Cameray and
The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table
Book of the Month: Jared’s Cool Out Space
Llama Llama Misses Mama, written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney, follows a llama who is anxious about his first day of school. The story has cute pictures and instead of kids going to a regular ‘human’ school, the story has llama students and a zebra teacher. This book has been recommended for kids aged 2 and up. Llama Llama and his mama get ready for school, but when they arrive and he has to say goodbye, he becomes sad and nervous. Llama Llama doesn’t know anybody at llama school and misses his mama. The zebra teacher and other llamas invite him to play some games and try the slide, which makes him feel better. At the end, Llama Llama realizes he not only loves his mama, but school, too!
How can parents use this book?
This book is a great way to help children (and parents) deal with the first day of school. It can be just as tough for parents to drop off their child for the first time as it is for their child to be alone with a new teacher and unfamiliar kids. Llama Llama comes to realize that his anxiety over being separated from his mama will subside after getting used to this new environment with new llamas, and kids will too. So this book can be a nice way to get the message across to your children, and they get to look at cute pictures while they’re at it.
Below are some fun and easy activities (just requires a printer and some crayons!) that kids can do to interact with characters from the story. Check out these links for some great colouring pages and connect-the-dots pictures of the story characters:
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/LlamaLlamaMissesMama-Coloring.html
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/LlamaLlamaMissesMama-DottoDotPages.html
P.S. If you like this story, there are many others in the llama series written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney, like Llama Llama Red Pajama, Llama Llama Mad at Mama, Llama Llama and the Bully Goat, and many more. You can search for these titles in Burnaby or Vancouver public libraries at:
CLICK HERE to search for this title at the Burnaby Public Library
CLICK HERE to search for this title at the Vancouver Public Library
Check out the Burnaby ECD Table website for more book recommendations and great resources for parents with children under 6!
