Vance Bollinger - It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

Illustrated by Christine Davenier

CD performance by Peter, Paul, and Marry

In addition to being illustrated very well, this book also comes with a CD of Peter, Paul, and Mary performing the songs within it for children and the teacher to sing along with in the classroom.  The book features an interesting combination of several childhood favorites.  Obviously, the book includes the classic song, “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring,” but it also ties in the game of hide and seak, as well as other classic nursery rhymes, as performed by the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary.

With this picture book, I would encourage different children in class to take turns singing the returning refrain of “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring,” because it’s in the book seven times.  If I repeated the book in the context of a lesson two to three times over, then students would become comfortable “performing” a solo for their peers and not even be nervous doing so, because of the prior repetition and the familiarity of this song.