Make a Splash with Ocean Books, Crafts, and Activities

Waves of Reading Fun

Have you signed up for the summer reading program at your local library? This year’s theme (at most public libraries) is Make a Splash – READ! We got signed up last week and we’ve been enjoying all the activities our local branch has to offer. We attend children’s story hour on a regular basis, but it’s exciting to see so many new families making the library a part of their summer vacation. Our library staff is really playing to the theme.


Sparkly Fish Decoration


This week’s story hour craft was a cute and easy fish to hang in your window or on your patio. Materials include: 2 CDs or DVDs (out of style or a little scratched are just fine), craft foam in the color of your choice, glue, thread or floss, and optional googly eyes or stickers.

• You’ll cut two triangular fins, fishy lips, a tail, and a center fin shaped like an eight from the craft foam.
• Glue the edges of the triangular fins, tail, and lips just inside the edge of the label side of the first CD.
• Glue second CD on top, label sides together.
• Push center fin through holes of CDs. Punch a small hole in top fin and thread hanger through.
•  Add eyes to CD with stick-ons or markers.

I don’t have the templates as all pieces were precut for us, but if it gives you fits, contact me and I’ll trace the pieces from B’s.

Vacation-Inspiring Learning Activity


Another fun feature this week was a presentation on tide pool life. The kids listened to a short presentation on the animals that inhabit different types of seashells while they passed around examples. Then they got to practice their matching, detective, and map skills as they looked for creatures matching their handout in gridded tide pool model boxes around the room. B was not really ready for the grid skills (the octopus is in B7), but we treated it like a game of Eye Spy: he looked at the pictures on the handout, pointed them out in the boxes, and I recorded. After looking at all the seashells and listening to the conch, I’m longing for the beach!

Oceans: Fiction and Non Fiction

We couldn’t enjoy these activities without taking home some ocean-themed books, and I decided the combination of the fish craft and the shell demonstration was a good bridge to the concepts of fiction and non-fiction. Preschool is the age to differentiate the cognitive concepts of fantasy and reality, and all it takes is an explicit mention of which stories are true and which are imaginary. We brought home Life in an Ocean, by Carol Lindeen, and Over in the Ocean, by Marianne Berkes. Life in an Ocean introduces several sea creatures with simple text and photo illustrations. It also includes a short glossary and additional ocean facts at the back. Over in the Ocean is a variation on the traditional Over in the Meadow poem, and you can count sea creatures and enjoy the rhythm and rhyme.

Appropriate for: Toddlers, Preschoolers

Linking up With:

Read Aloud Thursday

Feed Me Books Friday

Meme’s the Word (on Saturday)

Wishing Janna at The Adventure of Motherhood an enjoyable, well-deserved break as she takes July off from Feed Me Books Friday. Each week will be “guest-hosted” by some FMBF regulars, including ME! I’m excited to be part of one of my favorite memes. Hope you’ll come back here July 23 and link up!

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Who Does Your Child See in the Mirror?

You Are What You Wear…

I’ve written before about B’s love of dress-up and pretend play (Paper or Clothes, What Will You Wear?). As much as I love and encourage imaginative play, the laundry of multiple wardrobe changes gets a little tiresome. A friend compared his total of 5 outfit changes during his birthday party to hosting the Oscars!

 Start at the Top

The latest brilliant addition to our pretend props: a hat collection. B just received some gently used hats from my aunt (a preschool teacher) and now he can change personas in an instant – at the drop of a hat, even! (Couldn’t resist that one!) He’s enjoying being an imaginary policeman, pilot, engineer, sailor, mail carrier, and chef!

 Your Child is the Star in this Book


Seeing B taking on the different occupations reminded me of a book that hasn’t been off the shelf in a while, Mirror, Mirror, What Will I Be? By Chris Inns. We picked this up at a discount store, but it’s always entertaining. There is a circle cut out of the center of each page, through which you can see a mirror on the back page. As your child looks in the mirror, her face becomes part of each character, including a cowboy, a rock star, a diver, a superhero, and an astronaut. Each is gender neutral, and facing pages have a cute rhyme about the character’s actions. This is a board book, and B enjoyed it as a baby simply because of the mirror inside. In fact, we took it for entertainment on car trips several times. As he developed the cognitive ability for fantasy play and recognized the characters more, he worked harder and making his reflection fit just right in the space for the face, and he enjoys the rhymes much more now too. Mirror, Mirror What Will I Be? is a great jumping off point for conversations about occupations and inspiration for pretend play.
Appropriate for babies, toddlers, preschoolers.


