What Shall We Do With The Boo-Hoo Baby? by Cressida Cowell and illustrated by Ingrid Godon is a simple and amusing story of a duck, cat, dog, and cow who try to help a very unhappy baby. Each animal and the baby make their "noises" repeatedly during the story, giving even young children the opportunity to participate. The repetition helps children to anticipate what's coming next - developing their narrative skills, an important part of early literacy. Parents and older children will find some fun things in the illustrations in this book if they look carefully. Why not have a storytime with other baby books? For preschoolers, try these books:
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury (also featuring repetition)
Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers (sweet rhyming text about love for babies)
Me Baby, You Baby by Ashley Wolff (bouncy rhyming tale of going to the zoo)
Mr. Bear Says: Are You There, Baby Bear? by Debi Gliori (a lift-the-flap book)
For older kids, try The Day the Babies Crawled Away by Peggy Rathmann or Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes.
For activities, bring out the baby things you have stored away (bottles, booties, blankets, etc.) and talk about how they're used and why babies need them. Act out talking care of doll babies - use ideas from the books you read. Color pictures of babies or make a collage of babies and baby things using pictures from magazines or ads (look for ads from big box stores or Babies R Us). And, learn this fingerplay:
This is Baby ready for a nap. (hold out finger that represents a baby)
Lay Baby down in a loving lap. (place the finger on child’s palm)
Cover Baby so he won’t peep. (child closes hand over the finger)
Rock Baby till he’s fast asleep (child rocks the finger back and forth in his/her hand)
What are your favorite baby books?
No comments:
Post a Comment