Abby spent at least a couple of hours this weekend on our drive to Oklahoma reading "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" I read it to her a couple of times, but for the most part, she tried reading it herself.

When she reads the book, it's a mash-up of the actual words with those of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

Notice also that she flips her pronouns and says, "What do I see?" and "What do I hear?" because when we read it to her, these questions are seemingly directed at her.

For those of you unfamiliar with "Polar Bear, Polar Bear..." the repetitious words follow the pattern [animal], [animal], what do you hear? I hear a(n) [animal] [action verb] in my ear. For example, "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear? I hear a lion roaring in my ear." The order of animals are:
= The Polar Bear
= The lion who roars
= The hippopotamus who snorts
= The flamingo who flutes
= The zebra who brays
= The boa constrictor who hisses
= The elephant who trumpets
= The leopard who snarls
= The peacock who yelps
= The walrus who bellows
= The zookeeper who whistles
Finally, the zookeeper hears all the children acting and making sounds like all the previously named animals.

The following video was shot during the second reading. As the trip moved along, Abby got all the animals right on the first try, used "hear" rather than "see" consistently, and tried to add the sounds each animal made.

It was so much fun to watch and listen to her progress.


Storytime with Abby from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.


Comments (2)

On November 4, 2009 at 7:11 AM , Olya said...

Oh my gosh, that is the cutest thing. Look at her! I love how she is just lost in a book. Wombat does the same thing. They both converse with the literary works that they are reading - what more could an author wish for? It must be so rewarding to write children's books. :)

 
On November 14, 2009 at 3:42 PM , Angie said...

It is clear that you guys do a great job when you are reading to Abby by the way she points to the animals on the page after the zookeeper. She definitely seems smart and delightful!