Picture Book: Not All Animals are Blue by Beatrice Boutignon

Overview Not All Animals are Blue:  

On the left side there are five sentences.  Here is a sample:

Does she catch a lot of flies?

Watch out!  She has a black belt!

Those two do everything together.

She sees everything clearly.

She loves to sunbathe.

On the right side is a descriptive title (usually incorporating alliteration) and five pictures.  Here is a sample:   Five Frogs Floating By.   The illustrations depict the first frog with glasses, the second frog in a black belt kicking, the third frog laying out on her lily pad, the fourth two frogs peering over a lily pad, and the fifth frog is a fat one catching a fly.  The same formula is used throughout the book. 

Evaluation:

Beatrice Boutignon’s Not All Animals are Blue is a smart, educational read out loud for preschoolers.  I would suggest it for one-on-one or small group interaction because the book and illustrations are relatively small.   Though the concept is great for whole class learning if the teacher can adapt it using her own examples or with an overhead.  I love that there are numerous teaching opportunities on each two-page layout!  Do something different each time you read it. 

Teaching Opportunities: 

• Alliteration—identify the alliterative words in each title
• Parts of speech—each sentence has 1-2 words bolded, discuss the types of words—action, descriptive, or thing
• Matching—match the sentence to the picture
• Types of Sentences—declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences are used; discuss the differences using simple vocabulary (like statement and question) as well as the punctuation marks used for them
• Descriptive words—connect the descriptive words to synonyms and antonyms
• Art—instruct children to make (use die cuts, shapes, or other identical materials) two or more pictures of the same thing but slightly different; help them write a sentence to describe each one
• Animals—identify the animals on each page and connect them to their habitats or type