Activities
Games, crafts and recipes that connect back to some of your favorite books.
Quick and Easy | DIY Mud Kitchen
Yesterday we had a blast with author Allison Bakkum chatting about her book “My Mud Kitchen is Rad” which is inspired by her real life DIY mud kitchen that she built with her son. If you missed our Featured Author Q &A, be sure and check it out HERE! Today, we’re going to build a mud kitchen too. A cheap and easy DIY mud kitchen from just a few simple materials. Our DIY Mud Kitchen is made from materials you can find at your local thrift store or craft store, or you may even have them lying around already. It’s simple, easy to clean, and easy to build. Plus, it has…
Let’s Make Cookies with Ashley Mills Monaghan!
Nothing says the holidays like a fresh batch of homemade cookies. But be careful, because we all know what happens if you decide to give those cookies to a mouse! Our good friend, author and musician Ashley Mills Monaghan, has a special holiday cookie treat for us! She has 12, in fact! Ashley is celebrating the holidays with 12 Days of Cookies in honor of her new single “Let’s Make Cookies” and today she’s celebrating a favorite book of ours too! “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” By Lara Hoff Numeroff is one of our Top Ten Classic Children’s Picture Books. This classic children’s story about what happens when…
4 Fall Leaf Books and Activities for All Ages
No matter your age, fall leaves are beautiful and fascinating. Whether your child is just learning about seasons, or is delving deeper into the science of leaves changing, these Fall Leaf Books and Activities for All Ages are a great way to explore fall leaves!
Kids Halloween Craft|Spookley Lanterns
The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a fall favorite in our home. It has a a great message, a fun animated film version, and likable fun characters. This week, my son and I decided to do a fun kids Halloween craft based on the character of Spookley. The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin In the story, Spookley is a square pumpkin, a fact that the other round pumpkins tease him for. He just wants to be like the other pumpkins so they won’t make fun of him anymore.When a storm comes, though, he’s happy that he can’t roll like the others. While the other pumpkins roll away,…
Review and Activity| “Beautiful Hands”
“What will your Beautiful Hands do today?” This is the question in this unique and beautiful picture book “Beautiful Hands” by Katherine Otoshi and Bet Baumgarten. The entire book is illustrated in finger paintings, and the message is even more beautiful. Our hands are capable of a great many wonderful things. From planting a garden to reaching out to others, this book illustrates the power children have to contribute to their community and support one another. Personally, I felt like this book was something I needed right now. It’s entirely positive. It’s easy to get focused on the bad in the world, and on the bad others can do. But…
Book Inspired Activity|Watercolor Story Telling
This month’s Featured Author, Kathryn Otoshi is known for her beautiful and simple water color, seen in the books One, Two, and Zero. Kathryn Manages to tell compelling and emotional stories with simple watercolor numbers. For this weeks activity, my son and I decided to tell our own water color stories to each other in the style of “One”. We painted numbers, shapes, rainbows, and dots to tell a story. His were a little more “loose” than mine, given that he’s just getting the hand of this whole art thing. But the look of the images isn’t what matters the most. It’s the stories. My Watercolor Story was very much…
Fairytale Play Doh Activity | Jack’s Beanstalk
Create your own Jack's Beanstalk, based on the classic children's bedtime story of Jack and the beanstalk.
Fairytale Play Dough Activity| Rapunzel’s Tower
It’s Fairytale Play Dough Time! This month, in honor of Featured Author Katie Pye, we will be doing a weekly fairy tale themed play dough activity to celebrate all thing fairy tales! Whether you are strictly original, or you love a good fractured fairytale, these fun activities will celebrate the stories and characters that we know and love. This week, our focus will be Rapunzel. So without further ado… Let’s Make Rapunzel’s Tower! What you need: You will need at least four colors of play dough for this activity A base color (we used a glittery pink), a hair color (we blended gold and yellow), and two stone colors (we…
July Activity Recap
Did you miss any of the fun book-themed activities this month? Don’t Worry, This July Activity Recap Has You Covered! Here are all the activities we did in July! A Little Goes A Long Way | Too Little Vs Too Much Swim, Swim, Sink | Sink or Float? Go Away Big Green Monster | Play Doh Monster Hope you enjoyed Our July Activities! Check in next week for more book themed fun!
Play-Doh Activity| GO Away, Big Green Monster!
Looking for a fun preschool Play-Doh activity? This Play-Doh activity is inspired by “Go Away Big Green Monster!” by Ed Emberly. The book is a favorite in our house, ever since my son first started learning to talk. He loved telling the monster to “Go Away!”, which was one of his first ever phrases (you can imagine I was thrilled about that one). It helped him learn the parts of the face, as well as colors. For this weeks activity, we made our own “Big Green Monsters” with Play-Doh. Heres what you need: Play-Doh You will need green, a bluish green, yellow, red, white, and either black or dark blue…
