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The Hare and the Tortoise | Reading Aloud | Teach Literacy & Life Lessons with Children's Literature




Reading time should be enjoyable  with follow up activities that are easy for the beginning reader to show understanding of the story and the message 
the author conveys.

**Teacher Idea:** Leave this book companion and book for your Substitute teacher for an engaging and worthwhile reading experience for your students. And NO PREP for you!

by Brian Wildsmith
on my youtube channel. 



Favorite stories, such as The Hare and The Tortoise, invites you to be creative with your voice when reading aloud. 

Some suggestions that will enhance the read aloud are:

    •  Change your voice for the different characters speaking.  Hare might have a high, fast voice and tortoise might have a low, slow voice.  In this way, children will gain further understanding to each of the characters in this entertaining story. 
    • When the tortoise trudges up the hill, you may even read with slower, tired voice.  When hare is sleeping, you might do a small and faint snore. 
    • Vary your tone when reading, use a worrisome tone when hare realizes he, in fact, will lose the race.  Use an excited voice when tortoise crosses the finish line. Vary your tone, further.  For sad parts, talk in a lower tone. For happy parts, talk in an excited tone!

Be sure to share the beautiful illustrations when reading picture books.  

Gathering the audience around you is a great strategy to invite your listeners closer.

  • Read and share.  Hold the book, pictures toward the reader, read the page and then show the listeners the illustration.
  • Read and show.  Show an opened book to listeners inviting them to see the illustrations as you are reading. 
Both ways are good ways when reading aloud.  You may alternate these two ways and always be mindful of your audience.  During a read and show, small children see the illustrations when hearing the words to understand fully the text.  During a read and share, showing illustrations after, children are fine tuning their listening skills as they rely solely on the words to gain understanding.   Also try both methods with the same read aloud, alternating sharing illustrations while reading and sharing illustrations after the page has been read. 

After reading this classic, your students can talk, draw and write about the book,  

The Hare and the Tortoise, by Brian Wildsmith.    Students will answer comprehension questions about the book, complete word work, color and write and learn new vocabulary. This teaching resource makes it very easy to diversify instruction. There are pages to color and write, pages to practice phonics skills as well as pages to accommodate more writing to show understanding, comprehension and evaluation of the story. 

This book companion includes:   comprehension questions, character traits, story elements, responding to events in the story, word work, rhyming words and phonics, roll and read and cut and paste, color and write, draw and write, lessons from the story, before, during and after questions for your read aloud and teacher notes for class discussions.

There are many pages to choose from; however, sometimes a good book talk is all that is needed to teach valuable reading strategies and listening skills.



 One good book leads to another!  
Happy Reading!