Elephant Appreciation Day: A Huge Load of Ideas for Montessori-Inspired Elephant Unit Studies

Although tomorrow is Elephant Appreciation Day, our local zoo celebrated it this past Sunday.  So, for the second year in a row, we enjoyed a family day learning about these amazing creatures.  And, now we are in the midst of an elephant-inspired study week. 

Montessori Shelves and Workboxes

And, among our Montessori-Inspired Shelves and Workbox materials this are:

• Draw Write Now, Book 7: Animals of the World, Forest Animals (Draw Write Now, 7):  Elephant Drawing from Book Seven

• Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box: A practical life activity enjoyed by all in which we pretend to make elephant enrichment. 

• Plastic Food Model Sorting: A basket of plastic foods and two mats that say “Elephants eat…” and “elephants don’t eat…” which has not gotten much action yet, but I know will. (Plus, it will reinforce our focus on healthy eating habits for people, too!) 

• A Basket, Elephant and Preposition Reading Cards:  Luke read the cards and followed them.  Jack just enjoyed exploring the basket and elephant while Mommy said, "in", "out", on", etc.

• Counting Cards and Elephants: A variation of counting cards and tiny red blocks that we did last week. This week we used tiny elephant cards as the counters. 

• An Elephant and Sticks Balancing Game: Great for fine motor and control of movement and another favorite for all. 

• Parts of an Elephant Books: These books (from KarenTyler’s helpful online class) to cut, color and bind have yet to be discovered in workbox drawers. 

• Parts of an Elephant 3-Part Cards: Also thanks to Karen’s awesome albums.

• Elephant Action Cards: Also yet to be discovered, but made by yours truly as practice for reading and inspiration to move a bit more.  (I'll upload the full set tomorrow for folks to print if they wish!)

• Elephant Size Grading: A simple coloring and then placing in order by size Math activity that I found here.

• Elephant Book Making: Coloring pages, self-drawn pages, narrations, etc. to make our own book about elephants. 

• Fruit Puzzle Tracing: A pre-writing activity that ties into elephant diets. 

• Pegged Puzzles: With jungle animals. A classic for fine motor control. 

• Playdough Tray: Playdough, rollers, beans and elephant cookie cutters – It’s been a favorite.

Book Basket

Between our own collection and the library, we have a huge assortment of elephant-themes books that we have been enjoying:

•  "Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" by Patricia Thomas:  A fun, rhyming story that is great for sequencing and imagination.  It seems to be Nina’s favorite.
• Elephants: A Book for Children by Steve Bloom:  A feast of 80 photos and lots of elephant information – particularly great as an addition for Montessori Parts of an Elephant cards.
• Splash! by Flora McDonnell:  A fun little story that a friend sent us when she gifted us with her Kindergarten Calvert curriculum.  Attractive art work, large fonts.  Simple, repetitive text.  Easy for dramatic play, sensory bin or puppetry connections.
• The Right Number of Elephants by Jeff Sheppard:  Not one I’d run out and get, but one I had laying around that is silly, fun and good for reinforcing numbers from 10 to one.
• Baby Elephants (It's Fun to Learn about Baby Animals) by Bobbie Kalman:  An appealing non-ficiton book with photos and information about elephant bodies, families, habitats, growth, diet, etc.
• Elephants Can Paint Too! by Katya Arnold:  A must for us since we got to see the elephants at the zoo paint, and a good book for teaching comparison between people and elephants.
• No Matter What by Emma Dodd:  A very simple rhyming story that features a parent and baby elephant as its characters.  Each simply illustrated double page spread has one line of text which reaffirms a parent’s love for a child no matter if they are happy, sad, dirty, clean, kind mean, etc.  Great for feeling words, opposites, etc.
• Babar’s Museum of Art by Laurent DeBrunhoff:  The well-loved Babar the Elephant is featured in this cute story about turning an abandoned train station into an art museum.  Fun for complimenting      art study, with illustratons similar to real classics in art, but featuring elephants.
• Face to Face With Elephants (Face to Face with Animals) by Beverly and Dereck Joubert:  With a bit more test than many of our other selections and some good photos of elephants, this book tells the story of one couple’s experiences with the gentle giants  in Africa.
• Horton Collection Boxed set (Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg) by Dr. Suess:  A classic tale with rhyme and an underlying message of respect for life.
• I Love My Mama by Peter Kavanagh:  A sweet, simple story that layers an elephant mother and calf’s love onto a day in an a elephant’s life.  Great illustrations and fun to act out.  We love this one!
• Ella by Pill Peet:  A classic with a moral to it, but also a mean old farmer with a gun and a pitchfork he’s not afraid to use.  The kids enjoy it, but I don’t read it as often as other books in the basket since Luke sometimes models more violent behavior.  (Not that the book is all that violent.  It just seems so in today’s PC, tame world of chidlren’s literature.)
• Eyewitness: Elephant by Ian Redmond:  An eyewitness Book with much information and many photos of elephants and elephant-related things.  Great as a resource book for the many questions that come up during elephant studies.
• Seven Blind Mice (Reading Railroad) by Ed Young:  A 1993 Caldecott Honor Award winner, this book includes early elarning concepts of days of the week and colors as seven brightly colored blind mice explore what a new thing they find is, each experiencing only one part of it and thinking it is something different, only to discover in the end that it is an elephant.  Appealing bold artwork and a good moral.  The book ties into the older tale of seven blind men and an elephant.
• Little Big Ears: The Story of Ely by Cynthia Moss:  A well-photographed and touching documentary that tells the tale of the first year of life of a baby elephant, born with leg trouble. 
• Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends by Carol Buckley:  Another well-photographed tale that documents the unlikely friendship that developed between a dog and an elephant at a sanctuary.
• The Saggy Baggy Elephant (Little Golden Book) by K and B Jackson:  A classic Golden Book which my children realized right away is imaginary since a baby elephant is on its own and not with it family, but also enjoyed reading.  Charming illustrations and fun story.

