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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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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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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