Caps For Sale:
A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business
Author and Illustrator: Esphyr Slobodkina
Genre: Fiction
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Ages: Grades K-4
Themes: Counting
Summary: A peddler selling his caps wanders around through the countryside wearing the caps on his head. When he gets tired and decides to take a rest, he needs to do some sneaky thinking to outsmart some monkeys.
Pre-Reading Activity: Do a picture walk of the book, discuss with the students what a peddler is and ask them what he is selling. Stop the picture walk right before the peddler throws his hat on the ground and ask students to predict what will happen.
Post-Reading Activity: Read a companion text, Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree, let students work together to complete the monkey/banana rhyming game
Reflection: Caps for Sale is a great, classic children's book. There are a lot of extension activities that teachers can do to branch off to other content areas, including math and science. Children love the silliness of this story.
About the Author
Esphyr Slobodkina
Esphyr Slobodkina was born in the Siberian town of Chelyabinsk in 1908. She immigrated to the United States on a student visa when she was 29. She worked closely with children's author Margaret Wise Brown as an illustrator.
(www.barnesandnoble.com)
