Feed Me Books Friday: I Spy, In the Rearview Mirror

Two Happy Road-Trippers

Rather than a big summer vacation, we’ve made several shorter jaunts this year – which has meant a considerable amount of time on the road. As a result, I’ve been on the lookout for car-friendly entertainment. Scored a Crayola dry-erase lap board on clearance at Target, found travel scavenger hunt cards in the dollar bin at Joann’s, and we keep the portable DVD charged and stowed under the backseat just in case. But my favorite find this season has been a toy combined with (you guessed it) a book!

Look – in the backseat – it’s a toy, it’s a book, no it’s a lifesaver!

Ok, so lifesaver might be a better descriptor for the carseats my kids are riding in, but I really had no idea how cool this would be when I ordered it! I have had my eye on I Play’s Peek a Book Bags for some time now – car toy, church toy, diaper bag toy – many possibilities. Then I as I was checking for new options and price drops, I found the Peek a Boo Pack. It combines the Everything A to Z Peek a Boo bag with a board book in a travel friendly fabric case. The bag is made of cloth with a clear vinyl window. Inside, tiny plastic and rubber objects representing all the letters of the alphabet are hidden among tiny white beads. The user (you’ll find this as entertaining as your child) manipulates the beads by squishing and turning the bag while peeking through the window to find the objects. The book features pictures and rhymes highlighting the hidden items and giving children a master list as well as increased motivation to search for them. We had a blast with it on a recent 4 hour car trip. Not only did we search for the objects as directed by the book, but we made up our own games like who could find objects the fastest, finding objects in alphabetical order, finding an object then identifying its beginning sound, and finding an object then challenging a partner. I also purchased the Language Development Eye Spy Bag; while it does not include a book, it does come tagged with a card giving suggestions for vocabulary building activities like practicing letters, colors, shapes, even prepositions, and pronouns. By having two bags we avoided sharing issues and both are definitely entertaining. Your child can benefit from both the cognitive as well as the physical challenge of finding the objects among the beads. This is an item that will be part of my travel bag from now on – B even asked for one this week during a short ride to the grocery store!

Appropriate for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.

photo courtesy M Kuhn via Flickr

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Feed Me Books Friday: Learning and Laughing

Less “Lazy Days”

I can’t believe the start of school is less than a month away! I had grand plans for all the academic practice I would do with B this summer to make sure he didn’t slide backward in any of the skills he honed in preschool. What do they say about the best laid plans? That’s not to say he didn’t learn this summer. He’s been a backyard explorer, a road-trip navigator, a shopping assistant, an eager participant in the library summer reading program, and a teacher to his brother. I still want to make sure we brush up on those 3 Rs before kindergarten begins, so I’ve been trying to be sure we include some letters and numbers in our daily play. An easy way to review and refresh is with thoughtful book choices.

Riddle and Review

One of our summer library finds that was quickly added to our purchasing wishlist is Q is for Duck, An Alphabet Guessing Game, by Mary Elting and Michael Folsom. While the title might sound initially confusing, I’ll bet you can figure it out… How is Q related to a duck? (Quack!) The layout of the book is what really makes it fun. The letter is introduced in one spread with an illustrating clue: “A is for Zoo. Why?” The answer is not revealed until you turn the page, allowing you and your child to make an educated guess at the target word before checking your answer. This is also an excellent opportunity for letter sound practice:

• Does zoo begin with A?
• What letter does zoo begin with?
• What sound does A make?
• Is there anything in a zoo that begins with A?
• Do you see anything in the picture that begins with A?

B loves riddles and puzzles, so the Q and A format of the book and the picture clues are really engaging for him. I love that he’s reviewing the letter sounds and exercising those cognitive muscles of deduction.

More Puzzler Practice

A fun craft for letter recognition is the clothespin match wheels by confessions of a homeschooler. Your child can practice lowercase and capital letter matching as well as matching letters to pictures with the beginning sound. Also great for letter sound practice is the alphabet wheel found at a to z phonics where your child can match the letter to a picture beginning with its sound in the window flap. We made both – the turning wheel and opening flaps are a hit, but need to be laminated or made from cardstock (or both) to be durable. The clothespin matchup is fun with a time challenge or as a waiting game. We used smaller size clothespins from the craft aisle at the dollar tree to make less weighty.

Appropriate for: preschoolers, primary grades.

image courtesy Tim Harrison, fotopedia.com

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Feed Me Books Friday: Sensory Stimulation (and other great vocabulary…)

Never Out of Style

Some of our favorite board books have been languishing on the shelves or in the book bins since B has been voraciously devouring “fresh” books from the library each week with a newfound passion for the unfamiliar. However, thanks to T’s continued (albeit slow) progress toward literary appreciation, we’re enjoying a re-introduction to some beloved titles. I’m discovering that as much as I enjoy some of the books we’ve borrowed (and often renewed) there is a reason I purchased many of the board books we own. The classics are classics for a reason, or for many reasons. And board books are ideal because they are so durable and inviting!

