Reading Together

Storybook Guide Based on Sara Levine’s “The Animals Would Not Sleep!”

Explore math while reading and talking about this storybook.

Topic:

Activity Summary

Use this storybook guide with the book “The Animals Would Not Sleep!”
Many public libraries have this book. This is a Mathical Award winner book.

Reading guide

About the Story

Marco wants to get his (toy) animals ready for bedtime. He begins by sorting them into three separate baskets, for Flying, Swimming, and Land Animals. But the animals refuse to go to sleep. They jump out and run wildly around the room. What to do? Marco likes to come up with new ideas like a “good scientist,” so he decides on a different way to sort. But that doesn’t work either! How does Marco group the animals to get them to sleep?

Words to Learn

MATH WORDS
sort, scientist, organized, appropriate, group, medium-sized, thinking outside the box

OTHER WORDS
ruckus, container, menagerie, cramped, cooperating

ABOUT THE MATH

As Marco sorts (classifies) the animals, your child can learn to:

  • Put objects into groups according to rules like size: big here, small there.
  • Use different rules to sort the same objects into different groups (for example, placing a flamingo into one group because it flies and into another because it is pink).
  • Make the rules very clear by describing them in words.
  • Think like a scientist, trying out different rules for classifying objects.

Math Talk During Reading

  • HOW THE ANIMALS WERE SORTED
    “Why are these animals in this basket? What’s the rule?”
  • HOW THE SAME ANIMALS CAN BE SORTED IN DIFFERENT BASKETS
    “Giraffe and dinosaur were both in the Animals That Move on Land basket. But now they are in different baskets. Why?”
  • SIZES OF ANIMALS
    “Why were the animals in the large basket unhappy?”
  • THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST
    “What does it mean to think outside the box?” (If one solution doesn’t work, you have to think of a new, different approach.)

Try to come up with some of your own questions and comments, too!

Activity After Reading

  • SORT THE LAUNDRY INTO CATEGORIES
    The category of size could involve small (socks), medium (underwear),and large (shirts) items.Ask your child to decide on a new way to sort and to explain their rules for how to doit.
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