Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie into children’s books.
I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.
Steps:
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- Link your activity below.
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Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.
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Please try to visit at least three of the other people who have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.
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If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
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This week we read the book Don’t Worry Douglas! is given a new knit hat by his dad and he is asked to be careful with it. Douglas barely makes it out of the house when his hat snags on a tree and is destroyed. His hat is unraveled and he doesn’t want to tell his dad. David Melling’s Douglas is a lot like a lot of children who are afraid to tell their parents when they have done things wrong.
Douglas tries to seek advice on how to fix his hat from his friends. Most of them would just like the yarn for their homes but, they do try and tell him to talk to his dad.
In the end, Douglas does talk to his dad and his dad does understand. He does remind Douglas to be careful with the replacement hat he gives him right off his head.
Of course, he reminded him of that with the first hat too.
I love the reminders in this book to listen and be willing to share when mistakes happen. JDaniel and I talked about both of these concepts after reading the book.
What did we do?
Craft a Bear and a Mom Lesson
This craft was more about me listening than JDaniel painting his Don’t Worry Douglas! bear.
I cut out a bear out of a brown paper grocery bag and set out brown paint with a sponge to paint it.
JDaniel told me that he didn’t want Douglas to be brown. He wanted him to be blue, green, and black.
I thought about forcing him to paint him brown so that I could have a brown bear for this post and decided that it wasn’t that important. What was important was to listen to what he wanted to do!
When he had finished painting, I said it was time to add eyes, a nose, and a mouth. JDaniel declared the project as done. I said that it would be fine with me.
When he left the room, I seriously thought about adding facial features to the bear. Then I thought about what I would be saying to him about listening. If I had added facial features I might have been telling him that it wasn’t okay and that I had to sneak in a face to have it be right. That is not a lesson I want him to learn.
Sometimes crafts may need to be finished the way I see them. This craft did not have to be that way.
If you like this bear craft, here are some more bear activities.
Printable Bear About Colors Activities
That book looks so cute. I will have to see if our library carries it. Happy New Year to you!
That book looks adorable and what a great craft! I’m following from Mom Loop Follow Friday!
I think you’re wise to embrace the multicolored bear 🙂
I think the bear is just cute the way it is 🙂
great job on the listening… i am still working on that with broxton 🙂
The craft sounds something familiar at our home! It happens often now a days! and I have started following my daughter instructions for crafts:-) The bear looks so adorable!
My kids told me once (after they had grown up) that their favorite crafts were those which didn’t have to come out in a specific way. That makes total sense to me, so I’m glad you let the bear be. I think it’s perfect.
I love that you left the bear without a face!
Thanks for linking up to Learning Laboratory at Mama Smiles =)
I love that story! The bear craft looks fun. I’m starting animals with the kids and can always use a craft to go along with the theme. Thanks!
What an important lesson you learned yourself and taught JDaniel. Essentially, you taught him to trust himself. Great job, Mom!
And that is why you are a good mama. So easy to want to fix it- but it is their creation so it makes it perfect. Sounds like a cute story
Some wise lessons you were teaching each other. And you did totally right. It’s always difficult with painting and drawing, it all lies in the eye of the beholder, or the artist, doesn’t it?
I think the color Douglas is very cool!
Cute bear project, I’ll have to try it with my boys. I’m stopping by from Mom Loop Follow Friday too! 🙂
Thanks for hosting…I think the bear turned out great 🙂 What a great lesson for us to remember as well – to listen to our kids.. thank you.
~MiaB
http://www.mamamiasheart2heart.com
Oh my goodness, what a great idea for a linky! I cannot wait to explore all of these links, but first I want to tell you thanks for visiting my blog. Also, you are everywhere, Momma! I see your name all over the place: twitter, commenting on other people’s blogs, etc. You’re a cyber rock star. 🙂 ~Julie
So much fun! My girls want to do most of their crafting on their own now. I still enjoy it when they let me join in or need my help. Makes me giddy!
I think you did great in listening to him! When I do crafts with my kids I always remind myself to let them have a free hand at it and stop myself from making them do what I feel is right.
What a great message for kids. It is always hard for me to try and listen especially to a two year old and I have to make a bigger effort.
I love that you let JDaniel do his own thing! The bear turn out cute! That would be the perfect book for my 3-year-old. He’s always afraid to tell me when he breaks something of spills.
I struggle with the “my vision” verses their “vision” problem a lot. They don’t see the projects the way I do.
The book and the craft both sound great–I’m ordering it from the library!
Sounds like a great book! And I love that you learned a lesson too LOL
Thanks for the linky. I love reading about everybody’s book activities!
Lori @ Cachey Mama’s Classroom
I’m quickly learning this lesson as well it’s a hard one as a teacher I knew what students were going to produce at the end and what they needed to achieve – with a toddler it’s so very different and I’m having to take a step back. We’re starting this year with 1 book related craft/activity and I’m looking forward to linking up again in the future Thank you
I think for young children very much is about them exploring a colour, a material, a technique, rather than them creating a particular thing. It’s great to read how you were so careful to listen to him and respect his intentions. And the bear looks great!
Good for you, Momma, for not changing his art piece!
Sounds like a fun book … and I love the way you listened to JDaniel! I stumbled your post and pinned it to my Literature-Based Activities Pinterest board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/literature-based-activities/