W is for "I Went Walking": Literary Notes

Colours, animals names and patterned speech are three things you will gain from the book, I Went Walking by Sue Williams and illustrated by Julie Vivas.

The graphics are simple, loving, sweet. I would recreate the animals by doing outlines of the cat, horse, cow, pig, duck and dog and then filling them in with water paints.  I would take these animals individually and line them up according to their appearance in the book as a part of story recall.  Then I would tap on each one, labelling the colour and name of the animals like what happens in the book.  You could include the various animal noises too for fun.

Note in the book that the artist depicted the child's interactions with very loving pictures that encourage kind relations between humans and animals.  The love and joy demonstrated show a very natural connection that creates confidence in animal care for children who read this book.

Each picture gives a clue as to which animal will come next.  You may see part of the cat's tail sticking out of the basket, for example. See if your child can guess the animal on the next page before turning to verify that they are correct. Prediction is an important literacy skill.

Numeracy is a great skill too.  For kids working on numbers, this book can help as the child counts the animals as they add up to become a parade of six animals walking her down the path.

Follow up on the story when you go walking and ask your child, "What do you see?"  Be aware of the environment as you go along and enjoy the gross motor activity as a bonus!  Seeing how stories in books carries over to life adds value to the time spent in reading.

I encourage you to enjoy stories with the children in your life AND to enjoy a variety of interactions inspired by those books with them too!  Children who read a variety of books frequently will thrive as their creativity and exposure to concepts develops with them. 

Building their literacy skills right from the start is a simple gift you can freely give and is one that gives back to you too as you watch them thrive!