J is for Jungle Book: Library Notes

Rudyard Kipling wrote a book in 1894 that Walt Disney made into a classic movie in 1967,  The Jungle Book is now extremely well known by many children around the world and is a proven favourite that the child(ren) in your life are sure to enjoy.

So, other than just sit together and read the book, what else can you do to use this book to have fun together while building up literacy skills at the same time?

Read the key word.  Choose a word such as 'jungle' and every time it shows up, have your child 'read' the word. 

Each of you can choose different character parts and read out only what that character says.

"Read" by looking at the pictures and discussing what you see.  Try to guess the story events before you read the book and then try to retell the story events after reading the book.  How close were the guesses?  Do you think your ideas were even better than the actual story?

Count the animal types by reading the words or by looking at the pictures.

Here is a link to the book that I looked at online for the ideas below.... I list both pages seen on screen at once as one.           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nHwCxCaemY

p1 Note that the setting is in India. What do you know about India's climate, culture and people? 

p1.What are legends? Discuss with other examples if possible.

p1 Note the introduction of characters, the who's who of The Jungle Book.  Can you match the name to the animal?

p2 Who was Mowgli's family?  Is this a typical family?  Note different types of families and that this book calls them his family because they took him in, loved him and cared for his needs. Who are the people in your family? Can you draw a picture of them?  

p3 How old was Mowgli when Shere Khan returned to the jungle?  How do you know this?  Consider, would a tiger or a wolf win a fight?  

p4  Books have a problem to solve, a climax and a resolution.  Do you know what they are yet?

p5 Note the beauty of the jungle:  Look for adjectives and descriptive terms like 'the greenish light of the jungle morning:' and 'the high branch of a giant banyan tree'.

p6   "Just do as I do!" Baby elephant led some military drills.  You can play a game of follow the leader as well.  

p7 Bagheera the panther had been searching for Mowgli. Play the game called Manhunt which is similar to hide and seek or go on a search for a specific toy...a boy or another item of your choice.

p8  Mowgli refused to go to the man village.  Play a game of "Freeze" where the child tries to stay still while 'Bagheera' tries to find a way to make the child move.

p9 Baloo was a fun loving character who liked to play.  They cracked coconuts, peeled bananas and picked sweet, juicy pawpaws from the tree  Why not prepare a fruit salad together?  What fruits would you pick and prepare?  Have you ever eaten coconuts, bananas and/or pawpaws?  Which one was best?

p10  While it is possible that snakes and tigers would eat a man-cub, what would they prefer to eat?  Do some research to choose their meals.   You can make up a YES/NO list.  Would they eat a mouse? a log? a lizard? a pig?  a book?  a basketball?  a chicken?

p11  Monkeys swinging in a tree.  Do you remember a song about 5 little monkeys?  It is a great connection to sing this song   Maybe you can go to the park and try swinging from the monkey bars too.

p12  Bagheera and Baloo race off.  Have a race and see who can reach the destination faster.  Maybe put a doll at the finish line so the first one there can grab and rescue it.  

p12  King Louie wants man's red fire.  Using red, yellow and orange tissue paper, decorate a picture of a fire for King Louie.

p13 Mowgli was angry.  He was not afraid even when he should have been.  What kinds of things make the child in your life emotional?  Is it ever wise to be afraid? How can fear help us? How can it hurt us?

p14  There was a mighty ROAR!  Practice your roar along with Shere Khan.  What other animals sounds can you make?  Can you match the animal to the sound it makes?

p15  Mowgli approached the village and heard a girl singing and decided to follow her.  Sometimes we fight change but in reality the new plan is better than we could have imagined!  Can you think of a time when you resisted going somewhere but liked it in the end?

p16  Conclusion: Mowgli is where he belongs now. Do you like the ending to this story?  Would you change it at all?  Can you draw a picture of friends going off into the sunset or a keepsake picture of Mowgli's jungle friends? 

Hope you enjoy this book and activities such as the ones listed here.  If you do, please take the time to subscribe to/follow my blog: Lucinda's Library Notes.   Thank you!