1,2,3 Storytelling
Look at the front cover together. Ask your child to tell you what they can see and what is happening. Take note of their questions / comments. Read the story to your child. Ask your child to tell you about the story.
Storytelling 1
Read the whole story. It is likely that your child will want to tell you what is happening and will talk about
the pictures.
Storytelling 2
Read the story and ask your child about each page and the illustrations, for example, “How do you think the boy felt when he saw the tiger? Why doesn’t Dad notice the animals?”
Storytelling 3
Ask your child to share the story with you. They tell you the story using the pictures on each page.
Watch Emma read There’s a Tiger on the Train here
Activities
Listen
Create a Soundtrack for the Train Journey – Listen to train sounds online or mimic them together, creating a “soundtrack” for the story. Include tiger growls, whistles, and chugging sounds to bring the train adventure to life.
Play
Train charades – Ask your child to pretend to be one of the characters on the train. The child acts / speaks like this character or moves like the character and the adult has to guess which character it is
Make
Make a simple train using craft supplies you have at home. Use paper or paper towel rolls and cardboard boxes to create train cars and let your child decorate them. They can pretend their toy train has a tiger passenger, recreating scenes from the story.
Make a tiger mask using a template or a paper plate. Ask your child questions that they can answer as the tiger, for example: “Why are you on the train? Where are you going? What is your comic about?”
Experience
Experience a train journey.
Watch a few minutes of this video with your child. Ask your child to tell you everything he/she sees as the train travels through all the different places: bridge, houses, sea, trees, road, train station, train,
countryside, fields etc.
Other books to read and watch at home
The Train Ride by June Crebbin
Oi! Get Off Our Train! by John Burningham
Mr Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham
The Whales on the Bus by Katrina Charman
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr
Old MacDonald Had a Phone by Jeanne Willis
Songs
There’s a Tiger on the Train song
To the tune of She’ll Be Coming Round the
Mountain
There’s a huge, stripy tiger on the train (roar, roar!)
There’s a huge, stripy tiger on the train (roar, road!)
There’s a huge, stripy tiger, a huge, stripy tiger,
A huge, stripy tiger on the train (roar, roar!)
Repeat with:
There’s a crowd of crocodiles on the train (snap, snap!)
There are three large hippos drinking tea (slurp, slurp!)
Then a group of piglets jostled on (oink, oink!)
Two pugs in hats and dresses jumped on board (yap, yap!)
Then a tiny, little mouse crept in (pitter, patter)
So the stripy tiger gave a roar (roar, roar!)
Then we all went to the beach in the end (splash, splash!)
Down at the Station
Down at the station, early in the morning,
See the little puffer trains, all in a row.
Here comes the driver to start up the engine,
Puff! Puff! Peep! Peep! Off we go!
Puff! Puff! Peep! Peep! Off we go!
Puff! Puff! Peep! Peep! Off we go!
Down at the station, early in the morning,
See the little puffer trains, all in a row.
Here comes the driver to start up the engine,
Chuff! Chuff! Toot! Toot! Off we go!
Chuff! Chuff! Toot! Toot! Off we go!
Chuff! Chuff! Toot! Toot! Off we go!
Down at the station, early in the morning,
See the little puffer trains, all in a row.
Here comes the driver to start up the engine,
Clickety clack! Clickety clack! Off we go!
Clickety clack! Clickety clack! Off we go!
Clickety clack! Clickety clack! Off we go!
There’s a Tiger on the Train is written by Mariesa Dulak and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb. It is published by Faber & Faber.