Why do it?

  • Baby will enjoy sharing a book where each page has an interesting sound for the grown-up to make.
  • With repetition, baby begins to associate a sound with the picture of the animal or thing that makes it.
  • Baby and grown-up are sitting close together and sharing attention.

How to do it

  • Get a ‘board’ book with animals, or kinds of transport or anything that makes a noise
  • Baby and parent need to be comfortable.
  • Baby may want to turn pages — this is fine, it’s play!
  • Mum or dad can make the noise that goes with the page they’re looking at with baby.
  • When baby goes to turn the page, say, ‘Turn the page’, so the action and the words happen together.
  • Joining a library is a very good idea to access lots of different books for free.

Using more reo Māori

Māku e pānui tētahi kōrero ki a koe Shall I read you a story?
Kei hea te pukapuka? Where is the book
   
Titiro ki ngā pukapuka Look at the books
   
Huriā te wharangi Turn the page
Titiro ki ngā kararehe Look at the animals
   
Kei te ki te ngeru meow The cat says meow
Kei te ki te kuri woof! The dog says woof!
Kei te ki te manu - tweet tweet The bird says tweet tweet
   
He kau tēnei This is a cow
He aha te tangi o te kau? What sound does the cow make?
   
He hipi tenei This is a sheep
Ko ‘baaaa’ te tangi o te hipi The sheep says ‘baaaa’
   
Titiro mai, he aha tēnei? Look here, what’s this?
He waka tūroro tēnei This is an ambulance
   
He aha te tangi o te waka tūroro? What sound does the ambulance make?
What sound does the ambulance make? What’s that sound?
   
He waka toparere A helicopter
   
Whakarongo Listen
Rongo Hear
   
 Kei te rongo ahau i I hear a