This isn’t the first time I’ve posted about this book: Down by the Station, by Will Hillenbrand. I wrote briefly about it in reference to a student who has a very strong connection to this particular story, so I thought I’d expand on that today.
I like this book because there are so many opportunities to work on specific objectives, including identifying colors and animals, memory skills, and producing sounds. And of course, it’s fun! I’m currently using it with a small group of kids ranging in age from 1-5, and they all love it. It’s funny to listen to my students imitate the animal sounds – theirs are usually much better than mine! One way to adapt this activity is to have your students come up with additional animals and corresponding sounds…the creativity I see never ceases to amaze me.
I remember reading the post about the student who was fond of two particular books. That post actually caused me to want to go and borrow those books for my own child. We are quite fond of silly monkeys and monkey business in our house so I hoped to find “Eight Silly Monkeys” but wasn’t able to find that book. I did, however, find and borrow “Down By the Station” and we just got it yesterday so when I clicked on your website and saw the book mentioned again and then saw that you wrote a song for it…well, I was super excited. I think your version of the song is very cool and a groovin tune and I can’t wait to play it for Matthew and show him the book on Wednesday.
You are super talented and full of one exciting song after another that is geared toward helping a child learn with catchy lyrics and music.
Love the song…*clicks the play button again*
Why thank you, Sandie! Isn't it a cute book? It inspired me to do something a little bit with the song, and I was really happy with how it turned out. Let me know what Matthew thinks :)
Here is a link to the book "Eight Silly Monkeys" on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Silly-Monkeys-Steven-Haskamp/dp/1581175779/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241611107&sr=8-1
A little pricey for a children's book, but I have been using mine for over three years now and it's still going strong.
Rachel, Thank you for the link to the “Eight Silly Monkeys” book. It is a book that I am definitely still interested in seeing and exploring.
As for Matthew and the “Down By The Station” book and your jazzy song we listened to the song together today as we turned the pages of the book. Matthew REALLY enjoys hearing all the sounds…”puff puff, toot toot, thrump thrump, peep peep” It’s great!