You Can't Take An Elephant On the Bus (You Can’t Let an Elephant...)

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Children will love the ridiculous nature of this book with its array of animals riding all sorts of unsuitable vehicles. There are monkeys in a shopping trolley, a tiger scaring passengers on a train and even a pig on a skateboard until, finally, they find a form of transport that can accommodate all of them.

Join in the crazy chaotic fun (and chortle loudly) as an array of animals ride all sorts of unsuitable vehicles in this energetic picture book Share Mrs. Armitage on Wheels Identify each problem Mrs. Armitage solves. Discuss the improvements the children would make to their bikes/scooters, e.g. add a wireless speaker to play music, a TV, a seat for teddy. This is a book that you should read by yourself first so that you can really emphasise the wonderful rhyming text when you come to share it with children. It is also worth taking your time as you read it aloud, as some of the sentences contain descriptive words that will be unfamiliar to some children. By slowing down, children will be able to process the meaning of words such as ‘capsize’ and ‘trotters’, as well as enjoying the rhymes. The story presents lots of opportunities to explore measure, as the animals’ shape, size or weight is often what makes a means of transport unsuitable for them. The giraffe, for example, is too tall to go into the aeroplane, while the hippo is too big for the basket of the hot-air balloon.

count all animals in the book, as in addition to the main animals some of the illustrations have some animal onlookers such as birds, pigeons and seagulls. This is also a book that is worth sharing several times. As children become more familiar with the text, they are then likely to start noticing the detail in the illustrations, including a cameo appearance of a lady who looks uncannily like the queen. Read You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus. Identify each form of transport. Children discuss which vehicles they have tried; they share their reason for travelling and describe how it felt. Elephants on buses? Monkeys in shopping trolleys? Hippos in hot air balloons? A whale … on a bike?’ Two-year-olds may enjoy seeing some of the animals portrayed in this book, but the language level is better suited to slightly older children. Three-year-olds will enjoy the story, while four- and five-year-olds will love the rhyming text and quirky humour.

count the animals that feature in the story and see if this tallies with the number of animals on the roller coaster Enjoy You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus. Relish the illustrations and amusing scenarios. Invite children to select their favourite and to use because to provide a reason for their opinion, e.g. A whale riding a bike because it is funny to see something so big on something so small.

Over the course of this monthly series on sharing books with children, Penny Tassoni will look at a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, from rhyming books for babies to picture books that adults and children can explore together. Purple: playing ‘animal twister’– like the traditional twister game but replacing the colours with animals. Read The Train Ride. Identify what the characters see on the journey. List ideas as words or phrases. Show sequencing words ( resources) and model converting the ideas into an oral recount.