In an effort to help her friend, the snail herself crawls to a nearby school in the bay, and writes ' Save The Whale!' in her slimy trail on the blackboard. The aquatic duo see many sights along their way until one sunny summer's morning, the humpback whale, confused by the sound of a group of racing speedboats, swims into a bay and is left beached by the retreating tide. Together they go on a world-wide ocean journey, past icebergs and volcanoes, sharks and penguins until the snail feels very small in the vastness of the world. After she writes an advert for a ' lift wanted around the world' using her snail trail, a kind humpback whale arrives one moonlit night and offers to take her along on his travels. On a smooth black rock by the docks lives a flock of sea snails, of which one longs to see the big, wide world a feeling her rock-bound compatriots cannot understand. In 2019, a short film based on the book was released.ĭonaldson has said that it is one of her favourite books, due to its similarity in rhyming style to the works of Edward Lear, of which she was fond of as a child.

The Snail and the Whale has also been adapted into an unabridged audiobook, a stage play and translated into British Sign Language. It won the 2004 Early Years award for the best pre-school book, the 2005 Blue Peter award for Best Book to Read Aloud, and the 2007 Giverny award for Best Science Picture Book. You can explain to them that you are looking for words that sound the same at the end, but remind them that these words might not be spelt the same.The Snail and the Whale is a 2003 children's picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Encourage your child to find the words that rhyme. Print the FREE resource below and cut up the pictures. I’ve made a rhyming game for you to play with your child based on the words in the book. On your second and third readings of the story you can point out the rhyming words as you come across them e.g.

When you initially read the book, you can place an emphasis on the rhyming words on each page.įor example, on the first page you could say:Īnd a great big, grey-blue humpback whale

Due to the number of rhyming words in this story it makes it the perfect opportunity to work on your child’s awareness of rhyming words. Together they go on an amazing adventure – but when the whale gets beached, what will the snail do? Follow the tiny snail’s exciting journey around the world… Here are my top The Snail and the Whaleactivities you can do with your child to help support his/her speech & language development:ġ. Longing to see the world, a tiny snail hitches a lift on the tail of a humpback whale.

Snail on the whale book