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.
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