Toddlers will enjoy the experience of exploring this book in a one-to-one setting. Their learning experiences are different in a one-to-one situation compared to participation in a group of peers. An obvious advantage of time with an individual child is your opportunity to respond in a more focused way to the child’s reactions and interests. React to a child’s interest in the book with words that expand the child’s understanding of the story. Some toddlers will point to the pictures that they would like you to describe. Describing the child’s actions or utterances is also helpful. Example: “Maya, you are pointing to the picture of a boa constrictor. A boa constrictor is a type of snake.” Some toddlers will look at the pictures and make the animal’s sound. Example: “Ben, you are looking at the lion and making the sound a lion makes! You are using your mouth to make the sound of a lion.”

Extra support

• Pay close attention to how a toddler wants to manage the book, and how much time a toddler wants to spend on each page. Toddlers may want to hold the book and turn the pages. Describe what you observe. Example: “You are turning the page to see which animal is next!”
• Review the animal sounds, with emphasis on how to make each sound. Example: “The polar bear hears a lion. What kind of sound does a lion make? Let’s try it together.”

Enrichment

• A toddler may enjoy chanting the repetitive phrases, such as “what do you hear?” Encourage a toddler to join you by pointing to the corresponding text and speaking slowly enough for him/her to follow along. Make this lighthearted and fun! (It is not meant to be an exercise in memorizing or reading specific words.)
• A toddler may want to talk about other animal characteristics, such as color or size. Repeat and extend a toddler’s comments. Example: “Yes, the elephant is big. The elephant has a big mouth to make sounds!”
• A toddler may enjoy spending time on the last page of the book, “guessing” which animal a pictured child is pretending to be. Offer hints as appropriate. Example: “This child is wearing a mask with a trunk. Which animal do you think he’s pretending to be?”

Most of the animal sounds made in this activity will be new to toddlers. Some toddlers will enjoy trying to make new sounds, whereas others will want to watch and listen. Acknowledging each attempt at a new sound, including sounds that seem unlike the modeled sound, will encourage greater participation in the activity. Although phonological awareness is not a goal of the activity, there may be some indirect benefit for sound awareness through children’s efforts to make different sounds.

Extra support

• Some toddlers may be excited about making animal sounds and need support to calm down at the end of the book. Read the words on the last page about the animals being quiet and falling asleep, and encourage toddlers to act the same. Example: “Let’s be very quiet like the animals and pretend to go to sleep.”

Enrichment

• Explore additional sounds some of the animals may make. Example: “In this book the leopard roars. In our other book, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear, the leopard snarls. A leopard can roar and snarl. Do you think some of the animals might make other sounds? What sounds?”
• Talk with toddlers about the pictures of each animal in their habitat. Example: “The chimpanzee is swinging from trees. Chimpanzees live in trees. I wonder if there are other animals in our book that live in trees.”

In addition to promoting language skills, this activity offers practice in taking turns. Sometimes toddlers become excited about sharing what they know. Some toddlers may want to make an animal sound repeatedly. Use a quiet voice to encourage toddlers to use indoor voices and listen to others. If the excitement level is too high, consider singing instructions to toddlers. Example: (sung to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) “Zoo animals are sitting down, sitting down, sitting down. Zoo animals are sitting down and using quiet voices.”

Extra support

• To add more physical movement to the activity, ask all toddlers to stand to make the animal sounds. Help toddlers manage their noisemaking by suggesting that an animal sound may be loud one time and quiet another time. Stand with toddlers for loud animal sounds. Bend down toward toddlers to say “Now the animals can make a sound one more time. This time we say the sound quietly.” Invite toddlers to sit down.
• Remind toddlers that “everyone will get a turn” and describe how taking turns works in this activity. You might wish to demonstrate turn taking with another adult, if possible.
• If it is too challenging for toddlers to hold an animal shape while participating in the book sharing, keep the animal shapes on your lap or on the floor in the middle of the group. Make sure each toddler has a turn to place an animal figure on the board.

Enrichment

• Encourage toddlers to say some familiar words and/or repetitive phrases in the book. Example: Point to the picture of the lion and encourage toddlers to say “Lion, lion what do you hear?”
• Some toddlers may enjoy saying the names of animals they know and making the corresponding sound.
• Talk with toddlers about why animals make sounds. In simple language, explain that animals make sounds to talk to other animals. Animals make sounds to call their babies. Animals make sounds when they play together. Some animals make sounds to tell other animals “go away.”