The Giant Jumperee by Julia Donaldson is a fun story about a rabbit who returns home to his burrow only to find that the loud and scary Giant Jumperee is inside. Rabbit is afraid to enter, so he enlists his friends to try to get the Giant Jumperee to come out of the burrow, but each in turn is frightened away.

The main character speaks in rhymes, which helps to develop your child’s phonological awareness, or hearing the smaller parts in words. He always begins speaking with the phrase, “I’m the Giant Jumperee…” Have your child chime in on this repeated phrase to involve them in the reading of the story, and make it more fun and enjoyable. This is called print motivation or learning to love books and reading. Print motivation is a component of background knowledge, or everything your child knows before starting school.

There are many words in this story that your child may not be familiar with, like “slink” and “swaggered”. After reading the story, go back to those unfamiliar words and talk about their meaning, then help your child act out the movements, a form of playing, which will help them remember what the words mean. This will increase your child’s vocabulary. Studies have shown that children with a large vocabulary do better in school.

Extend the book with finger puppets and paper frogs!

You can download and print this Giant Jumperee activity pack, which includes animal finger puppets! (Note: You can skip the first few pages - the contest is over, but the activity pages are still fun!)

Your child can use the finger puppets to retell the story, adding to their narrative skills.

You can also make a handprint frog, as designed by the folks at Crafty-Crafted! You’ll need some green paper, a pencil, a bowl (or other circle to trace), white paper, and a black marker. Follow the link for step-by-step instructions!

This adaptation of the familiar preschool song “The Wheels on the Bus” has the animals making their own sounds as they ride through town.

Sing this song with your children while doing the actions and sounds of the animals. Songs tend to draw out the syllables in each word, making it easier for children to recognize the smaller sounds that make up words and helps them develop phonological awareness.

As you read, ask questions such as, “Do you ever ride a bus?” “How many animals are on the bus?” “Would you like to ride a bus with so many animals on it?” “What sounds do each animal make?” Talking with your children about the story increases their vocabulary.

Now make it your own!

After reading through the book once, read it again and have your children try to remember the sound each animal makes, or which animal gets on the bus next. This memory game increases their narrative skills as they learn to tell a story back to you.

Sing the song yourselves and add in new animals and their sounds.

After finishing the book, play an animal freeze game. Call out an animal and have your children pretend to be that animal until you call “freeze!” They have to stay frozen until you call out the next animal.

… Jungle edition! If you’re happy and you know it, give a ROAR! This fun and interactive picture book will have kids clapping their hands, scratching their fur, flapping their wings and more as they sing and play with their favorite jungle animals. Singing and Playing are important early literacy skills and two of the Every Child Ready to Read practices for kindergarten readiness.

You can read this book one-on-one with your little one, but it’s extra fun with friends! You may find it this summer at one of our preschool storytimes - sign up at your favorite branch.

Extend the book with a fun activity using Twitchetts free printable action dice. Action dice like these encourage imaginative play, which can help your child build narrative skills. Some of the combinations are ridiculous and will have you cracking up as your child learns, imagines and explores!

Playing & Singing help your child get ready to learn to read. Playing helps your child develop language & critical thinking skills, & Singing helps your child hear the smaller sounds in words & letters!

Learn about jellyfish, too. Check out Gooey Jellyfish by Natalie Lunis,  Down in the Sea: Jellyfish by Patricia Kite, or another informational book about jellyfish that has great pictures. No need to read it word for word—keep it at your child’s level. Talk about the pictures and some fun facts.

Go ahead, print this jellyfish out! Maybe decorating it will make it a little happier.

Color and cut out the jellyfish. You can attach a stick or a straw to the back and turn it into a stick puppet. Now we’re ready for some rhymes!

Keep reading

This playful story follows the antics of Hoot Owl, who tries to use his wits to catch his meal. This book is a joy to read aloud.

It is not written in verse, but the prose uses some rhymes and repeats certain consonants. This not only gives it a distinctive sound, but it builds your child’s phonological awareness, helping him or her to hear the smaller individual sounds within words. This book also contains a rich vocabulary, introducing your child to a wider variety of words than would be found in ordinary speech.

The story is funny, and kids will enjoy the way that the owl’s version doesn’t always match the pictures. This awareness of the plot is called narrative skills. Here, kids use the words and the pictures to find out what is happening; this ability helps them make sense of what they read. They may also be able to predict what happens next.

Extend the book with a pizza! Well, not a real pizza.

This felt pizza can work as a flannel board activity, a prop for a puppet, or even a game.  Here, I stuck the pieces to a blanket and had my wizard puppet “eat” it.

