Rabbits and Raindrops by Jim Arnosky

Prompts

Ask the child questions after the second and third readings of Rabbits and Raindrops , to start a conversation about the book. You can prompt the child on every page, using the questions below. If the child says something spontaneously about a picture, expand on it and ask the child to repeat it. There are questions for every one or two pages of the story.

1. What do you see in this picture? (A mother rabbit and her babies are in their nest.)
2. How many baby rabbits are there? Let's count them together. (There are five.)
3. What is fluttering above the rabbits? (A brown-and-yellow butterfly is fluttering above the rabbits.)
4. What is this little bunny looking at? (It is looking at a fuzzy caterpillar.)
5. Which rabbit is the mother rabbit? (The big rabbit is the mother.)
6. What's happening here? (The mother rabbit is hopping out of the nest.)
7. What's happening here? (The baby rabbits are hopping out of the nest and going over to the mother rabbit.)
8. What do the rabbits eat? (They eat clover leaves and flowers.)
9. What do the baby rabbits meet? (They meet a bee, a grasshopper, and a spider.)
10. What happens all of a sudden? (The sky turns dark and it starts to rain.)
11. Where are the rabbits going? (They are going back under the bushes where it is dry.)
12. What is happening here? (The baby rabbits are watching the rain.)
13. What are these? (Those are their tails.)
14. What is this little rabbit looking at? (It is looking at a brown-and-yellow butterfly.)
15. What other animals come in out of the rain? (A butterfly, a rat, a grasshopper, a hummingbird, and some ants come in out of the rain.)
16. Who stays outside in the rain? (The bees stay outside in the rain.)
17. What is this? (It is a turtle.)
18. What is happening in this picture? (The rabbits all go back onto the lawn.)
19. What are they doing now? (They are eating grass and playing games.)

Vocabulary

The words listed below come from the story and its pictures. As you page through the book, point to the pictures and ask the child to name the object or the action shown. This will help the child learn new words. You can use the words below or you can choose words you think will interest your child. Below are words for every one or two pages of the story.

• mother rabbit, baby rabbits, under the bushes, butterfly
• ears, tail, paws, caterpillar, ladybug
• hopping, nose, whiskers
• salamander, sunshine
• clover, bee, grasshopper, spider
• getting dark, raindrops
• hurrying
• waiting, dry, ants
• brown-and-yellow butterfly
• hummingbird, beak, wings, rat, grasshopper
• outside, honeybees, buzzing
• turtle
• hind feet, hopping
• playing, dandelion

Excerpted from Read Together, Talk Together, the Pearson Early Childhood research-based program that makes reading aloud even more effective!