This is a book I used to read to my kindergarten class. It must be out of print because Amazon only has collectible and used copies. In this funny story, Benjamin and Elephant fix a birthday breakfast for Benjamin's mother and you can imagine that despite their attempts NOT to wake mom, there was a lot of thumpin', bumpin, and rumpus. But Benjamin and Elephant manage to clean up everything just before Mom is ready for breakfast. The rhyming text and vivid pictures make this book enjoyable for children. This book looks hard to come by, so if you find a copy, please enjoy it! It's a funny story that I think you will read again and again.
Here are some supporting activities for this story:
- Real vs Pretend:
Compare real elephants with Elephant in this story. Make a list on chart paper or on a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast. Have children list ways that they can tell that this is FICTION and not FACT. Four and five year olds are capable of learning the difference.
- Recipes: Have children dictate a recipe that they would make for their mother or father. The children can also illustrate their recipes. And if you are interested in fundraising, you can take these "recipes" and bind them into books for the parents to purchase.
- Learn the difference between African and Asian elephants. Although there are several differences, the one that most preschoolers will remember is that African elephants have bigger ears.
- Elephant Appreciation Day is on September 22. Who knew?
- Make orange juice: In the story, Benjamin and Elephant take a messy approach to making orange juice by playing baseball with the oranges before squeezing them. But preschoolers will enjoy using a plain old plastic juicer to squeeze oranges into orange juice!
- Read Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses: And 7 Other Silly Old Rhymes, also by Nancy Patz.
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