My good friend Brooke, a Kindergarten teacher, sent me this fantastic gift all the way from Australia. Isn’t the fluffy sheep just darling?!I have to say that “Where is the Green Sheep” has already become a firm favourite with my class. I can’t believe that I have survived without it for the last 10 years!! It’s the perfect story for the beginning of the school year for Infants or Pre-school. The repetitive lines encourage children to “read” along with teacher.
“Where is the Green Sheep” is very language rich. Children explore colour words, adjectives and opposites too. There is also some maths language such as thin/wide and up/down. We are exploring “Colour” in SESE, Visual Arts, Gaeilge and our Dolch Words/HFW. This book is just perfect for linking all of these together! It would also tick the box for Oral Language.
There are lots and lots of sheep to be found in the book:
My two favourites are the scared sheep and the near sheep. But where is the Green Sheep?!! This book will keep you in suspense until the very end! I am not going to spoil it for you ;).
I think that it is hugely important and beneficial to engage children in “Reader Response” activities. In my Literacy Scheme we explore one book per week and always complete at least one reader response activity. Each child has his/her own “Writing Journal” where I staple in any written/drawn responses to stories. Reader Response Activities tie in with the following Strands:
Emotional & Imaginative development through Language:
- draw and write stories
Developing Cognitive abilities through Language:
- draw a picture and write about it
- draw and write about everyday experience or about something just learned
For “Where is the Green Sheep” we made our own puppets. Children then engaged in role plays about following the pattern of the book ” here is a school bag sheep, here is pencil sheep…”.
I have also created the following sheet. As I teach Junior Infants I will act as the scribe one children have drawn their sheep.
I hope that you all have fun reading and responding to “Where is the Green Sheep”. We certainly did!!
Have fun,
Miss Mernagh 🙂
ps. The really cute clipart frame can be found here:http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Krista-Wallden
missmernagh.com 