Recommended Picture Book: The Water Hole by Graeme Base

Title: The Water Hole

Author: Graeme Base

Illustrator: Graeme Base

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, Sept 1, 2001

Topic: Counting, Science: water, Animals, Seasons, Rain and rainfall,

Age: 2-8 (7-12)

Opening: One rhino drinking at the water hole.

Summary: As an ever-growing numbers of animals visit a watering hole, introducing the numbers one through ten, the water dwindles.

Resources:
Teacher Notes can be found here for lower, middle and upper primary students.
Check out these story stretching educational ideas. Subjects include: mathematics, zoology, geography, observation, and language.
The Little Big Book Club has a wonderful educational guide for children 0-2.
Here is a lesson plan that brings the fine arts alive with this book.

Review:
What I really like the most about this book is that it uniquely combines various sciences, like math, geography, natural science and animal science into an easy to read-a-loud book. The beautiful and detailed illustrations invite children to look deeper into the pictures to find other animals carefully hidden in the artwork. Young children will meet animals from different continents while learning to count from one to ten. They will also observe the diminishing water supply as each new group visits the water hole until there is no water left. Then something amazing happens and children are introduced to the life cycle of water and seasonal changes. This book is so sparsely, well written and masterfully illustrated that it can be used in just about any age setting from pre-readers to children who can read on their own.