Storytime Plan Theme 6
Using rhyme, rhythm, and repetition
Launch the Theme Introduce the Poster Share the poster “1, 2, 3! Repeat After Me!” Ask what it looks like the children in the poster are doing, and then invite children to play “follow the leader.” Why are the children putting their hands above their heads? What game could they be playing? Would you like to be the leader or follower in this game?
Rhymes, songs, and books with repetitive refrains help children discover patterns in words and language. Young children can hear and recognize words with similar endings, as well as identify and follow the beat in a rhythmic story. These three books use repetitive or rhyming language to show animals modeling positive relationships.
Skills Focus • Vocabulary: Rhyming Words • Comprehension: Compare & Contrast • Phonological Awareness: Identifying Rhyme • Social & Emotional: Building Relationships
TM & © Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Illustrated by Margeaux Lucas.
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Use Rhyming Words Recite a familiar nursery rhyme like “Jack and Jill.” Point out the rhyming words and explain that they rhyme because they sound the same at the end. Then invite children to help you create silly rhymes.
Let’s have fun in the _____! (sun) Is there a cat in that ______? (hat) The fish makes a _____! (wish)
Resources
Make a Rhyme Wall Invite children to “collect” rhyming words. Write each word on an index card and place the rhymes next to one another on a rhyme wall. Use the paired words to create fun rhymes or generate additional rhyming words. Play the CD Play the song “That’s What Friends Are For” from the World Sing Along CD. Invite children to sing and dance along. First Language Support • Provide translations of key words that will help children better enjoy and understand the stories. For example, for Spanish speakers: night = la noche ; sleep = dormir, el sueño ; cow = la vaca • Invite children to share rhyming words or phrases from their first language.
• Big Book: Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino • Read-Aloud: Tanka Tanka Skunk! by Steve Webb • Read-Aloud: Let’s Play in the Forest While the Wolf Is Not Around! by Claudia Rueda • Music: World Sing Along • Character Cards: Wolf & Friends • Poster: 1, 2, 3! Repeat After Me! Refer to the Program Guide for Family Time and additional activities.
1111 STORYTIME 1
After Reading Aloud Talk About It! Discuss why the llama might keep asking the other animals about their mamas. What question does the baby llama ask again and again? Why does he ask this question? How does the llama finally find his mama? How does he feel when he finds her? Pop-Up Pairs Invite children to actively listen for rhyming word pairs, raising one hand for the first rhyme and then the other hand for the second rhyme. Reread a few of the pages, stressing the last word of each sentence. Raise your hand for the first rhyming word and encourage children to do the same. Then challenge children to raise their other hand when they hear the second rhyming word. For example, raise one hand for cave and the other hand for behave . Reread Create two simple costumes to represent each animal in the story (i.e., black wings for bats, white feathers for swans, speech balloons saying “moo” for cows, whiskers for seals, pockets for kangaroos, and big ears for llamas). Invite pairs of children to dress up as each baby and mama animal pair and act out the story as you read the text. English Language Support In Is Your Mama a Llama?, the llama keeps asking the same question again and again: “Is your mama a llama?” Repeating this question is another way to have fun with language. Find a cut-out picture of a llama or a toy llama. Have children take turns holding the stuffed llama and asking the question.
In Is Your Mama a Llama?, a baby llama asks the title question to several different animals. Each animal’s rhyme- and-riddle response contributes to making the story so much fun to read again and again.
Introduce children to the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle.” Encourage them to act out some of the lyrics by miming the cat playing the fiddle or the cow jumping over the moon. Hey Diddle Diddle Hey diddle diddle. The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon. Share the Big Book Introduce Is Your Mama a Llama? Point out the llama on the cover of the big book and share that a llama is a friendly animal covered in wool. In this book, the baby llama repeats the same question again and again— until he gets the answer he wants. Listen carefully and try to predict the words that rhyme in this story. Read Interactively As you read the rhyming couplets, pause before turning each page and give children an opportunity to help the baby llama guess the rhyming animal name. Emphasize the rhymes as you read aloud. Listen for the rhyming hints that tell us about each animal’s mama. Let’s think about an animal that hangs by her feet and lives in a cave. What animal name rhymes with “that”? It’s a mother bat!
Research Connection Phonological awareness, or the ability to
distinguish the sounds of spoken language, is an important skill that prepares children for future phonics and reading success. Playing with rhymes is one way to build phonological awareness. Children progress developmentally from enjoying rhymes to recognizing rhymes to eventually producing their own rhymes.
