David Shannon is another one of my favorite authors.  Although his humor can be slightly inappropriate at times (a notable picture in “No, David”) it is well liked by kids.  This story shows a chain reaction- what happened when “the rain came down.”  He shows how people’s attitudes change for the worst.  Your child will have fun seeing how one event leads to another.  The surprise is when “the rain stopped!”  Suddenly, enemies become friends!

Here are some activities for the stage of phonemic awareness of your child.  If you aren’t sure of your child stage, click on each stage’s title and read that post!

Listening - Have your child make the sounds in the book (chickens squawking, cat yowling, dog barking, horn honking, jingle-a-jingle of music, slappa-de-slap of windshield wipers, etc.)

Rhyming - See how many words they can identify that rhyme with ROCKING (blocking, honking, yelling, chasing, leaking, bickering) or the word SEE (three, beauty, taxi, he, lady).

Words/Sentences - Since “And still, the rain came down” is repeated throughout this story, model pointing to each word as you read it.  See if your child can!

Syllables - Clap out the syllables in the word Saturday.  Try the other days of the week.  Ask them which has the most/least.

Initial/Final Sounds - Can your child find all the words that begin with the same sound as his/her name?  Can he/she find words that end with the same letter as his/her name?  Make sure you are enunciating words that do so your child can hear them!

Phonemes - Play "Push and Say" with words in the title.  THE has 2 sounds (/th/ and /e/), RAIN has 3 (/r/, /ai/ and /n/), CAME also has 3 (/c/, /a/ and /m/) and so does DOWN (/d/, /ow/ and /n/).

Letters and Spelling - Now, can your child point out words that begin or have any of the letters of his/her name in them?

Cuddle up with this book on a rainy (or snowy) day!