What Will Danny Do Today?

I love when I find books that I can read over and over again and continuously discover new links between the illustrations and the story line. This is one of them!

On each page, the author poses a question to the reader. Using the illustrations as a guide, your child is able to predict what they think Danny may choose. Sometimes, you will know if you chose correctly, but most of the time you do not. For example, we know what Danny chooses to wear, but we never know whom his favorite teacher is or what he decides to do at the amusement park.

I like that it can be very simple for a younger reader (have them point to what they think Danny will choose) or more complex for an older child (i.e., ‘Why do you think Danny would choose soccer?’). This makes it a great book to read when your kids are different age ranges as you can appeal to all of them in the same book, keeping their attention.

Each page elicits a new group of vocabulary – from vehicles to school materials and an amusement park to food. Again, the vocabulary can be simple for a younger child (shirt/pants, cheese/banana, car/bike, swing/slide, pencil/paintbrush, sand/water) and more challenging for an older child (spots/stripes, jar/carton, blimp/zipline, cleat/tape measure, beaker/maracas, knight/binoculars).

Here are some more speech and language tips as you read through the book:

• /d/ – Danny, do, drink, dad, draw
• Adjectives – spotty, stripy, plain, crunchy, chewy, wobbly (plus whatever other adjectives you use as you describe what you see)
• There are so many verbs! Here are just a FEW: wear, choose, pick, run, jump, hit, cut, paint, skate, watch, walk, ride, talk, catch, slide, swing, dance, draw, wave, fall, build.
• When asking questions, you can change how you ask them in order to elicit present or past tense.
  • ‘What is he painting?’ ‘He is painting a picture.’
  • ‘What did he paint?’ ‘He painted a picture.’
• Pronouns as you describe the pictures – many options for he, she, him, her, his, hers, them, they, their 
• Ask your child lots of questions!
  • What is your favorite thing on this page?
  • Where do you think they are going on the motorcycle?
  • Who do you think will win the race?
  • Why do you think he looks sad?
• Most pages have some things that are not realistic. Can your child spot them?

Using the page above, here are some ways that I could elicit speech and language:

What do you think Danny will make? I see a pencil in his hand, so I think he will draw a picture on that piece of paper. I see something that starts with our special /d/ sound – do you? Yes, dinosaur! Who is painting in this picture? Who is building? What would you choose to make? I see some kids working together, do you? Why does this boy look nervous? Yes! It looks like the dinosaur is falling over. Maybe Danny will help him. Do you see some things that are not realistic? Right! I’ve never seen birds hold pencils in their beaks before! I see so many shapes in this picture – what shapes can you find?

I will show you two more pages in the video below!

You can find What Will Danny Do Today on my e-commerce site here! Right now it is a customer special, so when you spend $50, you can get this book for $6.