We love song picture books!
Music is a global experience in the brain which lends itself to be the perfect tool for building skills. Because of this global experience in the brain words taught with music are easier to remember than those taught without music. We love song picture books because the child will often learn the words to the song fairly quickly. Then as they sing along looking at the words they will start to connect what they are seeing with what they are saying.
One of our favorite books for targeting a number of skills is the book "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar." We especially love this version illustrated by Christine Schneider and published by Piggy Toes Press for the great rhymes and animals. The repetitive section "who, me?" "yes, you!" "couldn't be," "then who?" provides a wonderful opportunity for practicing conversation skills and also identifying site words. This section repeats for each page of the book, all ten cookies therefore providing many opportunities to practice.
As part of our Whole Body Learning Program we also add movements into almost all of our interventions to enhance learning and engagement. We love patting our legs during this song picture book to keep the beat and engage the motor cortex. During the repetitive "who me?" section children can pat their chest for "me" and extend arm and pointer finger for "yes you".
Lastly, this song targets counting! There are many opportunities for counting forwards and also subtracting! At the end of the book we love to count down ten to one to work on counting backwards. The raised plastic chocolate chip cookies that disappear page by page are so fun. We encourage kids to touch each cookie as they count, targeting both counting and fine motor skills.
Check out our YouTube video to see this song book in action!
If you enjoy our video please subscribe and give us a "thumbs up." Thank you!