Lesson Plan for "The Relatives Came" by Cynthia Rylant

Relatives Came, The

by Rylant, Cynthia. Illustrated by Stephen Gammell.  Picture Book. Grades 1+.  

Review

This is one of my all time favorite books.  The illustrations make it soooo much fun to read and look at.    The book tells of an old-fashioned family reuinion where relatives came from far across the mountains. They pile into and around the house with love and exuberance. Gammell's illustrations are so full of humor and distinctive characters that it's hard to get around to reading the delightful text.

Activities

• PreK - GRADE 3. QUESTIONING
• It appears that the driver of the station wagon isn't very good at it.
  Does he damage the car? Who fixes it?
• Where is their home?
• Where do the relatives live?
• GRADE 1 - 3. NUMERATION
  Figure out how many people there are. Be careful because some characters appear only once and others are on almost every page.
• PreK - GRADE 2. QUESTIONING, GATHERING DATA
  Look carefully at the boy in the blue-striped shirt, coming out to greet the people. Now find him on the next page.
  What is different about him?
  How could that have happened?
  Is it an illustrator's mistake?
• PreK - GRADE 3. CLASSIFICATION, PATTERN, NUMERATION
  Make a chart showing as many different patterns on people's clothing as possible. Make small squares of each kind of pattern, using wrapping paper or wallpaper.
  Form groups to find one pattern and post it.
  Which patterns are most frequently used?
  
  Patterns - - - - - - Number Found
  --------------------------------------------------
  Solid Colors
  Flowered
  Striped
  Plaid
  Checkered
• K - GRADE 3. TIME, ESTIMATION
  How far away do you think the relatives lived?
  What makes you think so?
  Have you ever traveled that long or that far?
  Did the relatives stay a long time?
  What makes you think so?

By Carol Hurst, thanks Carol for this great lesson plan... revised a bit by me.

THURSDAY'S Picture Book of the Week: "The Relatives Came" by Cynthia Rylant

"The relatives' station wagon: it smelled like a real car, looked like a rainbow, and was roomy enough for a crowd.  Lucky! Because a big crowd in all shapes and sizes piled into that old wagon at four o'clock one summer morning and piled out of it the next day at their relatives' place on the north side of the mountains. All in good moods.

The visitors settled in everywhere throughout the house, laughing and making music and hugging everyone from the kitchen to the front room. And they stayed for weeks.

Cynthia Rylant's words and Stephen Gammell's pictures take warm delight in the time the relatives came -- when two sides of a family made one roomy middle."


This book takes me back to my own childhood and the summer vacations we took in our old station wagon.  I remember leaving our house very early in the morning. It was still dark outside. We drove for two or more days to get to Utah from south Texas.  I can't say we were all in "good moods" when we arrived, but we were sure happy to be out of the car, finally!  This book is sure to bring back fond memories of vacations spent with loving relatives!