That's not my sister

Bently, P. (2008). That’s Not My Sister!. United Kingdom: Parragon.

ISBN 987-1-4075-0876-4

Manny and Molly are brother and sister young moose. Molly suggested playing a game of “Hide and Seek”. Manny will count to twenty while Molly hides. During his search he met many other forest animals who tried to help him find his sister. It took a while for him to finally find her. When he found her they switched roles and he ran off to hide so that she and the other animals would look for him.

This book is suitable for three to five year olds because the children would know about hide and seek. Also, the pictures are very lovely and have pretty colors. Another attractive feature is the fold out pages that children of these ages would love to open. This activity would involve the children and make them part of the story telling rather than being passive listeners.

The illustrations are mainly done in water colors and colored pencils. These techniques create a comfortable and gentle mood which would encourage the children to be drawn in and want to be interested in the story. Each animal in the story is shown to be unique characters. Their facial and body expressions could help the children know what is going on in each particular moment. I was mainly attracted to this book because of the simple and gentle illustrations. There are no sharp lines and great attention given to details.

I would show the children the book and tell them what it is about. Next I would ask them who has a sister or brother. Then I will ask them who knows what hide and seek is. Then maybe I would have them play a short game of hide and seek. After the game I would ask them what their favorite animal is. Another activity could be to bring pictures of the animals in the story, tell the children their names so the children would have a better familiarity with the characters in the book.

Four Ways to Presentation:

1)    A Felt Board Bag

n  I followed simple directions to make a portable felt board. http://mayamade.blogspot.com/2010/08/summer-camp-castle-peeps-diy-travel.html

Using small pieces of felt I cut out the animal’s shapes and also their hiding places. I will go through the story placing the characters (boy moose, girl moose, grandpa moose, hare, owl, beaver, bear and porcupine), two trees, a pile of logs, an outline of a cave, and a pile of leaves on the board.

2)    Shadow Theater

n  To create this, I will use a very thin cardboard box. I will cut out a frame. This will be my stage. Then I will decorate the outer edges to create the appearance of curtains. The next step will be to attach a piece of clear plastic to the frame, behind which the action of the story will be shown. Lastly, the characters will be cut out from heavy black paper. Each animal will have a hole into which I will insert a wooden chopstick. I will act out story moving the characters by the stick.

3)    Can Story

n  Another method of presenting the story will be to use recycled pop cans. The cans will be washed and covered with colored paper decorated with each character. I will act out the story using the cans.

4)    Hair Bands Story

n  I would use this method after at least one of the above presentations. I will make hair bands with the head of each character glued to the hair band. The children would then act out the story. Once the original story has been told they would then tell it their way.

Three Possible Extensions:

1)    Hide and Seek

n  Once they are familiar with the story one way of extending it is to have a game of “Hide and Seek”. The first step would be to show them a short video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHtQRQ3C-8M) that shows through music how the game is played. Then I would ask them who knows how to play the game. I would ask the ones who know to help the ones who don’t know. Everybody would go outside to a back yard or playground and then I would divide the children into small groups and limit both the time and the area of the game. The story would probably become very vivid in their minds.

2)    Familiar with Animals

n  Use the felt board or real pictures of animals in order for them to identify each animal in the story then they will put the felt animal on the felt board. Another activity would be to ask them to tell me and the other children about the places and things such as the pile of leaves, the cave, the pile of logs and the actions of the animals’ actions such as crying sneezing in the story book as well. At the same time, I would have pictures of the real habitats of each animal and ask them where the animals actually live; for example, does Beaver live under a pile of logs or in a pond?

3)    Coloring

n  The final extension would be to cut out the animal’s shapes and have the children color them. The animals could be whatever color the children desire. Once the shapes are colored I would give the children the ears and tails to attach with glue. They could take their animals home. 

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