Reading Aloud Activity

Sometimes I’m Bombaloo

Suggested Age: Toddlers to Grade 1+

Submitted by Lori Bruner Okamura, School Librarian, Hongwanji Mission School

Book: Sometimes I’m Bombaloo by Rachel Vail

Summary:
A little girl named Katie is proud of the big girl things that she can do. Sometimes, it’s hard to do the right thing, and when she is too angry and upset, she is “Bombaloo.” Luckily, she finds a way to calm down and become Katie again with a little help from Mom.

Story Lessons:
Good behavior; examples of what young children can do independently; siblings; what happens when you get mad; being angry and sad; Emotions.

Various Activities:

• Read the story together. Use different voices to depict Katie’s emotions: proud in doing things for herself, sad when she is tries to keep her frustrations in, the Bombaloo voice when she is angry and upset.
• Ask your child: What do you do when you get mad? What happened when Katie started yelling and throwing things around? How did she make things better?
• Talk about brothers and sisters or friends who sometimes bother the child. Ask what one can do instead of hitting or yelling?
• Ask your child to show a Bombaloo face: crunch your face, show your teeth, growl!
• Using paper plates, have your child fill the whole plate with what they look like when they are happy, sad, angry, silly and other emotions that they can imagine. Help them fill the full plate by showing where the ears would be so the images are similar to the cover art. Using the plate faces, ask your child to act out the story or make one of his/her own that shows different emotions, ending with the happy face.
• On the computer or tablet, find images of children’s or animal’s faces that show different emotions. Make a guessing game of what each face is expressing.