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The Animal Boogie

Debbie Harter
Barefoot Books          
Age 0-3 years

Set in an Indian rainforest, Animal Boogie is a colourful picturebook with a tuneful rhyme which you can read aloud to your child, sing together and even dance! There is lots to talk about in the colourful illustrations, including playing spot the animals hiding in the jungle.

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Share the story

Read aloud, read again and join in
Read or sing the rhyme to your child. Children will enjoy hearing it more than once, lots of times in fact! The more often you share the book, the more familiar children will become with the words in the rhyme; you can encourage them to join in as you read or sing. As they become familiar with the book children will notice more in the illustrations too. Once you both know the rhyme well you can have fun saying it together even at times when you don’t have the book, for example at bathtime or during a car journey.

Watch and sing along

 

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Talk about the book

  • Talk about the pictures, what can children see? Can they spot the bear, monkey, elephant and other creatures hiding in the jungle?

  • Talk about the names for all the different animals

  • What sounds would you hear in the jungle? For example the ‘tap, tap’ of the woodpecker, ‘buzz, buzz’ of the bees. You could make these sounds together.

Emma tells us about sharing The Animal Boogie with her one year old son.
‘Noah (age 1) loves The Animal Boogie. It’s great for this age group with lots of rhyme and repetition. Of course the attention span of one year olds is pretty short so he’ll listen for a bit, crawl off and then come back and join in again. He particularly enjoyed jumping up and down and listening to the story read with puppets. We have sung the words too while playing with animal figures. It is a great book for beginning to learn the names of different animals. He also likes joining in by playing with toy instruments to have his own ‘Animal Boogie’.’ 

Things to make and do

Sing and dance the animal boogie
Look at the double page spread at the back of the book together and then have a go at dancing an animal boogie, you can copy the actions in the book or make up your own: shaking like a bear, stomping like an elephant, swaying like a parrot. This is more fun if you do it together!

Tell the story with masks or puppets
You could use animal puppets or soft toys to sing and dance the animal boogie too.

Find out more

Read another book by Debbie Harter titles include: Walking through the Jungle

Buy The Animal Boogie here