Engibear, Engibot and Engilina come together to build a much-needed bridge for the people of Munnagong, especially so the children aren’t stuck in traffic all morning and can quickly and easily get to school. This is not going to be any old bridge, but a stunning bridge!
Once again Andrew King & Benjamin Johnston team have aced it by creating a wonderfully engaging book, thought-provoking and discussion inviting!
We learned the names of six types of bridges and what they look like. Master 6’s favourite spread was bridge building schedule, spanning 12 months, detailing the tasks and their due dates. He didn’t know how to read this initially, but once I showed him, for every reread we have had to come to this page first.
We were so happy to receive a message from Benjamin Johnston himself on Instagram explaining that the above spread is a Gantt Chart. Check out the message below!!
It really helped that the bridge turned out to be the shape of his favourite prehistoric animal! Our discussions led to some creative thinking where Mr 6 thought it would be great turn the dino mouth into a shower and addition of claws with lights as well!
In the corner of each page watch students from Munnagong Primary School experimenting on various bridge-building techniques. There is a bridge-building workbook for upper primary kids and teachers notes, accessible here, developed by the Queensland University of Technology that can be used with this book.
We are total fans of Engibear and wonder what his next engineering achievement might be!
Suggested age: Read aloud to 4+. Read by self 6+. Recommended for a confident reader.
Published by Little Steps Publishing, 2014.
