Jump!, by Scott M. Fischer, is fun any time of year, but we see it as a great choice for the beginning of school, when we all have to get used to getting up and getting going again.
The book shows one creature after another sleeping or going about its business and then being startled by a larger animal. The story is a simple rhyme (hear it in the video below) and the pictures are exuberant. Compare this book with The Pig in the Pond by Martin Waddell.
Read the book aloud. Here the author shows shows how it’s done:
[youtube 54n5QN01PcE]Fischer’s YouTube channel has lots more videos to go with Jump. Project them for the class as you’re working with the book.
Once you’ve enjoyed the book thoroughly, use it to study some basic concepts. Here are some fun things to think about with this book:
- Rhyming The entire book is filled with simple rhymes: bug, snug, jug; frog, bog, log; and so on till the end. You can’t beat it for a book to work on rhymes or word families. Make word cards for bug, frog, cat, hound, croc, shark, and whale. Put each word card at the top of your pocket chart with a row of empty cards below. Begin by finding the rhyming words in Jump! and then add more words the class thinks of till all the rows have been filled.
- Animal LocomotionAnimals jump in many different ways, and this book is a fun starting point for a science lesson with observation of animal locomotion. Watch real animals or films of animals to see the way they jump, and then describe and compare the movements:
- Descriptions Each animal is introduced with a description, but the descriptions vary. Some tell what the animal looks like (“a round little hound”) and some tell where the animal is (“a frog in a bog”), and there are some other approaches, too. Make a chart with question words down the side and the animal names across the top. Fill in the information in the words of the book. Add information from the pictures (don’t miss the last picture for locations), and then see if you can fill in the empty sections with logic or imagination.
- Size The animals are listed in order of size. Have students write the names of the animals on index cards (or draw them if they’re not ready to write) and put them in order by size. They can glue them onto a sheet of paper in size order once they’ve finished.