What are your favorite pretend games?


I’m linking up with What My Child is Reading this Week – check out some other good reads and link yours up too!

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On Becoming a “Grown-up-Boy”

Tackling Fears

My oldest, B, had his fourth birthday recently (which is why my posts have been a little neglected – sorry friends!) He has decided that a 4-year-old is a grown-up-boy and he is not a “little boy” anymore. In fact, while interviewing him in his birthday journal (found it browsing Amazon – I’ll be posting about it once I get his b-day photos up), I asked him what he is scared by, and his response was, “I’m brave.” While I love that he feels that way about himself, it’s not exactly true… My little guy is troubled by noisy places, dogs, and dark rooms. The latter is one we’re working on a lot; I don’t argue that the dark can be scary, but I’d like him to realize he’s capable of turning on the light and making himself feel better, rather than winding himself up into a nervous tizzy. It would be ever-so-helpful if he could be a little braver about walking down a darkish hallway (in our own house) to the bathroom while I’ve got my hands full with dinner, baby, etc.

A Hazardous Imagination

One of the most entertaining cognitive developments in the preschool age range is the ability to engage in fantasy play. Unfortunately, the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality usually comes along a little later. Once, B was pretending to be visiting an aquarium. We were just sitting down to dinner and I asked him to join us. He responded that he couldn’t get to the table unless I made a hole for him to pass through from the aquarium. I pretended to cut and open a door, and as I did so, a wave of panic washed over his face. He went scurrying into the kitchen, where he cowered in tears. He seemed genuinely afraid, and told me he ran away because when I opened the door I let sharks out all over our house! With some comforting and assurances, we did make it to the dinner table, but I learned a lesson in the power of imagination. A parallel social-emotional development is the perception of the unfamiliar as potentially scary. There are certainly benefits to this development – a healthy dose of fear of the unfamiliar is protective. Dark makes most anything unfamiliar because we are less able to visualize our surroundings, so dark becomes scary.

As I said, we’ve been working on reaching for the light switch without panic. Other strategies have included keeping a flashlight by the bed, nightlights in the bedroom and bathroom, glow stars on the ceiling, leaving the light on in the fish tank, and even glow in the dark pajamas! Of course my favorite tool is a good book.

 Reading Our Way to Bravery


There are lots of books dealing with fears, particularly of the dark, and many geared especially to bedtime (when dark fears crop up most). I am especially fond of Switch On the Night, by Ray Bradbury, because it puts the power in your child’s hands to not only conquer the fear, but learn to appreciate the dark. The book begins with an introduction to a little boy who does not like night. He combats the dark with “lanterns and lamps and flashlights and candles and chandeliers,” and he never leaves his house at night. One night he is visited by a little girl called Dark who notices he is lonely because all the other children are playing outside. Dark explains that the switches the little boy is afraid of don’t turn off the lights, they switch on the night. She also introduces him to some of the more enjoyable night features he can switch on, like crickets, frogs, the stars, and the moon! The illustrations are detailed pencil drawings that beg to be studied, and they really make the night seem magical. By the end of the book, the boy has thrown away all his lights and can be found out on a summer night playing with the other children. We originally checked this one out from the library, but I liked it so much I ordered our own copy so that we can pull it out one in a while when we need a reminder that the dark is not necessarily scary.


Appropriate for (some) toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.


Linked up with:

What My Child Is Reading

Tackle It Tuesday

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Paper or Clothes, Which Will You Wear? A Book and a Craft

A Craft Inspired by Laundry (and blogging)

B’s birthday is approaching, and several family members have asked what he might like. My soon-to-be-4-year-old wants clothes – but not just any clothes – “uniforms.” B loves to dress the part for playtime, which often means he is a soccer player, or a basketball player, or a baseball player, but sometimes he’s a gardener, or a “worker” (his term for wearing a collared shirt and sitting at the computer or working at the table). I’m getting a little tired of the laundry this involves, so I’m telling the family to buy him clothes – if he’s going to go through them like lightning, at least I won’t have to wash every day! But this week I was inspired by Christianne’s Little Page Turners: Rainy Day post. She did an adorable craft with her daughter that involved a paper doll printable. While the little girl with the umbrella wasn’t exactly appropriate for B, it did start the gears turning.