Kids can build a pizza piece by piece, starting with the dough:

“This is the pizza that  [child’s name]  made.”

Then comes the sauce:

“This is the sauce that goes on the pizza … ”

Next, add whatever other shapes you want. I used white triangles for cheese, green rectangles for pepper, and brown circles for sausage.  

Saying the poem has some of the same benefits as singing, and the pizza offers a great way to play. It also opens up the chance to talk about the pizza, about the owl in the story, about what sorts of things are good to eat—there is no limit to where this conversation can go! Bonus: handling the little shapes provides an opportunity for fine motor development, so building the pizza is a good precursor to writing.

Illustrated by Sophie Fatus

This singable story is inspired by a Chilean folktale and will help kids practice singing and talking. This is a great book for building phonological awareness, background knowledge, narrative skills, and vocabulary.

Sing and count along as a young boy collects new pets for his farm two by two.

Practice counting skills, storytelling skills, baby animal vocabulary, and learn a bit about Chilean culture through the bright and playful illustrations.

Here’s a video you can watch to learn the tune of the song:

Practice counting by 2’s with this fun activity!

Each time the book reads “How I love my [number] little pets,” write the number on a piece of tape.

Tape the number to a pipe cleaner or piece of string.

Count out a matching number of beads and string them onto the pipe cleaner or string.

Use this activity to practice counting by 2’s. Can you count up to 16 with the book? Can you count all the way up to 20?

Use this activity to practice counting by 2’s. Can you count up to 16 with the book? Can you count all the way up to 20?

The repetition in The Napping House by Audrey Wood can help with phonological awareness because the child is hearing the words over and over. The repetition also gives the books a sing-song quality. Hearing this rhythm of language when you read with your child also contributes to phonological awareness. If you choose to read the book again or do the following craft, your child should now have the background knowledge to anticipate what will happen next and why.

Learn About Story Patterns

Grab these free printables from Kiz Club. You can get them in color or black and white. I printed the black and white version and colored it myself, as is shown in the pictures. With these pieces, you can use narrative skills to retell the story and talk about what happened or what will happen next.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow is a story of bedtime silliness. It is bedtime and five little monkeys have to take a bath, put on pajamas, bush their teeth and kiss their mama. Once mama leaves the room the jumping begins. The simple storyline, the repetition, the monkey countdown, and all those bumps on the heads – rendered with mischief and pop in watercolor and pencil – make for a classic counting story that manages to reinforce silliness and safety in one fell swoop.

Families can talk about their own bedtime rituals. What do you do to get ready for bed at night? What is the same or different than the monkeys? Do you jump on the bed? What can happen if you jump on the bed?  

Make Jumping Monkeys!

All you need to make this book even more fun is a few craft sticks, some glue, and these free printable numbered monkeys from Growing Book by Book! Your kids can make the monkeys hop along with the story - it’ll reinforce the counting lesson, too!

Small Bear and Big Bear get stuck in a rainstorm, and Big Bear points out a beautiful rainbow. The rainbow fades and disappears as the sun comes back out, but Small Bear wanted to keep the rainbow.

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Together, the bears find all of the colors of the rainbow from the forest around them. As you flip through the pages your child will have fun spotting all of the colorful details in the illustrations.

This book will help kids practice reading, talking, and playing, and will build their print awareness, vocabulary, and background knowledge.

Extend the book with watercolor hearts!

You will need:

• Black permanent marker OR a heart-shaped cookie-cutter and paint
• Watercolor paper
• Watercolor paint

Use a black permanent marker to draw large, overlapping hearts on watercolor paper. Alternatively, you can dip a heart-shaped cookie cutter in paint and have your child stamp hearts onto the paper.

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Once that is dry, color the hearts in with watercolor paint. You can paint each section one color, or blend colors together.

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As you paint, name the colors with your child and practice blending colors to see what new colors you can make.

The Rainbow Snail is a brightly illustrated picture book with easy-to-read text that is great for teaching colors to toddlers and preschoolers.

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We follow the charming snail and discover all the colors of the rainbow. This book promotes vocabulary and background knowledge.

This book also encourages talking and playing as you describe the different colors of the rainbow: blue like the raindrops, green like the grass and yellow like the sun.

Extend this book by making a rocking rainbow snail

What you will need:

• paper plate
• white, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple construction paper
• scissors
• tape or glue
• black paint

1. Fold the paper plate in half.
2. Paint the plate black to match the snail in the book.
3. Cut out paper circles making the red one the biggest and purple the smallest.
4. Cut out black strips. Cut out white and black circles for the eyes.
5. Glue or tape pieces together.
6. Glue or tape the circles and the eyes on the plate.

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