Title: Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum
Lisa Wheeler (Author)
Laura Huliska-Beith (Illustrator)
Comprehension Strategy: Visualizing
Art Modality: Drama
Summary:
After a variety of animals get stuck one by one in bubble gum melting in the road, they must survive encounters with a big blue truck and a burly black bear. (Summary from book.)
Materials:
Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum
pink, plastic tablecloth cut into gum shape (see the cover of the book)
copies of the choral reading (for older readers)
Lesson:
Just when you need a lesson to liven things up, along comes a book like Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum—with ooey-chewy words and an icky-sticky story to get stuck on! After reading the story aloud, I introduced my group to a choral reading of the text. I can’t post the whole chant, but here’s a sneak peak to help you get the idea. (If you drop me an email, I’ll send you the entire choral reading. Just title your message “Bubble Gum” and send to jaynestamp@cox.net.)
Teacher:
Bubble gum, bubble gum,
Chewy-gooey bubble gum,
Icky-sticky bubble gum
Melting in the road.
Group 1:
Along comes a toad...
A fine, fat toad,
A fine, fat, wild
Splat!
Wart-backed toad.
All:
Ew! Yuck! The toad got stuck!
Reading this rhyme is kind of like chewing gum, the more you read, the smoother it gets. For even more fun, try this drama extension. In advance, cut an expensive, pink plastic tablecloth (available from dollar stores) into a bubble-gum shape. Place the shape on the floor of an open area. Select volunteers to be the toad, shrew, goose, bee, crow, black bear and hen. Ask these students to visualize how the animals would move before and after getting stuck in the mud. Read aloud the story as the students pretend to be stuck in the “gum.” When you read the part where the animals blow the bubble, have the students lift the tablecloth in the air as they would a parachute. “Bubble gum, bubble gum, light and lifty bubble gum!”
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| The toad and the bad-mood shrew are stuck! |
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| They chewed and they chewed.... |
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| Along comes a big-bottomed bear! |
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