Dressing Up on a Smaller Scale

Let me tell you if you don’t already know… there are a lot of options out there for printable paper dolls. I’ll share just a few that I came across in a very quick search – I make no claim they are the best, just that they work and are easy to find.

• I was looking for a boy doll, and found a simple version at Marilee's Paper Doll Page.
  
  
• At Billy Bear, you (or your child) can “color” the doll and clothes on screen, then print your product.
  
  
• Activity village also has a variety of dolls and more outfits to choose from, but not the “uniforms” I though B would enjoy.
  
  
• I found my favorites at Making Friends. You can print out dolls in a variety of skin tones, and outfits are organized by theme.

You can print out outfits in color or outlines that your child can color in. The outfits don’t have tabs, (the site says they are made to be glued, or suggests using magnets) but since the purpose was for B to change clothes, and I didn’t have magnet sheets at home, I just added a couple tabs as I cut them out. Then I found a cute photo of each of the boys and cropped it down to fit on the doll, printed, cut, and glued. Voila! B can dress himself in any uniform he chooses! While I’m not deluded enough to think that this will totally eliminate B’s frequent wardrobe changes, I am hoping it distracts him long enough to get some laundry done.


A Book with Different Wardrobe Advice

We brought Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? home from the library a while back, but this project reminded me of it, so we checked it out again. This is part of Nancy White Carlstrom’s Jesse Bear series, which are formatted as a series of verses that tell a story. In this one, Jesse Bear is asked what he’ll wear at different times of day, but rather than various “uniforms,” Jesse “wears” his activities: “I’ll wear the sun, on my legs that run, sun on the run in the morning.” The illustrations are detailed and endearing – and I love the way the rhymes and pictures illustrate the course of Jesse’s day.

More Than Just Fashion Advice

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? made a great paper doll connection, but there are other great opportunities as well. When we checked it out before, we focused on the cognitive concepts of times of day and the various activities that take place in the morning, noon, and night. As a poetry fan, I also love the verses, because Nancy White Carlstrom’s rhymes go beyond the typical couplets of a rhyming book. Each page can be read as an independent poem, or as part of the narrative string. This style may make it easier for little ones to identify rhyming words because they don’t stretch from page to page. The other fun thing unique to this Jesse Bear selection is that we can discuss fantasy/reality as we read. Can Jesse really wear the sun? Or his rice? That’s debatable, but it’s what makes a good discussion! We like Jesse Bear, and we’ve read several of the series. Maybe if I’m inspired to create another activity, you’ll see another Jesse Bear post.


Appropriate for toddlers, preschool, primary grades.


I’m linking up with Janna at The Adventure of Motherhood for Feed Me Books Friday, and “Meme’s the Word” on Saturdays at Lemon Drop Pie.

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I’m Dreaming of a Good Bedtime Book…

Can You Plant the Seeds of Dreams?

It seems that my dreams are often populated by a mixed up conglomeration of the day’s events and the random thoughts or worries that crowd my brain before I drift off to sleep. B’s dreams often seem to be directly correlated to the books we read before bedtime, or sometimes to the stories Daddy tells. I think it’s been almost a year now that B has been able to remember and articulate what he dreams about, and to differentiate it from reality. This ability comes at different ages for different children, but it’s intriguing no matter what. Haven’t you ever gazed at your sleeping child and wondered what she is dreaming about? Babies are even more curious – as little grimaces and grins cross their sleeping faces, I can’t help but wonder what experiences could be prompting those emotions in their dreams.

My Totally Unscientific Theory

I have no studies or research to back me up here, other than my own parenting experience, but it seemed to me that if B could understand that dreams were not really happening, that might make any scary dreams a little less threatening. So we’ve talked about dreams a lot before bedtime. Sometimes we even make a plan to try to dream about something in particular. A few times B has even invited me to join him in his dreams, and I can only hope I get there! I am a sucker for a good bedtime book that might start out with a reluctant child but ends up with a peaceful sleeper (see my post on Mother, Mother I Want Another). So, when we came across Close Your Eyes, it fit the bill and then some. Not only does reluctant Little Tiger finally surrender to sleep, but Mother Tiger prepares him for dreamland along the way!