Leave the Dictionary on the Shelf

Our latest renewed affection is for We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. If you’re unfamiliar, the basic story line is thus: Father and children head out into the wilderness to find a bear. Must conquer much challenging terrain. Find bear and hurriedly retrace steps to hunker down safely at home. While the suspenseful trip home and climactic barring of the door generates some fun adrenaline, it is not the plot that makes this story so engaging. Rosen’s treatment of the traditional song makes it enjoyable for readers and listeners alike. The rhythm and repetition of the text is buoyant and fun, begs for pre-readers to join in, and perfectly punctuated by the alliterative sensory descriptors chosen for each geographic challenge. The family travels through “swishy swashy” grass and trudges “squelch squerch” through the mud. The descriptive words are great for building vocabulary and for enriching cognitive concepts of each place being described.


More on the Menu

Opportunities to expand on We’re Going on a Bear Hunt with art, literacy, and games are plentiful, but here’s a few of my favorite suggestions:

• Define and internalize those fun descriptive words by applying them to food (and then playing with it)! Think squelch squerch pudding, swishy swashy carrot tops or herb bunches, splash splosh ice cubes into water, creating a puff of blizzard blindness with a hoo-woo through a straw into some loose flour, stumble-tripping over pretzel “sticks” and walnut “rocks,” and grains of rice tip-toeing in an empty margarine tub or yogurt cup. You can find a pdf file of the words flash-card style at schoolsnet.
  
  
• Practice retelling and ordering the story using pictures and/or key phrases. Great activity for flannel board, but also fun for book-making. Kizclub has printable graphics and matching word strips.
  
  
• Focus on the spatial vocabulary highlighted in the repeated lines, “we can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, oh no, we’ll have to go through it!” Discuss what kind of obstacles we might try to go over, under, and through. Schoolsnet has matching word and picture cards for practice if you need inspiration.

Appropriate for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.
What books to you return to again and again? What makes you come back?

 
Please link up your book recommendations or activities, visit some others you find here, and if you just can’t get enough, check out more book-lovers at Read.Explore.Learn!

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Bodies and Bones

What are they for?

When we got out our Halloween decorations, the skeleton prompted some questions from B about what’s inside our bodies and how they work. We’ve also been talking about Real and Pretend from last week’s preschool theme, which is timely to address some of the Halloween decorations and costumes. We talked about how a skeleton has a head, body, arms, hands, legs, and feet just like us. We posed the skeleton in various positions and then copied him with our own bodies – and then we found a good book to go with our play.

I Can Do It!

Eric Carle’s From Head to Toe is a fun book to play along with as you read, and has the added benefit of both cognitive and motor development as children learn about body parts and then practice using them. Each page features a different animal performing an action with a specific body part: the giraffe bends its neck, the cat arches its back, etc. Younger children will enjoy learning the names of body parts, while older children will refine their cognitive concept of those parts by comparing their own bodies to those of the animals. We enjoy reading this book like a game of Simon Says. B is pretty adept at mimicking the animal movements now, but T continues to learn more body part names, and enjoys the show B puts on.


Starting Simple

While T may not be quite ready for the games in From Head to Toe, he does know several body parts, and we have fun practicing and learning more with I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak. The playful text and illustrations identify both physical and intangible things to love. Not only do we love hands and eyes, but also behaviors like giggles, and personalities, like “your silly side.” We like giving kisses or raspberries on each body part mentioned. T isn’t quite ready yet, but B enjoyed demonstrating the behaviors and emotions. This is just a fun cuddle-up book, but it also makes a really nice precursor to the more active From Head to Toe.


Real and Pretend

As we talked about all the things our bodies can do, B became more and more curious about how it works! We recently received a book from Grandma that helped with some of the explanations. Outside-In, by Clare Smallman is a through reference book of kid-friendly text and lift-the-flap illustrations that answers questions like “What is blood?” “Does food go into our legs?” and “Why Do I Get Goosebumps?” At 32 pages, it’s a lot of information to take in at once, but we read a section at a time, and paged through all the pictures even without the text. Topics include skin, muscles, blood and circulation, lungs, bones and teeth, and digestion. Flaps help children picture the muscles, vessels, and organs inside them that are discussed in the text. It’s a book we’ll keep handy for answering more of B’s questions as they arise.

