Book Review: Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

http://www.google.com/


****Here is a link to the author drawing the Gingerbread Baby and reading the story too!****
http://www.janbrettvideos.com/gingerbread_baby_low_bandwidth.htm

The Gingerbread Baby is a great story to read to young children.  Jan Brett does a wonderful job with the illustrations in her stories.  Her stories show the main illustration to match the text, but she also uses the borders of the stories to predict what will happen next in the story.

Having children predict what will happen next helps children increase their comprehension, or understanding of the story.

So, make sure you discuss with your children what is going on in the borders of the pages before turning the pages to continue reading the story.  

Extension Activities:

1.  Bake Gingerbread cookies or make them out of construction paper and have the children decorate them.  Printable gingerbread babies

2.  Retell the story using paper puppets as props.

3.  Watch the video of Jan Brett drawing and reading the story.
4.  Make Gingerbread Baby houses using graham crackers.

There are many other great books by Jan Brett to include:

The Mitten

The Hat

The Three Snow Bears

Gingerbread Friends

Town Mouse Country Mouse

The Three Little Dassies

Learning Letters: Alphabet Books

http://www.amazon.com/

Reading ABC books to your child is one of the best ways to your child learn the letters of the alphabet.  As you read each page, talk about the items on the page that begin with the letter.  Point to the letters and ask your child to say the letter and later add "a is for __(item on the page)__", b is for _____".  Your child will be say words that begin with the letter after reading favorite ABC books over and over again and talking about things that begin with the letter.

Your child will often become interested in letters and things that begin with that letter.  They may ask you, "What does dog begin with?"  A great response is "dog begins with d and the d says d (d sound) like in dog."

Other good ABC books include:

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.google.com/

http://www.google.com/

Phonemic Awareness: Nursery Rhymes

http://www.amazon.com/

Nursery Rhymes are still a wonderful way to introduce your child to rhythm and rhyme in a playful way.  Reading and rereading classic nursery rhymes helps your child to learn the rhymes so they can recite them on their own.  You then use them as a teaching tool to help your child learn phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear sounds in words.

Nursery Rhyme: Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill 

went up the hill

to fetch a pail of water

Jack fell down and broke his crown

and Jill came tumbling after.

1.  You can draw attention to words that begin with the same sound.
Jack and Jill have the same beginning sound.

2.  You can talk about how Jill and hill sound alike and are called rhyming words.  You can then ask the child if other words also sound like Jill and hill...(for example: Bill, fill, cat)
Bill sounds like Jill and hill.
Fill sounds like Jill and hill and Bill.
Cat does not sound like Jill and hill and Bill.

3.  You can also build vocabulary by talking about the words: fetch, crown and tumbling.

Find more Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes at: http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/index.asp

Book Review & Activities: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See

http://www.education.wisc.edu

Bill Martin, the author of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?", is one of my favorite children's authors because he does a great job with rhythm and rhyme.  The story is also predictable, where children learn what to expect on the next page.  They will often want to peek at the next page to see what is coming next.  Predictable books also encourage the child to participate in the reading of the story.

Your child may even try to read the book to you or read it on their own by memorizing the text they heard from reading the story over and over.  This is one of beginning stages of reading and should be encouraged.  Later, the child will begin to realize that the same word in one book is the same letters/word in another book.

Below is a link to a website with papers you can print at home to make puppets or flannel story pieces.  Encourage your child to use the puppets to retell the story in their own words.  This helps them build comprehension and show how well they understand the story.  After many readings, your child will do a great job using the puppets to act out the story.  Also, encourage them to use the book if they get stuck. The goal here is to have fun and play with language!

Link:  http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/brownbear/index.htm



There are many stories in this series which include:

Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?

Phonemic Awareness Activity: Alliteration

Alliteration is where all or most of the words in a sentence begin with the same letter.  Making silly alliteration sentences to read with your child is a fun activity to reinforce phonemic awareness, or the ability to hear sounds in words.  It also helps your child to learn upper and lower case letters as well.

Examples of Alliteration are:

Sentences:

The baby bear brought blankets and balloons to the ball.

Mary might mix marshmallows in the muffin mix.

Willy went to the water to watch a walrus.

Phrases:

Billy's brown balloon

Lara's lemon lollipop

 purple painted pansey


Steps:

1.  Write an alliteration sentence or phrase.

2.  Read the sentences or phrase a few times with your child.

3.  Ask you child to circle the repeating letter in each word that begins with that letter.

4.  Read just the words that begin with the repeating letter.

5.  Encourage your child to repeat the words and then the letter sound that the words begin with.

6.  Next, reread the silly sentence or phrase.

7.  Finally, have your child write the letter (repeated in the different words) and have your child draw a picture to match the silly sentence or phrase.

8.  Save these to make a book of silly sentences or phrases to reread in the future to practice letters and sounds.  Having your child draw the illustration will give him ownership with the book.

Story Extenders: More Puppet Ideas: Printable Puppets

http://www.google.com/

Another way to make puppets to extend stories is find the characters in the stories online, in coloring books, or use your copier to make copies of the characters (in color).   When searching online, search for (insert book title characters printables)  and you will be surprised what you find as teacher resources that are free.

Have your child color the puppet characters and cut them out.  Then attach them to popsicle sticks using white glue or strong tape.

Reread the story and ask your child to hold up the character when the story is about that character.  Later, encourage your child to retell the story using just the puppets.

Again, this will help your child to build comprehension skills.  You will notice they remember more about the story each time they interact with the story.

Here is one site I found with printables for good books for emergent readers:   http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets.html#SharedReadingBooklets

It's just like an adult seeing a movie or reading a book more than once.  We see or remember things we missed the first time.

Extending a Story: Paper Bag Puppets

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There are many ways you can extend a story with another activity other than reading the story a second time.

Children love to play and acting out a story is a fun way to play and build comprehension skills at the same time.

You and your child can make paper bag puppets using lunch bags, construction paper, googly eyes, feathers, and any other craft supplies you can find in your home.  You can also purchase inexpensive supplies at the Dollar Tree or your local craft stores.

Talk to your child about the different characters in the story and make puppets for some or all of the characters.  Then, reread the story and you and your child can hold up the puppets when they are in the story.

Later, encourage your child to tell the story with just the puppets.  This is where you can see how much your child comprehends or remembers what was in the story.  This is a skill children need to learn to become good readers.

Have fun and enjoy!