Rosie's Walk (Classic Board Books)

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First, the fox in midair, about to land on a rake; second, the rake hitting the fox in the face. First, the fox about to leap on Rosie; second, the fox in the pond he has not noticed. In choosing these two particular sorts of moments, Hutchins implies an entire sequence of actions; she has selected those moments that best suggest movement forward or the consequences of previous actions. In focusing on the unexpected results of the fox’s action, furthermore, these pairs of pictures constantly reveal how the fox is as unconscious of his surroundings as is Rosie herself: she may have no eyes for foxes, but foxes appear to have no eyes for rakes and ponds. These pairs of pictures create mood as well as meaning. Their repetitive rhythm gives the story the detached feeling of a series of jokes rather than the evolving intensity of a plot; we can laugh as our familiarity with the pattern develops because we know the story is going to keep going through variations of the same situation rather than moving forward toward a climax. Perry Nodelman, Words About Pictures Set Up: Print the b&w printables for each student. Print a color set for classroom use and laminate for durability if desired. Students, in the role of Programmer, place the images from the story on the grid to create a maze for Rosie, then use the coding symbol cards to build a path for Rosie’s walk following the sequence in the book. What did you learn about programming from this?” (e.g., it takes a lot of practice to give clear and detailed instructions the first time.)

Literacy: These Word Cards are brilliant for adding to children’s vocabulary growth, through word and image recognition. There’s also Story Sequencing cards to strengthen children’s knowledge around events and plot stages. What is Rosie’s Walk?questions or comments initiated by the students about maps, patterns, or sequences. Discuss using questions such as: Another picture book with dominant use of yellow is The Story About Ping. Instead of the significant red, we have blue:

First, the book introduces its audience to an important principle of intelligent picture books, a capacity to construct and exploit a contradiction between text and picture so that the two complement one another and together produce a story and a significance that depend on their differences from each other. A winter sunrise over the Stroud valley in winter from Swifts Hill Nature Reserve. Photograph: Peter Llewellyn/Getty Images A picture is a frozen moment in time, not subject to the demands of forward motion which control the verbal text. This is obvious from the opening spread of Rosie’s Walk. We can enter the picture at any point, and if we happen to be a young child not yet trained to interpret books from left to right, we might well start anywhere; but in fact the text carefully orients the viewer’s gaze by drawing attention to Rosie and to the information that she is going for a walk. Maths: This Addition Sheet to Support Teaching on Rosie's Walk uses this popular story alongside number formation and addition skills through meaningful connections that children have with the characters. Students observe coding symbols for common movements and suggest coding symbols for positional words from Rosie’s Walk that do not have one.

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I passed on old hay meadow on the left. This was the field where, in the height of summer haymaking, the young Laurie Lee encountered Rosie, in a scene that has become one of the best-known in 20th-century English writing. Rosie’s Walk was a huge success, becoming a timeless classic for children. After its publication in 1966 it made the American Library Association (ALA) Notable Book of the Year in 1968.