Feed Me Books Friday: Family Fishing

Catching Some Fun

B loves any activity that means he gets to hang out with the big guys, so he was thrilled when Daddy suggested a whole weekend of REAL fishing at a REAL river. I emphasize real because B does a lot of role-playing, which includes pretend fishing. Daddy brought home a Spiderman fishing rod from a trip to the sporting goods store a couple years ago already. It has a plastic fish on the end of the line, and B has used it to practice casting out of his treehouse, into the pool, and sitting in the bed of the truck in the driveway. When we arrived at the river and Daddy set up the lines, B didn’t have a lot of patience for letting his line attract a bite, but he did enjoy doing some casting with a REAL fishing pole!


Some Kid Expertise

The book I picked to set the mood for our fishing weekend was actually one we’d borrowed before from the library. It is a fun blend of fiction and non-fiction from a boy’s point of view. If you have a fishing family – or think you might want to give it a shot, check out A Good Day’s Fishing, by James Prosek. When I decided to check out the book again in preparation for our fishing weekend, I checked to see if there were any similar books by the author and discovered that Prosek is actually an accomplished fisherman who has written several books for adults, and illustrated several of them with the same beautiful watercolors you’ll find in his picture book. The text is written simply and progresses as the child searches through his tackle box for the item he needs. As he identifies tools in the box, he also identifies some of the fish these specialized tools are made to catch. Some of the items he discovers (like a rotting sandwich) add humor and make the narrator a realistic young boy. In good picture book form, the missing item is located on the last page of the story, and it will bring a smile to your face, but I think I’ll leave it to you to discover. Definitely some cognitive development if you focus on all the fishing vocabulary (if that is indeed your focus, be aware these are mainly fly-fishing tools). I was after the preparation and rehearsal tool – getting our cognitive schema in line for our weekend activities – and it totally fit the bill.

Appropriate for: preschoolers, primary grades


A programming note: I’ll be posting about some of our Thanksgiving reading choices on Tuesday next week, so be sure to stop by to check out our books and a couple crafts. I won’t be posting on Thursday or Friday (I’ll be enjoying the holiday – hope you will too!) But I will put up a linky on Wednesday, and you are welcome to add an early post or drop in over the weekend if you have some time. I’ll be sure to visit after the bustle of the holiday. If you choose to take the week off, hope you’ll be back in December!


Please share your book recommendations by linking up, and visit some of the other links to find some great suggestions!

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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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