Well, in keeping with the frog theme, my book of the week this week is "The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog" by Ana Martin Larranaga.
In this story, the Big Wide-Mouthed Frog hops off to see the world. He meets different creatures (a kangaroo, a koala, a possum, an emu, and a crocodile). He asks the same question to each animal he meets: "Who are you and what do you eat?" In the end, he meets a crocodile who, coincidentally, eats big wide-mouthed frogs and the frog quickly hops away.
I made some quick sequencing cards to accompany the book (graphics from Graphics Factory). You can use just the animals to sequence the story, or use the animals and food for a matching task. I tend to have my little guys make sentences (e.g., "Kangaroos eat grass"). You can download a copy of the sequencing cards HERE.
To accompany this book, I often do an activity that I posted about a few months ago (HERE). Essentially, I place different colored shapes inside a hula hoop (you could also use language or articulation cards) and give each student 1-2 hopping frogs (the kind you press down on and they "jump"). The students either make the frogs jump into the "pond" or toss them into the "pond," depending on motor skills.
Then they need to tell me a sentence about what happened:
- My frog landed on a blue rectangle
- My frogs hopped on a red circle and orange triangle
- The red frog landed on the blue rectangle and the green frog landed on the orange triangle.
- I got "robot" (articulation card)
What's your favorite frog-themed book/activity?
