Welcome to our toddler book club!
Each session brings a favorite story to life through interactive reading, playful activities, and opportunities to connect with other families. Along the way, we’ll highlight key vocabulary from each book and share a Storytime Strategy with simple, practical ways to support your child’s communication and language development during shared book reading.
To see these strategies in action and discover more ways to support your child’s language development, consider booking a session with us at Hart Therapy Services!
This Week’s Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle is a playful, repetitive story featuring colorful animals and simple, predictable language. The clear, simple illustrations help toddlers focus on one animal at a time, while the repeated phrases create natural opportunities for children to anticipate what comes next and begin filling in familiar words, sounds, or phrases as they read together.
This Book’s Storytime Strategy: Repetition & Fill in the Blanks!
This book uses the same repetitive sentence frame throughout, making it easier for toddlers to become familiar with the words and anticipate what comes next. You can pause before familiar words or phrases to give your child an opportunity to participate by saying a word, making a sound, pointing, or gesturing.
For example, when reading, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" pause before saying "see" and give your toddler a chance to fill in the word. As they become familiar with the story, you can also pause before naming the animal (e.g., "I see a red...") to encourage them to participate!
Celebrate Attempts: Respond positively to any attempt to participate, even if it's a sound, gesture, or partial word.
Don't Rush! Give your toddler time to process and respond. If they don't fill in the word, simply model it and keep reading.
Vocabulary: Click the button below to access a free vocabulary sheet featuring key words from this book! Some ideas for vocabulary building include…
Make Animal Sound Cards: Print and cut out the animal and color cards seen below. Practice matching each animal to its sound (e.g., bear = growl, duck = quack, frog = ribbit). Also, have fun matching the different colors to each animal!
Practice Animal Names & Sounds: Model each animal's name and sound as you turn the pages. Give your toddler opportunities to imitate, point, gesture, or label.
Explore Colors: Point out each animal's color and connect it to familiar objects around your home (e.g., "Red bird! Look, your red ball!").
Find the Animals: Pause on each page and encourage your toddler to find the animal by pointing, looking, or selecting a matching picture.
Take Turns: You say the repeated phrase, and let your toddler make the animal sound or name the animal.
Model First: Repeat the phrase several times so your toddler becomes familiar with the words and rhythm.
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As you read each page, invite your toddler to act out the animal they see.
Waddle like the yellow duck, hop like the green frog, gallop like the blue horse, etc.
Pair movements with animal sounds (e.g., "Hop, hop! Ribbit, ribbit!").
Take turns choosing an animal to act out and see if your toddler can guess which one you are!
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Gather stuffed animals or toy animals featured in the book.
As you read each page, have your toddler find the matching animal.
Line up the animals in the same order they appear in the story.
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Place an animal picture card or small toy animal inside a box or bag without showing your toddler.
Make the animal's sound (e.g., "Moo, moo!") and ask, "Who’s in the box?”
Give your toddler a chance to guess, make the sound, or point to the matching animal in the book.
Reveal the animal together and celebrate finding it!
Take turns, making this a fun game!
Check out our growing list of book club books for free materials, reading strategies, and fun activities to support meaningful, interactive storytime!