Shine-A-Light Books – Secrets of Animal Camouflage

Have you ever seen anything like these books?! What a fun way to engage children while they learn factual information. The child uses a flashlight behind each page to reveal secret images.

Exposing children to non-fiction text at a young age is very important for their language development. Not only will they learn new vocabulary, they will be able to take information learned through books (turning it into their background knowledge) and use it in real-life situations, when reading fictional text and when writing. I was thrilled when my then three-year-old daughter used the word ‘camouflage’ during a zoo visit this past fall (it was totally because of this book!).

The Shine-A-Light books are recommended for ages 4-8; however, younger children will also enjoy them with a modified, simpler text. I read these books often with my two- and four-year-old and they stay engaged throughout the book!

Here are some ways to work on speech/language when reading Shine-A-Light books (Secrets of Animal Camouflage, especially!):

• Bombard the concepts on, off when manipulating the flashlight and the concept behind when giving the directive to put the light behind the page
• Label the animals and make their sound
  • What color(s) are they?
  • Can you fly like the butterfly? Can you stretch your neck like the giraffe? Can you run like the zebras?
• Work on counting – how many seahorses can you find? How many bees are there?
• There are a lot of s-blends in this book – spiders, scuttle, stick/sticky, sleep, stripes, squirrel, screech, still, spots, scared, snap, skin, slurp, snowy, strange, slither, swim, stop, strong, small – wow! So many opportunities to work on this sound! If your child is over three and having difficulty including all the sounds in s-blend words, have them run their finger up their arm when saying /sssss/ and then have them say the rest of the word (pider). What other things can they spy?
• Have your child work on changing their vocal volume by having them repeat the sound words on the backside of each page after you.
  • Screech! Say it LOUD!
  • Shhh! Say it quietly.
  • Rustle! Say it quietly.
  • Growl! Say in LOUD!
• Do you have older kids listening in? Challenge them with this vocabulary; I love when my children learn new vocabulary through books. When defining words, NO using that word in your definition!
  • camouflage
  • habitat
  • pollen
  • pounce
  • disguise
  • herd
  • poisonous

Other Shine-A-Light books include:

• At the Garage
• At the Construction Site
• Dinosaurs
• On the Space Station
• Secrets of the Seashore
• At the Library (a new release and SO MUCH FUN!)

You can check out all of UBAM’s Shine-A-Light books right here on my e-commerce site.

I created a book companion to go along with this book to encourage more speech and language. Check out the full version on my Teachers Pay Teachers page here and I also have a preview you can print below!

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