Handling Bedtime Stall Tactics

Close Your Eyes, by written by Kate Banks and illustrated by Georg Hallensleben, opens with Little Tiger’s efforts to evade his nap. He complains that if he closes his eyes he won’t be able to see the sky or trees or birds, and Mother counters that they may be even more fantastic in his dreams. But when Little Tiger considers flying like a bird, some worries set in: what if he falls? Or gets lost? Mother Tiger assures him that she’ll catch him, or find him, so there is nothing to be scared of, so Little Tiger begins to imagine some of the amazing things he could do in his dreams. I love the secure feeling imparted at the end of the book, when Little Tiger asks if the dreams will be gone when he wakes. Mother Tiger answers, “Yes, but I will be here.”


What is the Difference between Imagination and Dreams?

The line between imaginary play and dreaming is hard to explain to a little one. Developing a vivid imagination is important to the ability to think abstractly which is crucial for understanding the relationship between symbols and meaning in reading. On the other hand, understanding the difference between fantasy and reality is important for safety’s sake and for handling the inevitable bad dream. One way to help make the difference a little clearer: talk with your child about the decision making involved. During imaginary play, she decides what pretend events occur, and when she decides to stop pretending, the game is over. Dreams are different, because they occur without that decision-making process, but when a dream ends, the experience is over just the same. Explaining this to B hasn’t completely prevented some late night cuddle sessions to console a bad dream, but I’m glad he knows that like Mother Tiger, I’ll always be there when he wakes up.


Appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.

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Beyond Bedtime: Make Your Travel Plans with Good Night America

From a Classic Bedtime Story:

Goodnight Moon became a trusted bedtime friend early in B’s infancy. As his language skills improved, he began to chime in or fill in the blanks as I read - an indicator of the success of the repetition, rhythm, and rhyme of the story. Admittedly, I found it a little odd to wish the comb, brush, and bowl full of mush a goodnight, but there is something quite lulling in the cadence of the book, and the final lines are especially soothing and peaceful: “Goodnight stars, goodnight air. Goodnight noises, everywhere.”

 

To an Up-to-Date Exploration Book Series:

Our comfort with Goodnight Moon contributed to the interest piqued in Adam Gamble’s Good Night World series. I purchased Good Night America first, and have since added Good Night California, Good Night Hawaii, Good Night World, Good Night Beach, and Good Night Zoo to our collection. Soothing cadences of rhythm and rhyme they are not, but they are reading treasures nonetheless.

One page reads, “Greetings, Everglades, home to alligators and so many other creatures.” (Good Night America) The structure of the text is appropriate for toddlers, but parents and caregivers will find themselves surprised by the complexity of the vocabulary introduced in a board book. Sometimes the word introduced is a proper noun, like Everglades, giving you the opportunity to discuss this person or place. Perhaps you already have some experience with it or maybe you’ll consider including it in your next family vacation.


 Travel Plans:
We have hopes to share some of the features of the book with B and T, like the Everglades, Grand Canyon, and California Redwoods. B is old enough to be curious about where these things are, and he can make the connection that the pictures in the books show something real. Reading about those elements we are familiar with invites discussion of our experiences and memories. Good Night America also features a desert, a beach, and a big city: places we can relate to our travels. B is pictured here with his papa admiring the “bright city lights” of Las Vegas.

The Sprout Connection:
Children learn what they are exposed to – this vocabulary is not too difficult provided it is supported by an adult reader who doesn’t rush through cover to cover. B has learned to recite several of this series along with us – challenging vocabulary and all. The key to making this an opportunity for growth and meaning is not just teaching your child to recite the words, but to enrich her vocabulary and her knowledge of the world around her through reading, illustration, and discussion. And if you have the opportunity to support the reading experience with a real-life field trip, that knowledge will be further deepened.


Your Developing Child:
The opportunities for cognitive development are many with this series – as I mentioned, the vocabulary affords many learning opportunities. What I love most though, is the opportunity to connect the books to reality, whether that’s on a family vacation or a visit to a local zoo. Differentiating between fantasy and reality is a cognitive skill acquired during the preschool years, but that doesn’t mean we have to wait until then to discuss it – compare Goodnight Moon to Good Night America with your child. Which characters and places are real and which are not? Also, engage your child in discussion of the places in the books that you have visited. Did you visit today? Yesterday? Months ago? Will you go there soon? Discussion of the passage of time will help to solidify his or her concept of time and memory – another preschool developmental milestone.


Appropriate for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, on up!


Have you read any books with your child that made you want to call the travel agent? Tell me about them!

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