Big Rain Coming


Written by Katrina Germein
Illustrated by Bronwyn Bancroft

For ages 5 to 8

Get this book
This book is best for:
  • adjectives
  • temporal concepts

Review

In the Australian Outback, while staring at the dark clouds in the south, Old Stephen predicts there’s “big rain coming”. The children, panting dogs and fat green frogs do what they can to keep cool while waiting for the rain.

The stunningly beautiful illustrations and spare, yet incredibly descriptive language, evokes a sense of longing for the much-needed rain. This story can be used while teaching temporal concepts; such as day and night, and days of the week.

For further speech and language targets in Big Rain Coming, see the list below.


Book Details

Narrative Structure: Action Sequence

Story Plot: Repetitive Tale

Themes:
  • places - Australia, desert
  • naidoc
  • time
  • weather

Speech and Language Targets

Speech Sounds:
  • /d/ - dark, drag, dogs, dusty, dug, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, thunder, old, cloud, bed, outside
  • /n/ - no, night, thunder, afternoon, rain, green
  • /r/ - rain
  • /r/ blends - drag, breeze, green, grey, frogs
  • /s/ - Sunday, Saturday
  • /s/ blends - sleep, still, swim, dusty
  • voiced /th/ - the, there, their, themselves, then
  • unvoiced /th/ - thick, thunder, south
Grammar:
  • adjectives
  • copula (was)
  • negatives (no)
  • regular past tense
  • irregular past tense verbs (dug, swam)
  • action verbs
Semantics:
  • labelling
  • describing
  • predicting
  • making inferences
Concepts:
  • descriptive concepts (warm, cool, fat, dark, wet, dry)
  • temporal concepts (day, night, afternoon, evening, days of the week)
Narrative:
  • time
  • weather
  • direct character speech
Book Info

Published by Penguin Books Australia in 2002 (ISBN: 9780143500452)

To stay updated on the latest and greatest picture books for speech and language development, subscribe to our email newsletter.