STORYTIME 2
After Reading Aloud Talk About It! Invite children to share their thoughts about the book. Why do you think Skunk and Tanka start playing the drums? What happens next? What do the animals do when they are tired? If you could add an animal to the book, what animal would you add? Can you clap its name? Drumming Our Names Help children make and decorate their own drums, using buckets or recycled food containers. Invite each child to say his or her name, stressing the beats or syllables, as the other children tap their drums to the sounds. Help count how many beats or syllables are in each child’s name. Reread Before rereading, assign roles to children. Half the class can be skunks and half can be elephants. Ask the elephants to clap and say “Tanka” as you read the name Tanka , and ask the skunks to do the same for Skunk . You can also try rereading faster and faster (or slower and slower) as children clap and repeat. English Language Development Certain languages, such as Spanish, are syllabic by nature. When children begin to read Spanish, they focus on syllables rather than individual letters and letter combinations. Books like Tanka Tanka Skunk! will likely have a natural appeal to children whose home language is Spanish.
Tanka Tanka Skunk! is a book that is pure fun for the reader and child. It celebrates the connection between music and language, and between beats and syllables. When you say the animals’ names together, they sound like drums.
Play this “Repeat After Me” activity to help children focus on the beats or syllables they hear in words. Have them repeat each word after you and then clap the syllables with you. 1, 2, 3! Repeat After Me! 1, 2, 3, repeat after me! Apple: ap (clap) ple (clap) 1, 2, 3, repeat after me! Kitten: kit (clap) ten (clap)
Ap-ple, ap-ple; clap, clap, clap; kit-ten, kit-ten; clap, clap, clap
Guide children to recite this again in pairs. Assign one child to be the leader and another to be the repeater, and then switch.
Share the Read-Aloud Introduce Tanka Tanka Skunk! Preview the book by talking with children about the animals they see on the cover. Who is named Skunk? Who is named Tanka? What instruments are they playing? Let’s play pretend drums and drum their names: Tanka Skunk. Tanka Tanka Skunk. Read Interactively Emphasize the rhythm and the syllables in the words as you read the book aloud. Invite children to clap on each beat or syllable they hear in each animal’s name.
Research Connection Another important aspect of phonological
awareness is developing the ability to distinguish smaller and smaller units of spoken language. Children progress developmentally from hearing individual words within sentences, to individual syllables within words, and finally to individual sounds within syllables. All of this prepares them for future phonics and reading success. Playing with the “beats” within words is a wonderful way to build an awareness of syllables.
Let’s clap out the beats to the word kangaroo . Kan-ga-roo. How many claps did we do? Kangaroo has three beats or claps.
STORYTIME 3
In Let’s Play in the Forest, animal friends worry about the wolf as they play. But the wolf is busy getting dressed. This suspenseful story with a surprise ending has repeating text that allows even the youngest children to join in “reading.”
After Reading Aloud Talk About It! Invite children to talk about how the animals felt throughout the story. Why do the animals want to play in the forest while the wolf is not around? How do you think the animals felt when the wolf was busy getting dressed? Did the wolf surprise you at the end? Why? Do you think the animals will be afraid of the wolf the next time they want to play in the forest? Why or why not? Animal Welcome Help children make up a sound for each animal as they join the circle to play. Then guide children to use the story character cards to retell the story, making the sound for each animal. Support them by modeling how to welcome each animal into the circle. Talk about how it feels to receive a warm welcome to play. Reread When you reread the story, pause after the wolf finishes dressing and have children draw what else the wolf might do in the morning. Invite children to share these alternative endings. English Language Development Support ELs’ acquisition of clothing vocabulary by providing materials for children to dress a paper wolf figure as you read the story. Cut out paper underpants, undershirt, pants, T-shirt, socks, shoes, and jacket. Encourage children to repeat the name of each article of clothing as they dress the wolf. Research Connection Emergent reading involves a combination of recognizing known sight words and decoding unknown words. When young children build their experience with repeating text, they begin to automatically recognize some words. Those words become part of their sight word vocabulary, which will increase their future reading success.
Invite children to join in on the counting rhyme, “Ten in the Bed.” Ask children to identify the repeating parts of the song. Ten in the Bed There were ten in the bed, and the little one said, “Roll over, roll over!” They all rolled over and one fell out.
There were nine in the bed…. (continue counting down until...) There was one in the bed, and the little one said, “Good night!”
Share the Read-Aloud Introduce Let’s Play in the Forest Read aloud the book’s full title and ask children to consider why the animals might not want the wolf around. It seems like these animals really want to play in the forest—the letters in the speech balloon are huge, like the animals are yelling. Why do you think they don’t want the wolf around while they play? Let’s find out if they see the wolf in the forest. Read Interactively Invite children to join in as you read the two repeating sentences using two different character voices. Then ask about the wolf.
Why do you think the wolf is getting dressed? Where could the wolf be going?
Connect the Stories Display the books and talk about what is similar and different about the books.
What is the same in all three books? What is something different about each book? Which book did you like the most? Why?
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