Impromptu Activities and Imaginative Play

I had planned to begin Elephant Theme lessons with the kids on Monday, but since I had some laundry and other task catch-up to do in the morning, I thought I would start things off gently with imaginative play.  So, I put out Lincoln Logs and elephant figurines first thing in the morning. As expected, Luke and Nina (and even Jack to their dismay) went right for these and merrily engaged themselves in building homes for the elephants and requesting figurines to use as zookeepers.  In fact, they were so immersed in their play that I actually had to gently interrupt when I thought they were at a good break-point in order to ask them if they wanted breakfast yet.  Now, that was something –  my kids always wake ready to eat right away!

After that, it was onto Morning Lotto.  As we were headed to “step outside” in order to finish our Lotto checks, the kids found that a kind friend of ours had dropped off a sand and water table that her children no longer use.  What use it's been getting here! 

Luke and Nina immediately filled the water side of the table.  Then, while Jack stepped in to explore that, Luke and Nina decided we should make a habitat in order to bring our elephant figurines outside to play. 

In order to collect appropriate items for the elephant habitat, we went on a brief nature walk in search of soil, sand, leaves, grasses and “trees”.

Then, play commenced.

At first, Luke and Nina simply used the figurines in the habitat, coming up with all manner of storylines.  “Sister Elephant, come quickly.  A hurricane is coming,” I heard Luke say at one point.

Later, the kids asked for their outdoor sand toy vehicles so they could use them as zookeeper and safari trucks.  And, so the play continued both at our newly created outdoor elephant habitat and indoors in kid-constructed elephant houses.

Since then, with more knowledge and inspiration from books and classroom activities, the kids’ play is becoming even more developed.  I love to see how they embrace a topic or theme and, then, synthesize their learning through play.  It’s so much fun!

Happy Elephant Appreciation Day!  

Please be sure to leave descriptions or links of your favorite elephant activities, songs, chants, crafts and printables.  I think celebrating this week will be an annual thing in our home for years to come, so I welcome all ideas to enhance our future studies.

 

This post is being shared at Preschool Corner hosted by Homeschool Creations and Montessori Monday hosted by One Hook Wonder and Living Montessori Now.

Disclaimer:  If you click on any Amazon links at this blog and make any purchase, I may receive a small percentage that can help defray the cost of training my children up.  THANK YOU for considering supporting us in this way.  every little bit helps!

Snow Theme Storyhour Plan

 On Tuesdays, we often participate in our library’s family story hour, complete with fingerplays, parachute play, three stories, songs, rhymes, a craft and a snack.  It’s fantastic!  The kids love it and we all get social time.

However, yesterday, I just could not bring myself to shovel us out, bundle three little children, coral them into the car, drive down yet-to-be-plowed roads and find a parking spot near the library.  So, to abate Luke’s and Nina’s disappointment, I suggested having our own library storyhour here at the house.  “Yes!”  They jumped with enthusiasm.  “What theme?” Luke asked.  “Snow, of course,” I replied, because this week we are reading Ezra Jack Keat’s The Snowy Day and I wanted to continue on with more fun with the book after Monday's awesome The Snowy Day Sensorimotor fun!  And, so it began.

