The Lion's Shirt

Imitations from the Books

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The lion from Daniela’s shirt tries to imitate a roaring lion from a book. You can also try to imitate the lion according to the different illustrations. You can bring additional books and try to imitate the characters that appear in them.

Funny Faces in the Mirror

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Stand in front of the mirror and try to make funny faces. Each time, announce a different type of face—scary, tired, offended, happy. You can also start without a mirror, and then check if the face looks the way you imagined.

Conversation with a Shirt

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Choose a shirt with a character or animal drawn on it. You can play an imaginative role-playing game and chat with the character. Each time, one of you will be the character, and the other will be yourself.

Pinterest

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Creations, inspirations, and more surprises await you on the Pijama Library Pinterest.

About the Book

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One lion who “dares” to leave the shirt on which he is printed raises a question that occupies many children—who do I want to be? The lion, who asks not to be cute but rather scary, touches on a familiar human struggle—the gap between how our surroundings see us and how we would like to appear. The lion’s request opens up a possibility for dialogue about recognition and visibility. Daniela, who helps the lion express himself, agrees to be a little scared and to deal with exploring the boundaries of fear, an experience that characterizes many children.

Questions for Dialogic Reading

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Before Reading—Looking at the Book’s Title

Before presenting the illustrations and before reading, it is worthwhile to draw the children’s attention to the book’s title The Lion’s Shirt.

You can ask:

What do you think the plot of the book called “The Lion’s Shirt” is about?

Who do you think the shirt belongs to?

Is this a shirt of a lion or a shirt that has a lion on it?

How can you tell?

Look for children who came in a shirt with a drawing of an animal; or ask about shirts they have at home:

What animal is drawn on your shirt?

Have you ever talked to the animal on your shirt? What do you know about it?

Questions for the First Reading

Prediction question, after the lion disappears from the shirt—Where did the lion go? How could it be that he disappeared from the shirt?

After “and I won’t come back”—Why did the lion tell Daniela that he won’t return to her shirt?

After “and suddenly an idea came to her mind”—What do you think Daniela’s idea was?

After the sentence in which Daniela “almost started to cry,” it is worthwhile to stop to review for comprehension and ask:

Why did Daniela almost start to cry?

If the children have difficulty answering, you can go back and read the sentence: “But the shirt isn’t worth it without you. How will I wear it to kindergarten tomorrow?”

Questions for a Repeat Encounter with the Book

You can return to the moment when Daniela asks the lion to return to the shirt, and he answers her: “I don’t care” and “I won’t come back.”

And then ask

How do you think Daniela felt? Did the lion understand what Daniela was feeling? Did Daniela immediately understand what the lion was feeling and what he wanted? What can help us better understand what someone else is feeling?

Why do you think the lion doesn’t want to be a beautiful or cute lion?

Do you sometimes feel like the lion? Is there something people say to you, for example “cute,” and you don’t want them to say it to you?

What else would you like to be?

Why do you think Daniela told the lion that sometimes she likes to be a little scared? Do you also like to be a little scared sometimes?

What things are a little scary, but not too much?

What helps you when there are things that scare you a little?

Making Shirts

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Invite the parents to bring old shirts without drawings to kindergarten. On the shirts you can draw animals or characters using fabric paints. You can organize an activity with the shirts in which the children “voice” their shirts and tell about themselves.

Face Cards

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Daniela and the lion experiment with creating a face to convey emotion. You can distribute small mirrors to the children, say an emotion word each time, and ask them to show it. Later you can photograph the children, print, and prepare “face cards” of the kindergarten children. With the cards you can invite various activities:

Choose a card each time and try to imitate the face.

Spread out all the cards and invite each child to choose a card that describes what they are feeling.

Randomly choose one card and try to compose a sentence that describes what preceded the emotion.

Songs and Musical Works about Lions

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Inspired by Daniela’s encounter with the lion, you can present songs and musical works that deal with lions, for example:

“If I Were King” by Chava Alberstein; The Lion from “Three Four Five and a Half”; “Quiet, the Lion is Sleeping.”
And more…

Black-and-White and Color

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Draw the children’s attention to the special style of the illustrations—what colors can you see in the illustrations? Which parts are colored in black-and-white and which in color? Why did the artist choose to do it this way?

Then invite them to draw in a similar style—to draw in black-and-white, and to choose one item in the drawing that they will color in color.