In the book, each animal is described by a color. For example, there is a brown bear, purple cat and blue horse. Make a picture card of each animal in the book and a matching color word card. Read the book while students match the color word to the correct animal as it is introduced in the story. Children can also match the color words to the animal pictures as a small group or individual center activity.
After reading the book, ask children to tell which animal is their favorite. Display the results as a bar graph and ask the children which animal has the most votes. The winning animal can be the focus of science lessons for the next few days. Discuss whether the animal is a mammal, reptile or amphibian. What does it eat? Where does it live? It may be helpful to create a chart showing what the children know already, what they want to know and what they have learned at the end of the study.
Ask students to arrange picture cards of the animals in the book in the order they are introduced. Once the picture cards are laid out, the children may then match the word cards to each picture. For example, the card "green frog" would be placed under the picture of the green frog. Read the book aloud so that the students can check their work. This can also be used as a patterning activity. Using multiple sets of picture cards, have the students make patterns. For example, one student may make use green frog, purple cat, blue horse, green frog and continue on with that pattern. Another child may decide to use two blue horses, one purple cat and three brown bears for his pattern.
Children memorize the words to this story very quickly because of the repetition and patterns. After reading the book a few times, place a stuffed brown bear into the reading corner. As children have time, ask them to individually go to the reading corner and read the book to the brown bear. Another extension of this book is to use picture cards in a pocket chart. For each animal, have a student place an alphabet card beside the animal to show the beginning sound of that word. For example, "f" would be placed beside the frog.