Join us on this adventure by turning the page in this sheep childrens book by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek. Scroll down to explore some speech and language areas using toddler picture books at home.

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Picture Book Review

Have you seen the Green Sheep? Where could they be hiding?

Let’s go on an adventure to find the Green Sheep. You’ll find many sheep along the way. Did you see the Near Sheep and the Far Sheep? The Moon Sheep and the Star Sheep? But where oh where is the Green Sheep?

This well-loved Aussie picture book has simple repetitive text, rhyming and colourful illustrations that are great for developing an interest in books, understanding basic concepts and modelling words and structured sentences. So snuggle up, get on your child’s level and enjoy this little adventure of searching for the Green Sheep.

Why We Love This Sheep Childrens Book

1 – It’s Simple and Repetitive

Repeating the same phrases or toddler picture books can seem tedious. However, for your little one, the repetition helps create predictability and familiarity. This helps your toddler know what to expect. It also consolidates their understanding and learning of new words, concepts, and the story. This build their confidence.

2 – It’s Full of Opposites and Rhyme

‘Where is the Green Sheep’ introduces your little one to simple concepts and opposites like ‘near/far’ and ‘up/down’. It also has rhyming words like ‘red/bed’ and ‘wide/slide’. Find some more examples in the speech and language focus areas below!

3 – Talk about Different Places and Actions

The clear illustrations in this sheep childrens book create opportunities to talk about what the sheep are doing (actions). They also offer opportunities to talk about where they are (settings). While the written text doesn’t name the actions or the places, you can label them as you turn the pages.

You can add animal sounds (e.g., “baabaa” “moo”), fun words (e.g., “wobble wobble” “oooh”), and weather sounds (e.g., “whoosh” for the wind, “pitter patter” for the rain).

Using these fun sounds and words can help catch your toddler’s attention. Your little one may be more likely to copy them because they’re often ‘easier’ to say and can create an opportunity for a fun interaction with you.

Themes and Interests

• Places
• Farm animals and sheep

Speech and Language Targets

Explore some speech and language goals that you can embed into your story time with your toddler at home. Meet your child on their level and focus on modelling 1-2 speech and language goals at a time.

If your toddler is interested in a particular picture or they comment or ask questions, follow their lead. Acknowledge their communication. Pause and respond with your own comments.

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Vocabulary and Concepts

This sheep childrens book introduces your toddler to a variety of early concepts and new vocabulary. Some of the words come directly from the story, while others can be linked to the illustrations, offering even more opportunities to expand your child’s language skills.

• Opposites: thin/wide, up/down, sun/rain, scared/brave, near/far
• Colours: blue, red, green, yellow, purple
• Places: bedroom, space, playground, circus, beach, swimming pool, park
• Animals: sheep, cow, bunnies, snake, cat
• Location words: in, up, down, on, behind, near, far
• Action words: riding, drinking, eating, flying, crying, fishing, snorkelling, laughing, hiding, sleeping, juggling

Grammar Structures

Picture books offer a natural way to explore early grammar structures with your toddler. Model the following grammar structures: 

• Copula: is
• Early conjunctions: and, but

Comprehension Language Levels

This sheep childrens book creates opportunities for you to model language around basic recalling, describing and predicting. For example, you can answer questions like:

Recalling (when you’ve finished the story)

• Which sheep did we see?
• Where was the Green Sheep?

Describing

• What’s the sheep doing?
• How many legs does a sheep have?
• What colour is the sheep?

Predicting

• What sheep will we see next?
• Where could the Green Sheep be?

Be mindful about how many questions you’re asking your toddler, particularly if your child is a gestalt language learner. Asking too many questions or placing high demands on your toddler can stifle the interaction and enjoyment of sharing toddler picture books. Instead, you can model the answers to these questions.

Gestalt Language Processing

If your child is a gestalt language processor (meaning they learn language in chunks or scripts), story time is a great opportunity to support their communication journey. Use the illustrations to make comments and naturally model simple, flexible chunks of language (also known as mitigable gestalts). 

If your child is a gestalt language processor, use the illustrations to make comments and model mitigable gestalts naturally.

Here are some examples of mitigable gestalts you could try during storytime. Remember, these are just suggestions—choosing phrases that match your child’s interests and feel meaningful to them will have the greatest impact. 

• Let’s read this one
• Where is the green sheep
• Here’s the [animal]
• Let’s turn the page
• I love this book
• Look, I found the [animal]

Speech Sounds

Toddler picture books are a wonderful way to help your child listen for and tune into specific speech sounds. Story time creates a low-pressure, playful space where your little one can simply focus on hearing and recognising these sounds—no need for them to repeat the words if they’re not ready. 

Below are some speech sounds you can emphasize as you read. These examples highlight words with the target sound at the beginning, making it easier for your child to notice them.

• h: here
• b: bed, band, but
• m: moon
• d: down,
• w: wave, wind, wide, where
• f: far, fast
• s: sun
• sh: sheep
• th: that, the
• s-clusters: slide, swing, scared, star
• r-clusters: train, brave, green
• l-clusters: blue, slide, clown

Early Literacy Awareness

This sheep childrens book is great for introducing early literacy awareness skills—key building blocks for reading and writing. Naturally show and label parts of a book (like the pointing to the title or the front of the book), use your finger to follow the text from left to right, and connect sounds to letters. 

Rhyming: red/bed; wide/slide; down/clown; rain/train; wave/brave; far/star

Book details: Scribble UK
ISBN: 10-19113348350

Another Sheep Childrens Book

Are you looking for another sheep childrens book? Here are some other toddler picture books they may enjoy:

• That’s Not my Lamb by Fiona Watt
• The Very Silly Sheep by Jack Tickle
• Will Sheep Sleep? by Hilary Leung
• Sleepy Sheepy by Ruth Cummins

A Few More Picture Book Recommendations