Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse Lesson Plan for Preschool Fun and Learning
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Lilly, the main character, is part of a class of very human-like mice. Her teacher, Mr. Slinger, is the kind of teacher that every student

loves. He wears artistic shirts, brings tasty snacks and allows the children to express their creative ideas through drawing and writing. Lilly loves her teacher! Trouble begins when Lilly brings a new purple plastic purse to school.

Objectives

Learning some new vocabulary words by listening for context clues and looking at illustrations

Reinforce the sound of the letter P

Introduction to a book written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes

Discuss feelings that people can have. (Lilly felt happy, excited, impatient, sad, angry and ashamed)

Preparation

Display other books by the author: Chester’s Way and Julius, The Baby of the World

Provide a large purple plastic bag/purse

Prepare a note to parents: “Please help your child find something from home that begins with the Letter P to put in Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse.”

New Book and New Words

Read the book with the excitement that Lilly feels. She loves school. She loves her teacher and she loves her new purple plastic purse. You may choose to read the book all the way through one time and then go back to look at the cute illustrations and discuss the vocabulary.

Most children LOVE big new words! There are several in this book to discuss. Show the picture and read the sentence or paragraph surrounding the word. Ask the child if they would like to guess what the word means.

Here are some of the words to discuss:

privacy: “Lilly loved the privacy of her very own desk.”

artistic: “Mr. Slinger wore artistic shirts.”

encyclopedias: “Lilly even wanted her own set of deluxe picture encyclopedias.”

surgeon: “I thought she wanted to be a surgeon.”

creations: “During Sharing Time, Lilly showed her creations to the entire class.”

considerate: “Let’s be considerate of our classmates.”

jaunty tune: “…she had a brand new purple plastic purse that played a jaunty tune when it was opened.”

furious: “And then she became furious.”

uncooperative chair: “ Instead of watching her favorite cartoons, Lilly decided to sit in the uncooperative chair.”

Wow: “ ‘Wow,’ said the entire class.” Tell your students that WOW is a palindrome. That’s a big new word! It means that it is spelled the same forwards or backwards. Write it on the board to show them.

Purple Plastic Purse

In this example of alliteration all of the words begin with the letter P. Send a note home with your students that asks the parents to help their child find something for the purple plastic purse that begins with the letter P. (potato, penny, pencil, peanut, pen, puppet)

Students need to share what they brought as they add it to the purple plastic purse in the room.

Circle Time

Lilly loved the pointy pencils, the squeaky chalk and her teacher. At circle time ask each student to name one thing that they love about school. Encourage everyone to have a different answer.

Faces

Discuss the feelings that Lilly had. Ask your students if they have ever been sad? Scared? Surprised? Angry? Excited? Impatient?

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Ask students to make faces that would portray the mood that you name. Discuss the fact that Lilly and her teacher did not stay mad and they both forgave each other. Everyone makes mistakes, like Lilly did when she gave her teacher a mean picture. But Lilly realized she was wrong and she apologized.

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse Lesson Plan for Preschool will introduce students to a charming book with entertaining illustrations. You will be able to discuss feelings with your students and use context clues and pictures to learn new words. Best of all, it is another way to instill the love of reading in your students.

References

  • Henkes, Kevin. Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Greenwillow Books, 1996.

    Henkes, Kevin. Chester’s Way. Perfection Learning, 1997_._

    Henkes, Kevin. Julius, The Baby of the World. Greenwillow Books, 1995.

    Image provided by the writer.