Good Morning, Good Night

We and Kiwi

This activity is based on the picture book Good Morning, Good Night 
This book may no longer be available for purchase.

Author: Erin Devlin
Illustrator: Annie Jeannes
Publisher: Reed (2007)
ISBN: 978-1-86978-044-9

Summary: 
Kiwi discovers that his nocturnal life is the same as Ruru’s and the opposite to some of the other animals in the bush. Some animals eat and play at night and sleep all day while others, like Tui, live the other way round.

Lesson Sequence:

1. Prior to reading the story ask students to tell you what they know about animals that are nocturnal, active at night, and animals that are active during the day (diurnal is the correct term but is not a word in common use!). Make a list of animals in both categories or use pictures to sort them into the 2 groups.
2. Share the story with your students drawing their attention to the cues in the illustrations that show the reader whether it is day or night.
3. With students’ input make a short list of key events that happen in a regular day (wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, eat lunch, play time, dinner bath, bedtime etc).
4. Show students a long strip of paper about 50cm long and 5 cm wide ( or 1m x 5 cm for more space and impact). Say
   Imagine this is how long one whole day is: from here (point to one end) to here (point to the other).
   How long is the nighttime part, how long is the daytime part? (Some students may believe that the day is much longer because that’s the part in which they are awake and busy, others may think that night is longer).
5. Fold the paper strip in half and mark the halfway point with a line. Explain that our whole day is divided exactly in half. One half is daytime and one half is nighttime. Give out strips of paper to pairs of students and ask them to fold their strips to find half way. Then using crayons colour in one half yellow (daytime) and one half black (nighttime). Now your students have a timeline divided into two equal parts.
6. In the next session re-read the story and focus on what kind of things Kiwi is doing during the nighttime (hunting, eating, playing, exploring etc.). Ask
   What are we doing during the nighttime?
   What does a kiwi do in the daytime?
7. Revisit the list the students made about what they do in the daytime. Divide the class in two: the “Kiwi” pairs and the “We” pairs. If they are a “Kiwi” pair they are to use 3-4 of the small paper squares and record either a small drawing or a word for different activities the kiwi does and then staple them on their timeline in the appropriate half (make sure one of the squares is sleeping). If they are part of a “We” pair then they do the same making 3-4 squares that represent the things “we” doing during the day and night (make sure one is sleeping).
8. Handout the two word cards midnight and midday. Ask
   Where is midnight going to go on our timeline?
   Where will midday go? 
   Stress the idea of middle being halfway but this time it is a halfway point within the yellow or black coloured half.
   What is happening at midday for us? What is happening at midnight?
   What about for kiwi? 
   Ask students to staple the two word cards on the timelines in the appropriate places.
   Then give out a “We” (people) or a “Kiwi” image as a label and staple on each timeline.
9. Now ask the pairs to partner up, a “We” pair with a “Kiwi” pair and compare their timelines.
   What are we doing when kiwi are sleeping?
   What are we doing at midnight?
   What are kiwi doing at midnight?
10. Once students are confident dividing the day into morning and night the same version of the timeline can be used to start introducing other vocabulary (afternoon, evening, dawn etc.) and then the introduction of hours. A strip can be divided into 24 segments by folding. The morning side can start at 6:00 am and then nighttime starts at 6:00 pm with midday and midnight still being halfway points at 12:00 and 12:00. Then matching the timeline to the hours on the clock shows why the hour hand makes a full revolution twice in one “day.”