Many of you made New Year’s resolutions to do more with your children or to be better parents. The bloggers of the Kid Blogger Network are hosting a ABC event that will probably cover the area you wanted to work on. There are posts that contain lists with related post on Mom Tips and Tricks, School Activities, Learning Through Play, Literacy and Arts and Crafts.
Due to the fact that I host a weekly link up based on exploring concepts discussed in children’s books called Read.Explore.Learn, I thought my ABC list should be about about exploring books.
When I was a classroom teacher, I used books to introduce new concepts to my students all the time. Not every child came school with the same experiential background. By reading a book on a topic those who need some foundation building learned some facts on that topic and those that had already learned about that topic had their mind refreshed.
After reading a book, I think it is helpful for children to make a learning connection to the concepts that have just read. There are so many ways to explore books.
Today we will look at activities from A-H. Tomorrow I will cover activities from I-Q and on Friday I will share activities from R-Z.
Here are some of exploring books that we have tried at my house and others I have admired found on other blogs:
A
Album of Book Related Concepts
Animal Snack
After reading the book Night Tree last Christmas, we made a snack for the birds to have and hung it from a tree we planted for JDaniel in our year.
Acting Out a Story
Whether it is the child acting out the story or having them use toys to do so helps them share what the story was about and what they learned from it. We used stuffed rabbits to retell the story Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!
B
Bring a Meal
Bringing a meal like breakfast you made for Mom on Mother’s Day is a way to extend the concepts you heard in a book based on Mother’s Day.
Bug Counting
Simple materials like bug shaped erasers and bug box can be used to explore the counting concepts covered in a book like One Little Blueberry.
C
Craft Furniture
If a book has a specific piece of furniture that is featured in it, like the bed in Princess and the Pea. You can crease a simple bed with construction paper.
Compare to Another Story
After reading one book on farm life, JDaniel and I read another farm themed book. We then talked about the similarities and differences of the books.
Cookie Cutter Retelling
We happen to have a lot of cookie cutters at our house. It is fun to search through our bins of cookie cutters to find ones that relate to a story we have read. We can then use them to retell the story just as we did when we read Room for a Little One about the animals around Jesus in the manger.
Cards
After reading a Christmas story last year, JDaniel helped me make homemade thank you notes to send to friends and family.
Craft a Flower
Cook a Dessert
My family loves haystack cookies so, after reading a book about a scarecrow we made some for dessert.
D
Dough Ornaments
Dough ornaments are fun to make. We made some last year after reading a book about Christmas ornaments.
Design Cardboard Transport System
After reading the book The Red Sled, we made a sled for JDaniel’s bear Ted to ride on just like the bear in the book.
E
Experiment with Concepts
JDaniel and I read a book about a world of ice cream and then we made our own ice cream by rolling a coffee can back and forth.
Eat a Snack Based on a Character
Just last month JDaniel and I had a snack based on the Hobbit after reading a simple picture book based on the book.
Experience Concepts of a Story
Last summer right before going to the beach we read a book about tide pools and when we went to the beach we build one.
Explore Emotions
After reading a book on pumpkins that talked about emotions, we played with a felt pumpkins emotions activity and talked about feelings.
F
Fake or Pretend Play
We haven’t had a lot of snow here in South Carolina, after reading a book about snow we played with fake snow (cotton balls) in a sensory bin.
Field Trips
Field Trips are a great way to extend concepts from a books. We have gone to visit an apple orchard after reading about one as well as a local garden after reading a garden related book.
Finger Puppets
Creating finger puppets like an elephant made of a recycled cd or a turkey out of a cardboard box are wonderful tools for retelling or extending a story.
G
Grab Similar Toys and Pretend
You may not always have a toy that is just like the characters in a book, but you can grab similar ones or have the toy pretend they are the character. We did that with a book based on ocean animals.
H
Hand Puppet
Help a Character Dress Up
A simple outline of a character can be dressed up in clothes that wore in the story with cloth, paper, or other craft elements.
Reminder: Tomorrow I will be sharing ABCs of Exploring Books with Children- Part Two: I-P
- Books for Preschoolers from Mommy and Me Book Club
- Early Literacy from Playdough to Plato
- Graphic Novels from Pragmatic Mom
- Learning to Read Through Play from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
- Learning to Write from NurtureStore
- Reading Comprehension for Pre K-Grade 1 from The Wise Owl Factory
- Storytelling from A Mom with a Lesson Plan
Excellent recap of some of the fun activities you all have done!
This is a great list of activities. It looks like your kids have so much fun. I love the elephant cd puppet.
I love how you use things most families would have just lying around the house like erasers or cookie cutters! Also, I pinned your elephant finger puppet. Too cute!
we love reading books and incorporating crafts or activities that pertain to the book. I leave book low on the shelf because my little ones love to sit and look at books.
Great list of activities!! All your ideas are easy to follow, and surprisingly I have most of the stuff you used at my house! I might just have to do something like this with my boys!
Such wonderful ideas (Love the elephant CD btw!) Can’t wait to see the next post. Have pinned this for later reference
What a great list of fun and engaging ideas! I love the Princess and the Pea project! And how cute is the Fox in Socks puppet! Great post!
A great list and I love the elephant cd and the fox sock puppet. Soo cute!
Great ideas! I’m sure my kids would enjoy them! Thanks!
These are all wonderful ideas and photos. I’d love to use your Fox Sock Puppet under P for puppets in my ABC series.
Wonderful ideas! I really like the cookie cutter idea!
Such a great list! I love that fox puppet!
Some great ideas! Thank you for sharing them. Simple and totally doable- just the thing I was looking for.
You have such an amazing variety and you are a HUGE resource for moms everywhere. What a wonderful and informative post!! I love some of these ideas… the puppets especially!
I wish I would’ve thought of turning more of our odd socks into puppets when my girls were younger. They make so much more sense than a paper bag because they fit so simply on their hands. Great list of fun activities! Happy 2013!
I never thought of doing this type of thing when my kids were small, but I certainly wish I had!
=)
what a wealth of information! thank you!!
Welcome to a new Linky Party for Kid-Focused Bloggers. Monday Kid Corner is a place to share your kid-friendly activities and crafts. Please join us at http://www.mondaykidcorner.blogspot.com. See you there!
Aw- how cute!! What a great idea to learn! I am sure Zane would love this!
Thanks for all these great ideas! I sometimes feel like I get into a “read the book, make a craft” rut. I will definitely be trying out some of these 🙂
Oh, these are SO fantastic!! I can’t tell you how much I wish I had a list like this when my kids were little! Fantastic!!
thanks for sharing all of this. looking forward to the other ways you are going to share this week!
Love these! I pinned them so I wouldn’t loose them…
Love the ideas! Can’t wait to see the rest of the series. 🙂
Fun ideas! I love the picture in the header.
oooh the pumpkin emotion activity is a fantastic idea!