We always start our bookish play in the same way each week, by reading through the book and opening discussion on the characaters, story and talking about the illustrations.Then we move onto the activity that accompanies the book’s theme.To compliment this book, I wanted to set up an oats sensory bin as the little duckling in the story loves oats.
You will need:
Container large
Container small
Spoon or scoop
Oats
Rubber duck
How to play :
Into the large container pour 2 or 3 cups of oats. You can flavour this with vanilla/ caramel or mint essence to add to the sensory play.Place the duck in the container.Give your child a smaller container to scoop oats from the larger container into.
Sophia the squirrel is part of the feeling friends series by Phillipa Morissette. A group of cute character books helping little children to cope with big emotions.
In this book Sophia is afraid and anxious and learns how to find her courage, which makes her happy.
Sophia the squirrel
How to start
We always start our bookish play in the same way each week, by reading through the book and opening discussion on the characaters, story and talking about the illustrations.
In this book we spoke about things that make us scared and how to find our courage.We looked the emotions of happy, sad, brave, scared and anxious.
Then we move onto the activity that accompanies the book’s theme.
To compliment this book, I wanted to focus on emotions and so I used a salt tray with a happy face hidden under the salt.
We had to name one thing that made us happy, then using the paint brush move away the salt and reveal the smiling face.
This is a good fine motor activity and also great practice on pencil grip.
Draw a happy face
What you need:
For this activity you will need:
Casserole dish or plastic container
White board markers
Salt
Paintbrush
Use this opportunity to teach pencil grip
How to play:
First draw a smiling face in the bowl or container with the whiteboard marker.
Next cover with salt. Fine salt works best but I only had coarse salt in the house and this was just as efficient.
Let your child list something that makes them happy and then use the brush to move the salt and reveal the smiling face.
You can take this opportunity to introduce pencil grip and the correct way to hold a pencil.
Bug bear by Patricia Hegarty, is the cutest little story about an annoying bug that finally finds his place.
Bug bear
How to start
We always start our bookish play in the same way each week, by reading through the book and opening discussion on the characaters, story and talking about the illustrations.
Then we move onto the activity that accompanies the book’s theme.
To compliment this book, I wanted to make our own annoying bugs and to do this I thought we could use some red finger paint and make fingerprint bugs.
Older children could draw more detail on the bugs with markers and if you like you could use googly eyes instead of drawing them on.
Fingerprints
You will need:
For this activity you will need:
White paper
A flat plate or paing palette to pour some paint into
Red finger paint
Markers
Googly eyes – optional
How to play :
Lay out the paper and pour a little red finger paint into the paint pallet.
(I like to use Dala Teddy finger paint as I find the consistancy is not too runny.)
Let your child make fingerprints all over the paper. Each print is a bug.
They can then add details, glue on eyes, ect to each bug.
Guess how much I love you has to be our most favourite books.
Hamish and I often sit and watch the cartoon with little brown hare on tv and each evening one of us will shout ….Guess how much I love you?
So, it seemed natural to introduce this as one of our bookish play book themes.
Guess how much I love you
How to start
We always start our bookish play in the same way each week, by reading through the book and opening discussion on the characaters, story and talking about the illustrations.
Then we move onto the activity that accompanies the book’s theme.
To compliment this book, I wanted to use a heart to represent love and decided to exercize the fine motor muscles with some sensory play dough.
I used cinnamon and ginger to get a similar colour as the nut brown har but you could use nutmeg as well.
What you need
To make the playdough
I use a simple dough reciepe if I’m only going to use the dough for a short period of time.
You will need:
Flour
Water
Cinnamon / ginger/ nutmeg spice
Containers to mix dough
How to make the dough
For each flavour have 1 cup of flour to 1/4 cup of water.
Add spice to the dry flour and add water slowly, mixing until you have the correct dough consistency.
If your dough is too dry add a bit of water.
If your dough is too wet add a bit of flour.
