This book was recommended by an Early Language Specialist at a workshop I attended a few weeks ago. What a great recommendation! The book is a perfect story time choice: there is about a sentence per page and the illustrations are extremely colourful and beautiful. The story tells a simple tale about a gorilla who learns sign language and asks for a friend, and so is given a kitten to take care of. In the end, the kitten also learns sign language which saves their friendship.
When I read the book, the kids were absolutely enthralled, and I made sure they understood the ending by asking questions.
Once we had sang a few action songs, I brought out our amazingly realistic gorilla puppet, and had it act very sad.
"Why do you think the gorilla is sad?" I asked the kids.
"Because it doesn't have a friend!" they answered.
Then I took out a big canvas bag.
"What do you think I have in this bag?" I asked.
"A friend! A friend!" they replied.
Slowly, slowly, I pulled out various objects out of the bag, like a tennis ball and a shovel and a plastic snake. Very innocently, I asked the kids if they thought the various items would make a good friend for the gorilla. The kids were very adamant that they would not.
Eventually I got to the bottom of the bag. I put my hand in the bag and starting making mewing sounds.
"Do you hear that? What do you think it could be?" I asked.
"A kitten!" they all shouted.
I had the kitten walk out of the bag, and walk over to the gorilla. Then I had the kitten nudge the gorilla to get its attention. The gorilla turned to the kitten, and then gave it a huge hug.
All the kids clapped with joy.
Next I taught them two words in sign language:
friend
and cat
Another great story time!
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