I recently Zoomed into a school for my very first school reading ever! I had so much fun and I hope I’m going to get to do many more of these and soon - in person. The kids were super excited because they have Party Animals! in their class already and were familiar with the book.

I started by showing the children animal masks and asking about the sounds associated with the animals. We talked about how cats purr, dogs bark, and lions roar. We then spoke about how there's a sound (woof), that's different from the name of that sound (bark). I used this idea to draw a parallel between letter names (e.g. 'Kay") and the sounds those letters make (/k/).

Next, I asked all the kids to go around and say an animal that would go with the same sound that's in our name. It was a really illustrative exercise with the kids. I picked tiger, maybe because I was wearing stripes that day, and said "Tali - tiger" Then the kids took turns. Sam went with a snake, Denise with a dragon. Chloe said Cheetah, and this was a great opportunity to talk about how those sounds are tricky, those letters are tricky because they look the same, but they are saying two different things. A little boy named Clark talked about how his animal would be a shark, and this opened the floor for a discussion about rhyming.

From there I picked two poems and I had my virtual background up that matched the poems. The kids picked the sound that was featured in the poem. The repetitive aspect of the poems (i.e. the repetition of the animal names) made it very easy to have the kids participate. I would read the first word and they would say the second part. We discussed what happens in the poem based on the images.

There was lots of discussion, and the kids had great questions:

• How many books did you write?
• Do you have a sticker book?
• How do you make your Zoom backgrounds?
• Can you write a book called Couch Potato?

It was sooo much fun!!

I'd love to read at your kids school - either virtually or in-person for Toronto and Vaughan schools. Contact me here to learn more and book!