Scented dough
How to play
First let your child help you mix up the dough and then smell each spice.
Explain that the colours are similar to the nut brown hare.
Ask them to find the heart cutter and if it represents love to them?
Let them explore the dough, cutting our heart shapes.
Heart
You can also bake these in the oven for a few minutes at 180° C until brown and use to give to mom, dad or grandparents and let them Guess how much you love them.
Many of the books we read have messages of tolerance and friendship and the Peace star by Isabella Holden is one of my favourites.
The peace star
How to start
We always start our bookish play in the same way each week, by reading through the book and opening discussion on the characaters, story and talking about the illustrations.
After reading this story we decided to use the book to discuss how we could be nice if friends are fighting, opening a discussion on friendships.
Then we move onto the activity that accompanies the book’s theme.
To compliment this book, I wanted to revise the colour yellow and the star shape. To do that I gave Hamish an assortment of star cookie cutters and some yellow paint to make a page of star prints.
Dip in the paint and print
What you need :
For this activity you will need :
White paper
Yellow ginger paint
Star Cookie cutters in assorted sizes
Making star prints
How to play :
Give your child a sheet of paper and lay out the cookie cutters in front of your child so that they can chose the one they want to use.
In a flat container pour out some paint so that your child is able to dip the entire cutter to make prints.
Set aside to dry.
Once it is dry you could use this activity with an older child for them to list ways they can be peaceful, show Ubuntu or be a good friend in each star.
The aquarium is one of our favourite places and Jolly Olly Octopus by Tony Mitton is a humerous book that we read often.
So, using this book seemed like a good choice to compliment both Hamish’s love of the ocean and his new sea creatures.
Small world ocean play
How to start
We always start our bookish play in the same way each week, by reading through the book and opening discussion on the characaters, story and talking about the illustrations.
Then we move onto the activity that accompanies the book’s theme.
To compliment this book, I wanted to use the little sea creatures to first match up to the various sea creatures in the book and for some small world play to enable Hamish to retell the story as he interpreted it.
Jolly olly octopus
Make your own
You will need:
Clear container
Small plastic sea creatures
Water
Blue shower gel or a few drops of blue food colouring to add colour to your water
Salt – optional
Left alone to interpret the story as he understood it
How to play
We first read the book and as I pointed out a fish, shark or octopus on the page Hamish named the sea creature and then he found me the small plastic toy that was the same.
Next, I poured water into the container and aadded some blue shower gel to give the water a blue hue.
I left the plastic sea creatures next to the bowl and Hamish to play.
I was quite shocked when he told me that the water needed salt as sea creatures live in salt water. So, we added some salt to the mini ocean.
Small world play offers a great opportunity to introduce general knowledge facts as your child plays.
With Frozen fever all over our house I thought I’d start our new year with some bookish play using this fun book: Disney Frozen Stuck on Stories
This is currently one of Hamish’s favourites and I love to take it with me if we are travelling as it keeps him busy with several activities that don’t require my attention for him to play.
We always start our bookish play in the same way each week, by reading through the book and opening discussion on the characaters, story and talking about the illustrations.
Then we move onto the activity that accompanies the book’s theme.
To compliment this book, I wanted to use the little characters for some small world play and so I decided to set up an Iceland for Hamish to act out the story on his own.
Frozen Iceland
Make your own Frozen land
To set up you will need:
Container for “ice”
Disposible nappy ( remove the inner and wet with water to get the desired texture)
Frozen characters
Items you need
To play
I try not to direct Hamish’s play but to rather set out an invitation for him to play.
This allows him to interpret the story as he understood it, develops his imagination and creativity and leaves him free to play with no restrictions.
He often makes up stories very far from the one we read, an that is ok. His imagination is developing.
The ” snow ” texture is a good sensory activity and you could freeze this prior to have it cold or even replace the disposibld nappy snow with shaving cream or real ice.
An invitation to play and interpret the story as he understood it
