A hesitant hippo makes a big impact in this whimsical story about taking a chance from board book creator Sandra Boynton. Follow along as this shy hippo observes spirited animals cavort in a bog, try on new hats, and go for a jog, all while longing to join in the fun. Building toward an exciting ending, readers will be cheering on the hippopotamus as it finds the courage to say YES to trying something new.
This cute rhyming, repetitive zoo book can be used in speech therapy to target predicting and the conjunction “but”. It is also great for sequencing, noticing illustrations and for targeting /h/, /p/, /s/, /th/, /t/, /g/ and /pl/ sounds! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using But Not the Hippopotamus in speech therapy below:
Frequent Speech Sounds:
/h/ initial
/p/ medial
/s/ final
/th/ initial
/t/ final
/g/ final
/pl/ initial
Themes:
non-seasonal
friendship
courage
zoo
Book Details:
But Not the Hippopotamus
Key Teaching Concepts
action sequence
sequencing
illustration study
predicting
negation
conjunction (but)
phonological awareness
repetitive text
order of animals that hippo watches play
hog, frog, cavort, bog, hippopotamus, rat, moose, goose, bear, hare, fair, jog, pack, scurry, join, armadillo
How do you think the hippopatumus feels?
Notice her facial expression.
How are the animals being a good friend?
Notice her change of expression.
Notice the armadillo’s expression.
verbs (action)
verbs (present progressive)
prepositional phrases
complex sentence structure
negation
conjunction (but)
repetitive text
ellipses
enlarged text for emphasis
rhyming
Why do you think the hippo isn’t playing in the mud, trying on hats etc.?
How does hippo feel as he watches the animals hang out?
What do you think hippo is thinking when they tell her to join them?
Do you think hippo will go for a jog with them?
Do you think hippo will join them?
What do you think will happen with the armadillo?