#lo cole

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Lo Cole | The Guardian

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by Lo Cole

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Ten on a Twig by Lo Cole

Ten on a Twig by Lo Cole is a delightful, interactive concept book that helps your child learn to count backwards from 10-1.

Ten colorful birds are lined up on a twig, from largest to smallest, across graduated pages. With each turn of a page, a piece of the twig snaps off, and one of the birds falls with it. The fallen birds can be seen marching along the bottom of the pages, each carrying their piece of twig.  

Skills

Phonological Awareness - The (mostly) rhyming text helps your child develop Phonological Awareness, hearing the smaller parts in words, which will be a big help with sounding out words when learning to read.

Background Knowledge – Learning to count back from 10-1 (the first step in learning to subtract) along with the graduated sized birds (largest to smallest), help your child understand size and number relationships and can contribute to your child's background knowledge, or everything they know before learning to read. The more they know, the easier it will be to understand what they read.

Print Awareness – The repeated word “SNAP,” and the numerals, are in a large, bold font, colored to match the birds. This accentuates the word/numerals and aids with your child's print awareness,  knowing that print has meaning.

Practices

Playing  As you are reading, be sure to run your finger under the word “SNAP” every time it appears and have your child snap their fingers (or clap) and call out “snap!” with you. This involvement in the story is enjoyable for your child and helps him/her develop a love for reading.  

Writing Having your child turn the graduated pages helps to develop the muscles they will use later for writing.

Talking Talk about the pictures  -  talk about the different sizes of the birds; the way the colors of the word “SNAP” and the numerals match the colors of the birds; ask questions, such as: “Where do you think the birds are going with their pieces of twig?” and “What do you think the birds will do with the pieces of twigs?”

Make a Bird Feeder!

February is National Bird Feeding month, so extend the book further by making a super simple bird feeder! All you need is:

a pipe cleaner (chenille stem), or shoe lace

some round whole grain oat cereal. You can even add apple slices to your feeder!

Make a small loop at one end of a pipe cleaner (or tie a triple knot on the end of a shoelace) so the cereal won't fall off.

Children thread the cereal (and apple slices, if used) onto the pipe cleaner (or shoelace). Threading the cereal is another way to help develop the muscles later needed for writing!

Make a loop at the other end of the pipe cleaner (or knot at the other end of the shoelace).

Hang the feeder in a tree for your bird friends to enjoy!

Want more? Here are some simple rhymes and fingerplays we like to pair with this book:

1: Try the 5 Little Chickadees fingerplay from our friends at Skits-O-Mania.com about one of the birds that stay in Indiana all year round, the chickadee.

To begin, have your child hold up five fingers to represent the 5 chickadees, then lower one finger at a time as the birds fly away. Fingerplays are good for developing fine motor skills and the rhyming text promotes phonological awareness.

2: Listen to some counting songs found on Hoopla!  Try Numbers and Counting by Nashville Kids.

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Illustration / Lo Cole

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Erling Haaland | Lo Cole | The Guardian

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The Economist | Lo Cole

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-  Lo Cole