Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat

The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat by Nurit Karlin (Barnes and Noble, 1996)

For this weeks blog I decided to let my oldest daughter pick a book for me to blog about. She had just returned from school and was excited to show me her latest "find" from the school library. Lately I have noticed that the books she chooses have become more complex in text. I have seen her gain more confidence in a reader in just the last few weeks. She is more adventurous in the amount of words that are on each page. Emma sat down and read this book to me as if she has been reading for years.

What I liked about this book was its use of rhyming words. The repetitive nature of words ending in "at" helped assist Emma in her reading. I was surprised however that the illustrations did not appear to follow the text. In fact the pictures were about two ahead of where the text was. I believe this helped Emma move past predicting what would happen next. She was confused at first because "usually the pictures help me with the words." I was happy that this book worked that way. I believe it helped Emma gain more confidence in that she was making the correct choices.

Any book that provides me with multiple teaching strategies is a keeper in my opinion. I would consider having this book as well as other rhyming books in my classroom library. The confidence that this book gives a reader is something that I want to foster in my classroom. Intended audience: Kindergarten through 2nd.

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