Muddle and Match

It is finally starting to feel like fall around here! I am loving and hating that. I love the weather changing but I also hate that it is getting colder. Spencer LOVES to play outside. He doesn't care what the weather is like, he wants to be outside. It is nice that he wants to be outdoors but this mamma gets cold after awhile and wants to come inside. I have been thinking of some fun things to do inside for when I when I need to warm up. We of course have been reading TONS of books, playing with play dough, coloring, etc. The other day we were reading Muddle and Match and I realized what great books those are! These books are great for children of all ages. There are an abundance of possibilities for learning with these books. Here are a few ideas:

Babies and toddlers

• Let them flip through the pages. Spencer loves to just turn the pages in these books. The pages are a little different then his normal books. He loves seeing his creations that he makes.
• Talk about body parts.

Preschoolers

• These books are fantastic for building phonemic awareness! Have your child clap, stomp, shake when they hear a certain beginning sound. This is an activity that my preschoolers loved to do and it really helped them to be able to hear the differences in sounds.
• Introduce top, middle, and bottom. The pages on these books are separated into thirds. While reading the story tell your child to turn a certain section (top, middle, or bottom).

Elementary

• Have them create their own version of Muddle and Match. They can create their own creatures, animals, or people and then come up with the story. This activity will promote creativity and alliteration.
• Have a competition to see who can come up with the most creations in the book.

There are 4 different titles in this series: Adventure, Imagine, Jungle Animals, and Monsters. You can see the entire collection here.

See Inside Your Body

Today's post is on See Inside Your Body by Katie Daynes and Colin King. This is a fun, interactive, informative book that children of all ages will enjoy. It has interesting illustrations, tons of flaps, and is packed full of facts about your amazing body.

You can purchase this fantastic book here

I love this book because it informs kids about their body without dumbing it down, it has thick cardboard like pages and sturdy flaps that will hold up well to children. It also has some internet links which mean you can get even more information by going to the website listed at the back of the book.

I also love that there are so many learning extensions you can do from this book. I searched Pinterest for 'body activities' and came up with a whole slew of fantastic ideas. There were ideas for all parts of the body; blood, brain, bones, lungs, senses, etc. If you are stuck and need some ideas I recommend searching Pinterest. Why reinvent the wheel?

I wanted to be able to do an activity with Spencer this week so my main focus as I was searching Pinterest was to come up with some way to teach Spencer about his body. I found this super cute idea of making a face using felt. I thought, "I have felt! I have scissors. I can totally make that for him!" To be fun and holiday-ish I decided to make a pumpkin face.

Here is the pumpkin face I made.

 I glued the stem onto the pumpkin and I also glued the iris to the eyeball.

Spencer of course immediately ripped off my carefully glued stem! So much for that idea ;)

 Spencer loved this activity! He would walk around the house with the parts and then would run back and put them onto the face.

This is his finished work

We are still working on where all the parts go but I believe with some practice he will get it. As he would put on a part I would say what it was and also say the name and point to where it was on him (eye, nose, mouth). This really was so much fun and easy to make. If you are like me you stock up on felt whenever it goes on sale at Michael's or Hobby Lobby. You never know when you are going to need some felt ;).

What are some of your ideas for teaching your kids about their bodies?

Big Pig on a Dig

My nieces and nephew were over today. While the  two older ones were playing with some friends, Paisley and I sat down to read a story. We chose to read Big Pig on a Dig by Phil Roxbee Cox and Stephen Cartwright. This story is part of the Ted and Friends collection.

In this story Big Pig finds a map that leads to a treasure chest full of gold. He follows the map and starts digging and digging. The only thing he finds is a rabbit. Big Pig learns that his friend Fat Cat made up the map for fun. Paisley thought this was hilarious that Big Pig got tricked. She decided she wanted to trick her brother and sister by making a map that will lead to a "cake". I thought this was an excellent idea so we got out our supplies and map the map.

Spencer's contribution to the map making was eating the crayons. ;)

We left the map on the door for Maddie and Jaxson to come find. They followed the map only to find that the "cake" was a picture of a cake. They didn't think this was very amusing but Paisley reveled in their disappointment! Score one for the little sister!

I'm a Dirty Dinosaur

My goal with this blog is to give parents ideas of how to make books fun for them and their children. Today I read I'm a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian and Ann James. This is one of Spencer's favorite books. Whenever he sees it, he starts growling like a dinosaur.  It is so much fun! I love sitting down and reading with him. Spencer is 15 months old. His attention span is not very long. When I read this book to Spencer I always use fun voices, do actions, and of course growl. This helps his short attention span to last for the story and it is a great time for him and I to have fun and be silly.

This book is fantastic because it teaches the following skills:

• Language development
• Body parts

Additional activities you can do: 

• Use a toy and do the action words (shake a maraca, tap a stuffed animal, etc)
• Make your own dirty dinosaur with paper and crayons, pudding, paint, or mud