This book was a joy to read and told a lovely tale about two different animals who's paths happened to cross one day.
I found this book lent itself well to teaching and exploring the following grammatical terms; adjectives, expanded noun phrases, verbs and prepositions. The way the author incorporates these terms into the book is really effective and at the same time simple. This means that children may find it easier to identify the terms and then try them out in their own writing.
What techniques can be seen in the pictures?
Some of the illustrations are drawn from the perspective/ view point of each animal which was really interesting to observe because at times it seemed as if the author was comparing the lives and features of the two different animals. I liked how some of the pictures are drawn from different perspectives, for example, on one page the picture is focused from above the bear and wolfs heads showing them gazing down into the water at the fish and on the next page it illustrates what it would look like from the fish perspective and what the animals are looking at. This would be a great way of demonstrating different view points and angles which could encourage the use of positional vocabulary. This would give them a bank of ideas and terminology which could be used when producing their own writing and the children could use the book for inspiration. Another technique used throughout the book was mirroring. I found this worked really well because as a reader it illustrated the potential similarities and differences between the animals which added to the message of the story.
How do the pictures and words work together?
As well as the illustrations the text is also repeated/mirrored which adds to the effect. Furthermore, underneath the picture of the bear is a sentnce about what the bear can see and similarly for the wolf which brings the words and pictures together to clarify what is happening.
What is also interesting about this book is that some pages give the reader the chance to use their imagination to visualise the words on the page,this is later confirmed as you turn the page to reveal what the author was describing. I like how the start and end of the story are similar in their sentence structure as this provokes conversations about why the author has chosen to do this and the effect it has on the reader. Also, it is an effective writers trick which could be discussed and displayed somewhere for the children to use in their own writing.
The book included some repetitiveness which made it easier to read and follow along, this would be a great way for teaching vocabulary to recepetion and year one children because they could join in with parts of the story telling and pick up words which they may not have heard of or used before.
This book also lends itself well to learning about seasons and habitats (hibernation, food chains, winter/summer).
Overall, a great read!