In Front of My House

Book: In front of my house

Author & Illustrator: Marianne

Dubuc, M. (2010). In front of my house. Toronto, ON, Canada: Kids Can Press.

ISBN: 978-1-55453-641-2

In front of my house is circular story about a child using their imaginations. Its starts and ends in front of a child’s house, in the duration of the book the child imagination takes the reader from outer space to the sea. This story of a child’s imagination, can help you to see that imaginative play can be used in any place during your daily routines, and can take you all over the world while just sitting in your front yard.

I would choose this book for 3-5 year olds because there are many extensions you can do with this book by just going outside your house or daycare. Also it’s a great was to introduce creative play.

The illustrations in this book are beautifully simple, they are drawn with pencil crayon. I think children would like them because they are very colorful and exciting. I was drawn to the illustrations for the simplicity and child like drawings.

For provocations I would talk with the children a few days previous to reading the book asking them what sort of things they see when they look out their windows from the class room. Perhaps I would get a few pairs of binoculars and get them each takes turns looking out the windows to see what interest them.

 The first way I would present this book is using a felt board , I am going copy the pictures from the book either scan or draw them out myself and laminated them.   I am going to make a felt board at home.  This is a book where I can stop and wonder at almost any place, I think I may stop and wonder when its says “in the dark” on page 48.  I will ask the children what they think will be in the dark.

The second way I was going to present the book is going to be using a clothes line and hanging different pictures from the book on the clothes line while telling the story. For the clothes line I’m going to use a long piece of string and either use two tables to tie  on each end or I might even tape it to the white board in the classroom. I am going to copy the pictures from the book either scan or draw them out myself.

The third way I am going to present this story is singing a song about the story. I am going to use my guitar either use a piggyback song or make my own tune. I might stop in parts of the song and ask the children to fill in the blanks to what they think might be coming next, and perhaps that will change the story a little bit as well. This was they are involved a little more even if they don’t know the story.

The forth way I am going to present the book was doing story yoga. I was going to first read the book to the children and then show them some yoga moves using objects from the book, then perhaps ask some of the students if they have any poses they might want to make up for some of the things in the book.

The first extension from this book may be to go on a walk with the students and get them to list all the things they see around them, and then get them to wonder what may be beyond what they see. By making them wonder it can take them into the imaginative play part that the book takes us into.

The second extension I was thinking would be to get the children to make their own book about the things that they saw from their walk. I would make 4 or 8 pages booklets for each child and they could draw what they see in their surroundings. Then we could all share with each other and see if any of us see the same things even though we live in different areas.

The third extension that came to mind was after the walk and the making of the books we could use the tune that I used for my song about the book and get the children to use their books to make their own songs.