I Went Walking is based on the rhythm of Bill Martin’s Jr.’s ever popular Brown Bear, Brown Bear. So much so that one of the little ones I was reading to looked confused and said to me, “They have the wrong animals and pictures, but I have that book.” She immediately recognized the familiar sound of the rhythm of the words but couldn’t quite figure out why I was changing her beloved book. I tried to reassure her that yes it sounds like Brown Bear, but that it is a different book. I don’t think she bought it; hopefully in time she’ll realize in this case Sue Williams’ “language borrowing” is really a very sincere form of flattery.
As an activity, we provide the children with animal cut outs that match the animals in the story. It takes good hand-eye coordination for them to string each of the six animals onto the string. We then tie it off and each child has a retelling necklace to take home. We encourage the children to “name” the animals as they are called in the book, red cow, black cat, brown horse, green duck, pink pig and yellow dog. It is a great way to check for color recognition.
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