Publisher: HarperCollins (November 9, 1988)
Sing songs about large creatures like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,”
“Beauty and the Beast,” “Puff the Magic
Dragon,” “Heffalumps and Woozles”
Listen to “Gnomus” from Pictures at an Exhibition, “Elephants” from Carnival of the Animals
Instruments:
Keep a steady beat on non-pitched percussion instruments for the wild rumpus
Create music for the wild rumpus
Rhythm: Say phrases like “They roared their terrible roars…” together and arrive at a consensus for the
rhythmic phrasing
Movement: Move like the wild creatures in the book; Dance the book with movements suggested by the text
Drama activities:
Demonstrate the emotions the students recognize in the illustrations and text as you turn
through the pages after the first reading.
Other: Day, week, month, year; Other books by Maurice Sendak; Dreams
Art activities:
Locate paintings/images of artists’ drawings of large animals, real and imagined, like cave
paintings from Lascaux, ancient Egyptian gods Anubis, Horus, etc., Quetzalcoatl from Mesoamerica
Anubis
Horus
One of many cave paintings at Lascaux, FR
Quetzalcoatl