Llama Llama Misses Mama

Author: Anna Dewdney

Title: Llama Llama Misses Mama

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Stories in Rhyme, Separation Anxiety, School

Theme: First Day of School, Shy Children/ Making Friends

Primary and Secondary Characters: Llama Llama, Mama Llama, School Teacher

Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Picture Book

Publishing Company: Viking/ Division of Penguin Young Readers Group

Date of Publication: 2009

Brief Summary and How to Use With Students:

            Llama Llama awakes and gets ready for the first day of preschool! Only, Llama Llama misses his mama and wishes he was with her. His teacher has him try new games and read a book, but Llama Llama just feels alone. Will Mama Llama ever come back? Of course she will, but before she returns the other children show Llama Llama how much fun school can be.

Llama Llama Misses Mama is a great read aloud story for children in Pre-K and Kindergarten classes. It teaches students how to deal with the transition of entering school for the first time. After reading the book you can have students participate in circle time where they share their feelings about coming to school. Students can also make an emotion flip book. Here students can talk about the types of feelings Llama Llama felt in the story. Have students then draw a picture of how they feel about being at school. You can then write out the name of their emotion on the bottom. You can then put their emotions together as a class book. Coming to school can be a big change.

To help your students become accustomed to the daily schedule of class, read and point out all the different activities that Llama does in his day and have children compare their classroom schedule to Llamas.