A fun read that emphasizes the importance of understanding our bodies and knowing the difference between real and pretend is Tedd Arnold’s Parts. The rhyming text and comical illustrations chronicle a boy’s escalating concern that his body is falling apart when he notices lost hair, peeling skin, and even a booger mistaken for a piece of brain! He is finally assured by his parents that his panic is unnecessary and all these parts are made to be lost and regenerated. There are some facts to be learned from the story, but emphasizing that the boy’s fears of falling apart are unfounded is important for the younger crowd. Arnold’s sequels, More Parts, and Even More Parts revolve around all of the bodily idioms that fill our vocabulary, like a broken heart or laugh your head off. While B has a pretty good grasp of the way many of these are used in every day speech, the humor of the literal (mis)understanding is a little beyond him, so I’m keeping those on the “for later” shelf.
There’s a little something for everyone here, so I’m saying:
Appropriate for: Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Primary Grades
Come join We Play at Childhood 101 and show off your great ideas at ABC and 123’s Show and Tell.


Come back Wednesday for a body-part related book-giveaway! And don’t forget to link up your own book recommendations Friday at Feed Me Books Friday!

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Feed Me Books Friday: Exploring Art

Look What I Found!

The book I want to share this week is one of those lucky library finds that found its way off the shelf and into our favorite books pile. It’s no secret that hiding games and seek and find books are popular around here. I feel like the winner after finding this treasure on the library shelf.


Lots to Discover

Both B and I are enjoying I Spy a Lion: Animals in Art, by Lucy Micklethwait. As you might guess from the title, readers are challenged to find animals in the illustrations of the book. What you might not guess is that the art in question is composed of full-color reproductions of famous works ranging from classical to modern and including artists from Titian to Peter Blume. On the facing page of each reproduction, the reader is challenged in the classic game style, “I spy with my little eye…” Some of the animals are prominent features, even the subjects, of the artwork; others are more challenging and obscure details.


More than Fun and Games

Besides being thoroughly entertaining, I Spy a Lion, along with others in Micklethwait’s series, exposes children to great works of art and engages them in viewing it in a critical way. The art is not presented as spectacular in any way other than disguising the subjects of the game. But the act of searching for each animal and discussing the content of each work exposes children to not only viewing but experiencing these masterpieces. Once we found the animals identified in the text, we scanned the art for other objects to “Spy” and continued the game. Other books in the series include Shapes in Art, Colors in Art, Numbers in Art, An Alphabet in Art, and Transportation in Art. Sharing these books with your child is a cognitive double-dip: exposure to fantastic art and practice with developmentally appropriate themes and vocabulary. We’ll be requesting the rest of the series from our library for sure, and likely picking them up to add to our personal collection as well.
Appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades, everyone!


Are masterpieces lost on the toddler set, or are they worth the effort to share? Don’t forget to link up your own recommendations below!


 

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Play with Logic and Spatial Skills

You’re Getting Warmer…
Hide and Seek and Peek-a-boo are timeless games around any home with children, and here is no exception. The warmer/colder game is a fun twist on hiding play. Sometimes B (or more often Mommy or Daddy) gets tired of hiding under the stifling blanket and waiting to be found (especially in the heat of summer)! We take turns with B hiding objects inside and out:

On the bookshelf...

In the couch cushions...

On the bed...

Even in the bathtub!

...and in the garden.

Then we give clues to find them: “You’re getting warmer, warmer, now colder, warmer, hot!” Sometimes we also practice spatial cues, including higher, lower, left, right, near, and far, for an extra cognitive challenge. B loves to be the clue giver as much as the hunter, and I love that he’s practicing academic vocabulary while he’s having a good time. Sometimes we hide several objects at once, sort of like an easter egg hunt, and it becomes a memory challenge as well. Occasionally B gets so caught up in finding good hiding spots, that the object disappears for a day or two until we come across it again in another game!

Backseat Hide and Seek
I’ve capitalized on this interest in searching for hidden objects to make car rides and waiting at the doctor or restaurant more fun as well. There are several great books that introduce kids to the concept of searching for hidden pictures without being quite as complex or challenging as the famous Where’s Waldo? We enjoy the Little First Look and Find series for independent play/reading because they’re sturdy board books and each page has a picture bank of items to find, so word recognition is not required. Some of the I Spy series has this feature as well, and B enjoys the more challenging I Spy Books when he has a grown-up to help with the reading. We recently purchased Hide and Seek in Colors, which has a magnifying glass on a ribbon that tucks in the front cover; and while it isn’t really necessary, it makes the seeking more fun, and having a physical object to seek with allows us to practice our warmer/colder game.

Appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades (depending on complexity and independence)


Come Play at the We Play link up at Childhood 101


Stop by Friday and share a book or two at Feed Me Books Friday!

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