Reading Group Guide
The Dog and Bear books by Laura Vaccaro Seeger are great read-aloud, read-along, and read-with-a-friend books. They also provide a good basis for a program to help children develop early literacy skills.
Each book in the series includes three stories. Select a story from each book for the program. This will give children a good sense of each book. Encourage burgeoning readers to take home the titles to enjoy in their entirety at home.
By reading aloud to the children from the books, you will help explore early literacy skills such as print motivation (the enjoyment of books), print awareness (rules such as text flows from top-to-bottom and left-to-right), and vocabulary (children will recognize many items in Dog and Bear's world from their own experience, but some words may need an explanation).
The activities, which include songs, recipes, and word play, will aid in the development of narrative skills, letter knowledge, and phonological awareness.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Vaccaro Seeger is the New York Times bestselling author/illustrator of the Dog and Bear series and recipient of a Caldecott Honor and a Geisel Honor for First the Egg. In addition, she received a Geisel Honor for One Boy.
Singing with children helps develop their language skills, in particular, phonological awareness. When we sing, we enunciate the words clearly, emphasizing the syllables, the rhythm of the language becomes self-evident, and it is easier to identify rhyming words. have fun with these two songs:
Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone
Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?
Oh where, oh where can he be?
With his ears cut short and his tail cut long,
Oh where, oh where can he be?
Six Little Dogs
Six little dogs that I once knew,
Fat ones, skinny ones, fair ones too.
But the one little dog with the brown curly fur,
He led the others with a grr, grr, grr.
Grr, grr, grr.
Grr, grr, grr.
He led the others with a grr, grr, Grr!
This is an easy activity for kids and it helps them develop letter awareness: as they work with the Alpha-Bits letters, ask them to identify them. Ask them to spell Dog and Bear and other words that appear in the stories: Bone, Toy, etc.
Alphabet Necklace or Bracelet
Easy activity for kids to do on their own at the end of the event.
INGREDIENTS:
1. Licorice—long for necklace or short for bracelet
2. Alphabet cereal
DIRECTIONS:
1. Make one knot in one end of the licorice.
2. Kids string cereal on to the licorice.
3. Tie the two ends of the licorice together.
4. Wear and eat!
Cupcakes
Bake cupcakes ahead of time and let kids decorate at the end of story time.
INGREDIENTS:
1. Flat bottom ice cream cones
2. yellow cake mix
3. Vanilla and chocolate canned frosting
DIRECTIONS:
1. Fill each ice cream cone with cake mix.
2. Place cones in a muffin pan. Bake at 300 degrees until golden or cake bounces back when touched.
3. Remove from oven and let cool.
4. Supply frosting and let kids decorate their cakes as they add their own toppings such as sprinkles,
m&ms, candies, coconut, etc.
