Weekly Book Series: Rainforest

Quit monkeying around and check out our rainforest-themed book pick below!

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

From the publisher:

The author journeyed deep into the rain forests of Brazil to write and illustrate this gorgeous picture book about a man who exhausts himself trying to chop down a giant kapok tree. While he sleeps, the forest’s residents, including a child from the Yanomamo tribe, whisper in his ear about the importance of trees and how "all living things depend on one another" . . . and it works.

Frequent speech sounds in the book include:

• initial “gr” (e.g., great)

• initial and final /k/ (e.g., Kapok)

• medial /p/ (e.g., Kapok)

• initial “tr” (e.g., tree)

• initial “ch” (e.g., chop)

Key language concepts in the book include:

• Sequencing: order of animals that talk to the man

• Vocabulary:

• Grammar: adjectives, plural nouns, regular and irregular past tense and action verbs, point of view, negation

• Problem Solving: the animals give the man reasons not to cut down the tree

• Predicting: make some guesses - what will happen to the tree?

• Inferencing: make some guesses - how does each animal feel?

• Character Analysis: the man comes to the forest to cut down the tree, but listens to the animals’ reasoning and changes his mind

• Social/Emotional: the man considers the animals’ perspectives

Disclaimer:

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