Swimmy



1. **Author/Illustrator** – Author and Illustrator: Leo Lionni

2. **Title and date of publication** – __Swimmy__ Published: 1963 and renewed in 1991

3. **Genre** – Modern Fantasy

4. **Format** – Picture Book

5. **Award** – No awards listed

6. **Summary of book** – __Swimmy__ is a book about a fish that is different from all of his friends. His friends get eaten one day and he escaped. He swam the ocean taking in the sights until he found some more fish like his original friends. He teaches them to work together to swim as one so they can explore with him.

7. **Strategies to use with the book** – We start moving to circle/story like we are swimming like a fish. When all the children are in their seats, we will sing I’m a Little Fishy to the tune of I’m a Little Teapot. Lyrics: “I’m a Little Fishy Watch me swim Here is my tail Here is my fin When I want to have fun with my friends I wiggle my tail and dive right in”

After singing, I will read the book. Questions will be asked along the way to ensure comprehension of the story. After reading the story, we will match some pre-selected picture vocabulary words on the felt board (If I had a smartboard like the rest of my school, we would use that, but I do not.) In order to do our vocabulary, we sing the “Surprise Bag” song and each child pulls out a vocabulary word. They then run it through the smart talk device, it reads the word to them and then they match it to the same picture on the felt board.

Once we are finished with the Surprise Bag vocabulary, we will move to the rice table where we will dig for a fish one at a time. We will time ourselves to see how long it takes to find a fish. Then, we will all dig for a fish at the same time to show that it takes less time and we can accomplish more if we work together just as the fish in the book got to do more things when they worked together.