Omerod, J. (2003). If you’re happy and you know! New York: Oxford University Press
ISBN# 978-0-19-272913-2
Book Content:
The book starts off with a happy girl who sings when she is happy, but then each animal tells her that isn’t the way to express when you are happy. Then one by one each animal, bird, or reptile shows her the correct to express happiness. Basically by the end of the book, they come to the conclusion that everyone has their own way of expressing their happiness and there is no wrong way.
Vocabulary words that children might not understand: insignificant, ridiculous, and pathetic.
Why I chose the book for 3-5 year olds:
I chose this book because it instantly grabbed my attention with the fun story line and the great, colorful illustrations. In addition to that, children would probably instantly recognize the theme of the song, because they have most likely been exposed to the original song “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands”. In other words, they would immediately see and feel the connection with the book.
Comment on the illustrations:
· How are the illustrations made? – The pictures are drawn by either pencil or pencil crayon and then the colors were filled in with paint.
· What medium was used? – The paper of the book was made from natural recycled materials in an environmentally sustainable way.
· What mood would they evoke? – The illustrations would evoke a sense of happiness and fun.
· Why would children enjoy them? – Children would enjoy the pictures because they are playful, colorful, eye catching, and easy to connect with.
· Why I was drawn to them? – I was drawn to the pictures because they were beautifully done, even in their simplicity. An additional important factor was that the pictures were easy to recreate for my presentation.
How I would build background knowledge to provoke interest for the children in the book before I presented it?
I think this book is great in its own right and it wouldn’t really require any background knowledge to provoke interest. If you look at the physical appearance of the book with its great illustrations, you’d be drawn to the book automatically, even if you weren’t able to read the words yet. However, there are some provocations I could still use to just promote curiosity prior to the reading of the book.
What provocations would I use and how I would go about using them:
· I would use the little girl’s picture from the cover of the book, put it on the felt board, and strategically place the felt board in the room somewhere that would grab their attention.
· I would make a little mobile of all the characters and hang it from the ceiling in a prominent area in the room. A good place would probably be right above the carpeted area where reading was usually done.
· I would sing the original song prior to introducing the book.
· If I had all the stuffed toys for these animals, birds, and reptiles, I could display them with the book on a carpeted area where the children could explore them.
4 ways I would present this book:
1. Read the book – For the first reading of this book, I would probably just read it in the traditional way. We’d all gather on the carpet and get up close to the book and read it. Getting up close to the book would allow the children to get close enough to view all of the wonderful illustrations. You wouldn’t need any props except for the book itself. The book isn’t very long so I wouldn’t need to chunk the book. There are many places I could stop and wonder with the children. For example, after a couple of animals, I could stop and wonder what animal was coming on the next page. Another example would be to flip the page, but not read the words and ask the children what they wondered the animal would do when it was happy. There are also a few bigger words that the children might not understand like insignificant, ridiculous, and pathetic. I could stop on these pages and have the children wonder what these words meant. I wouldn’t necessarily define the words at that moment, unless I could see that some of the children wanted an immediate answer. Lack of understanding of these words wouldn’t influence the child’s overall understanding of the book; hence, these words could be revisited at a later date.
2. CD – I would have all the children sit on the carpeted area and play the CD and then flip the pages accordingly. The CD comes with the book so it’s a great additional resource for this book. I like this idea because it will grab the children’s attention through multiple senses at the same time. They would use their hearing to listen to the sound effects and words from the CD. They would use their vision to check out the pictures and they would probably be so excited that they would use their bodies to express the characters’ movements. The only materials required for this method is the book and the CD.
3. Felt Story – 3H Craftworks did not have this book as a felt story, but the characters in the book were easy enough to make. All you would need in terms of supplies to make this felt story are felt paper in the assorted colors that the characters are and an assortment of sharpie markers to do the illustrations. I started by drawing the outline of the characters and then cut them out. Once they were cut out, I just drew the detail of the character’s bodies and faces with the sharpie markers. It took me approximately 2.5-3 hours to make the felt story. Of course, you’d also need a felt board to tell the story with. I probably wouldn’t tell this story as a felt story until the second or third reading of this book, because I’d want the children to be familiar with the story and the characters first.
4. Act out the story – I would have the children act out the story after a few readings, because by then they would be able to imitate what the characters do when they are happy. I would provide the children with a mask of the character they are imitating. There are 9 characters in the story. The things that need to be kept in mind here are to limit the story telling to 9 children or make sure there are duplicate masks for larger groups so that no children are left out. Otherwise, you could just do the reenactment in groups depending on the number of children present. To reduce the number of masks that need to be made, I would probably go with the option of limiting the number of children for the reading of the book. The materials you would need for the mask are foam paper in the appropriate colors, assorted sharpie pens, popsicle sticks, and a glue gun. The process of making these masks is much like described above to make the felt story, but you would use foam and then glue the illustration onto a popsicle stick for the children to hold.
Three possible extensions:
1. I could have the children illustrate how they express when they are happy. I would provide them with the types of materials that the book used to illustrate the characters, such as pens, pencil crayons, and paint. This extension could lead them to share their happiness method with their friends and they could work together to create their illustrations.
2. I could get the children to make their own version of this book with different characters. This extension could lead to a mini library of this book in its multiple versions as created by the children.
3. There are a couple of less familiar animals that we could further discuss such as the toucan bird and the hyena. I could find real pictures of these two in their natural habitat to create further wonder and curiosity in the children. This extension could lead to an interest in animals and their natural habitats.
No comments:
Post a Comment