FeedCity Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems; Illustrations by Jon J. Muth
October 20, 2010 in Elementary Educators, Making Personal Connections, Personal Connections, Picture Book, Preschool to 1st grade teachers, Shared Writing, Willems, MO, Writing Skills Tags: books about rural areas, Jon J. Muth, Mo Willems, picture books about death, picture books about seasons
photo by Muffet www.flickr.com
*Picture book for preschoolers through 2nd graders
*City dog and country frog are main characters
*Rating: City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems is a touching book about friendship and life. Kids will love it, and so will the adults that share it with them!
Short, short summary: In the spring, city dog meets country frog who shows him how to play country games. In the summer, city dog shows country frog how to play city games. In the fall, country frog is tired, and so the two friends spend their time remembering their fun games. In the winter, city dog can’t find country frog (and this is very sad, btw!). But when it is spring again, city dog remembers his friend country frog and befriends country chipmunk.
So, what do I do with this book?
1. Students will definitely want to discuss where is country frog? What happened to him? Why is city dog so sad? So be prepared to discuss life and death as well as animal life cycles with children. The themes in this book are very similar to Charlotte’s Web when Charlotte dies.
2. This book is wonderful for teaching the seasons. The illustrations show how the seasons effect the landscape and even the animals. Young children can draw their own season illustrations and write about what they like to do in each season.
3. City Dog, Country Frog is also a book about friendship. Ask students in a shared writing experience what they like to do play with their friends. Your sentence beginning can be: I like to play ___________ with my friend, ___________________. Then students can create their own page for a class book with their shared writing sentence.
October 20th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
That sounds like such a cute story, Margo, even though it’s sad. My kids are grown, and I have no grandchildren but it would be a good Christmas gift for young family members!
October 22nd, 2010 at 5:22 pm
You are right, Arlene, it would make a great gift!