Good Night, Gorilla: A Teacher's Review

Good Night, Gorilla - Activities, Lesson, Plans, Teaching Ideas

 

Good Night, Gorilla is, without a doubt, the most requested readaloud at my preschool. Besides "good night," there are only ten other words in the book, but that belies the richness of the conversations and the possibilities for learning that the book provides. Every time I read this with the children, they discover something new, and new questions arise. Among the many wonderful surprises in Good Night, Gorilla are the pictorial nods to other standards of early childhood like Curious George, Babar, and Sesame Street.

"Good Night, Gorilla" could be the first book your child "reads"

The pictures in this book are bright and simple, yet extremely detailed on a closer look. Children want to see it over and over. Because they see it so many times and the few words are either repeated over and over ("good night") or have strong visual cues (names of animals), before long children as young as two or three can "read" this book. Being able to read a whole book instills confidence and an appetite for reading.

Good Night, Gorilla Video - A teaser of the Scholastic production

"I wanted to teach sign language to gorillas, but after taking a class in signing, I realized what I'd rather do was draw pictures of gorillas." --Author Peggy Rathmann

Good Night, Gorilla Activities, Lesson Plans, and Projects - Resources for parents and teachers

There are tons of projects, lesson plans, and activities that relate to Good Night, Gorilla. I've curated some of the best ideas from the web to help you get the creative juices flowing.

• Good Night, Gorilla - unit study
  Homeschoolshare.com has a great cross-curricular unit study on Good Night, Gorilla. Topics covered include counting, colors, close observation, baby animal names, drama, and a snack idea (banana dippers). Be sure to check out their excellent printabl
• Good Night, Gorilla - preschool printable activities and crafts
  First-school.ws provides ideas for several activities such as sequencing and vocabulary work, dramatic play, and a snack (ants on a banana bus). Particularly valuable are the printable Good Night, Gorilla finger puppets in color or black and white.
• Good Night, Gorilla - guided discussion and vocabulary work
  This is a pdf with several guided conversation ideas and a big list of vocabulary words that you may want to introduce or practice.

Pair "Good Night, Gorilla" with "Little Gorilla" by Ruth Bornstein for more gorilla fun. Or even get a gorilla puppet and let the gorilla tell its own story. (Images link to amazon product pages.)

Please leave a comment with your "Good Night, Gorilla" ideas.

Fractal Tree

Fractals are lots of fun. Very helpful for multiplication, exponentiation, place value, and counting in base two, base three, etc., not to mention art! Helpful hint: use different colors for each layer.

For lots of other great math ideas, check out naturalmath.com and letsplaymath.net.