July Preschool Literature

Tumble Bumble: Literature Activities

This month in our kindergarten readiness time, we are reading Tumble Bumble by Felicia Bond. In this book, a tiny bug goes for a walk, but it’s no ordinary stroll. He bumps into a cat, then a crocodile, and even a baby pig. In this charming cumulative tale, the children will go on a rhythmic adventure that counts new friends up to ten.

Intro to book (predicting)
Before opening the book, the teacher will tell the children the title and the name of the author. She will ask the children what they think the words “tumble bumble” mean. The teacher will ask the children to predict what will happen in the story. She will ask the children to look closely at the picture on the cover. She will ask the children who they think the boy is. She will ask them to tell her what animals they recognize through the window. How many are there? What do they seem to be doing? The teacher will record predictions, and use the child’s initials to show who said what. The group will then turn through the pages, without reading them. The teacher will ask if the children have any new predictions.

What do you think? (classifying/feelings)
The group will read the book together. At the title page, the teacher will ask what they think the little bug is doing. Where do they think it is going? Do they think it is lost? She will ask the children if they have ever thought they were lost and how did they feel.

As they continue through the book, the teacher will ask the children if they think they would like to join the bee on his walk. Do they think they would like to be the boy who finds the animals in his bed?

Families (social)
The teacher will ask the children where they think the boy’s mother and father are. Do they think he has brothers or sisters? If so, where are they? The group will discuss each child’s living arrangements, noting diversity, accepting every configuration.

The teacher will talk about the different ways that the animals in the book help people in real life. For example: bug: eats other bugs that harm crops or homes; cat: keeps homes free of rats & mice; bee: pollinates flowers, fruits & vegetables, makes honey; spider: eats grasshoppers that harm crops. The teacher will discuss the importance of respecting the animals’ natural habitats and not destroying their homes.

Links (Counting)
As the teacher reads the book, she will link plastic links together each time she comes to a different animal. The group will count the links each time one is added and at the end of the story.

Talking about animals (classifying animals)
The group will read the book together. The teacher will ask the children what animals are in the zoo, in their neighborhood, in their home, or elsewhere. She will write the responses. The group will then look at the animals in the story. Each child will tell the group what animals they like and why. The group will talk about what those animals do in the story.

Animals as pets (classifying/animal habitats)
As the group looks through the book, the teacher will have the children look at the animal on each page and ask if someone gave them that animal for a pet, would they keep it. What would they feed it? What would they want to do with the animal? After going through the whole book, the teacher will have each child pick the one animal that they would like to have as their pet.

Discovering How Animals Move
The teacher will reread the book to discover words that describe how each animal moves. When she comes to a sentence with words describing movement, such as: bumped/jig/ bounced/zigging/zagging/tippy-toeing and tumble bumble, she will encourage the children to call it out loudly.

Talking with Children (Observing)
The teacher will reread the book and ask the children to describe what is happening in each picture. She will ask questions such as:
In each picture, which animals are bigger? Which are smaller?
How do the animals look when they are dancing? How do they look when they are eating?
Which animals are the same colors or nearly the same color?
Which pictures are your favorites? Why?
Which two animals were the first to meet?
Why did the baby pig squeal loudly?
What did the animals do inside the house?
How many friends were there in all? Can you name them? (10: bug/cat/crocodile/ bee/pig/toad/mouse/spider/bear/boy)

Focusing on Fun
The teacher will ask children if they think it is fun to have a pet. She will ask them what type of fun children can have with an animal. The teacher will encourage them to share about the fun that they have had with pets.

Alphabet Soup (letter recognition)
The teacher will spread out foam letters in the middle of the circle. She will explain to the group that it’s soup…alphabet soup. She will write a word from the story, name it and each letter in it. The children will take turns finding each letter.

Phonics (Rhyme time)(Listening)
The teacher will ask the children to help her find the rhyming words in the story by naming them as she rereads the story. The teacher will write each pair of rhyming words (e.g. walk/talk, while/crocodile. Next, she will have the children fill in the rhymes by leaving off the last word of the sentence and letting the children fill it in (e.g. …tiny bug went for a walk. He met a cat and stopped to ______.).

Feelings
The teacher will ask the children how they think the boy felt when he found all of those animals in his bed. Do they think the story is real or pretend? If they came home and found an animal in their bed, which animal would they want it to be? The teacher will chart “If I found an animal in my bed, I would want it to be a _____.”

Who said it (listening)
The teacher will record the children reading the story, having each child read a page. The group will then listen to the recording and guess who said it.

Language Arts: Crocodile song
The teacher will read the section of the book when the crocodile sings a song to the pig. She will ask the children to write a song that the crocodile might sing to the baby pig. They may take a popular tune such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, and write new words to it. The song might tell how sorry the crocodile is for stepping on the pig’s tail. Later, the teacher will invite some of the children to perform their songs for others.

Language Arts: Bug and Cat Chat
The book reads that the tiny bug stopped to talk to a cat, but it does not tell what they said to one another. The teacher will invite the children to create a conversation for the bug and the cat.

Animals (science)
The teacher will list the types of animals in the story. She will explain that scientists group animals in special ways (cats and bears are mammals, toads are amphibians). She will make a chart showing mammals (cat/pig/mouse/bear/human), insects (bug/bee), reptiles (crocodile), and amphibians (frog).

My favorite part is (recall)
The group will read through the story together. The teacher will have each child open their book to their favorite page. She will ask them to tell her why it is their favorite. In the middle of the month, she will have them tell her what it says on that page.