePalma
Pre-reading Activity:
Talk about chairs. How important are they? What are they for? How long do you think they have been around? What are they made out of?
Draw, paint or sculpt a picture of your favorite chair. Share as a group before reading the story.
Discussion Questions:
- What is your favorite chair? Why do you like it so much?
- What types of games can you play with only a chair?
- What is important about chairs?
- Who do you think has the best imagination in the story? Why?
- What does the author mean when she says, “In my chair I consider what’s fair?” Do you ever have to consider that too?
- Which illustration is your favorite? Why?
- How can a chair eat quarters, trucks and colored pencils?
- Why is it important that “underneath my chair is where grown-ups aren’t” When might you like to go under a chair?
- What could a chair be besides a chair
- How is your favorite chair like others? How is it different?
Projects:
Art: Using materials found around the house and no bigger than a paper plate create a chair. Then, using the same materials reshape it into one of these other images from the book:
intergalactic zoo
horse
train
glasses
roller skater
dancing bear
forest
flower
fort
ship
plane
prison
truck
gate
cage
ocean
cave
treasure
Music:
Sing this song:
to “Shortening Bread”
Everybody has a chair
Everybody has a chair
Everybody has a chair on the floor
Not on the ceiling (point)
Not on the door (point)
Everybody has a chair on the floor
See if you can make up another song about chairs (or your chair) to one of these familiar tunes:
Frere Jacques
Mulberry Bush
I’m a Little Teapot
Movement:
Play musical chairs but instead of using identical chairs (boring!) use your imagination and discover what different objects could be used as a chair. (Ex: pillow, rock, block, box, stuffed animal, or even a picture with a chair on it!) After the game discuss which chairs were the best and why.
Math:
Brainstorm the qualities you could graph in a chair (color, size, use, etc.) and then have students choose three qualities to graph all the chairs in their own home that evening.
Science:
Look at the book:
and then these guidelines to good seating:
Then design a quality chair for yourself or someone in your family. You can draw it on paper or build it from sculpey or other material.
Language Arts:
Write a book inspired by My Chair about your room, bed or favorite spot.
Related Title:
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