I collected some snow-themed books from the basement while the kids set up a “librarian chair and blanket “parachute”.   Then, I had the kids hold corners of a baby blanket “parachute” to sing:

Here was go ‘round the parachute, parachute, parachute.

Here we go ‘round the parachute,

at our story hour.

The kids immediately corrected me, “Mommy, we sing a new song, now.”  I let them know that Mommy is not our new librarian, Miss Liz, nor our old librarian, Miss Marilyn, and that Mommy Librarian would be using some of the other librarian’s songs and ideas along with some of her own.  Hence, Nina began calling me “Librarian” for the remainder of the morning and eager participants, Nina and Luke, happy onlooker, Jack, and me, “Librarian”, continued on to have a fantastic at-home storyhour.

Perhaps you’d like to borrow some of our spontaneous plan:

Greeting: 

• The aforementioned song, sung once while walking around in one direction and once in the opposite direction, holding a blanket “parachute”.
• Have children sit down on blankets.
• Introduce theme with a stuffed toy geared up for snow.  (We used out Spot’s First Christmas doll that comes with a red cap and scarf.) Talk about why the stuffie might be dressed the way he is, what we wear in the winter, etc. and introduce the stuffie and each other: 
• “Hi.  I’m Spot.  What’s your name?” (Toss stuffie to child, who introduces self and tosses the stuffie back.)

Theme Talk: 

• Talk about what we already know about winter using book covers for inspiration as needed.
• Review what the four seasons are, asking children to name them.

“Parachute” Play and Transition

• Make “wind” for a small snow storm by holding the blanket taut and rippling it just slightly.
• Make “wind” for a bigger one by making large movements.
• Play “Colors” by calling out colors the children are wearing and having them hide under the blanket if they are wearing the colors called.
• Ask children to sit on the blanket again.
• Do Criss Cross Applesauce Poem.

Criss-cross applesauce.

Give a little clap. (clap hands)

Criss-cross applesauce.

Put them in my lap. (put hands in lap)

Criss-cross applesauce.

Quiet as can be.

Criss-cross-apple sauce.

Eyes on me. (point to self)

• Do Wiggle Poem.

I wiggle my fingers, (Suit actions to words.)
I wiggle my toes.
I wiggle my shoulders,
I wiggle my nose.
Now the wiggles are out of me,
And I'm just as still as can be.

First Story

• Read Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day. 
• “Read” the illustrations as well as the words.  For example, take note of the rooftops, signal lights, etc. and talk about where you think the child might live.  Or, notice the child’s changing expressions, particularly when the snow falls from the tree onto his head.
• Include movement-drama breaks such as acting like Peter waking and looking outside or walking with toes in and toes out.
• Pause to discuss other points as they come up.

Fingerplays, Rhymes and Songs

• Do a slection of fingerplays from Channels to Children, such as:

Who makes us dress in our winder suits? (Pretend to put on coat.)

Who causes us to wear our boots? (Point to feet.)

Who comes on a cold and wintry night? (Shiver.)

Who decorates the windows white? (Draw a rectangular window in the air.)

Who makes the tress glisten in the lane? (Make triangles over heads with hands like fir trees)

And taps on our window with his icicle cane? (Pretend to knock.)

Jack Frost!

Snowflakes falling, falling down (Flutter fingers.)

The wind blows them round and round. (Move hands in a circular motion.)

They whip and whirl in the air. (Move hands around.)

Then land softly everywhere. (Place hands down.)

• Adapt the plays to do with baby brother, for example, snowing on the top of his head down to his toes.  Then, stand the last one up and make up new actions to it with kids, getting in some good level work and spinning.
• Sing:

I’m a little snowman

Short and fat

Here are my buttons

Here is my hat

When the sun comes out

I melt away

But I’ll come back another day

• Transition back to sitting with Criss-Cross Applesauce and Wiggle rhyme.

Second Story

• Read Holly Keller’s Geraldine’s Big Snow.
• Make predictions throughout the story:  Why is she looking out the window?  Will it snow?  What will Mrs. Wilson do with the apples?
• Discuss why Geraldine bumped into Mr. Peters.  Why was she looking up?  Was this safe?  How can we be safe when we are walking?  How can we be aware of our body space?

Rhyme Tickles and Bounces

• Just like Geraldine, sled – but with your arms as the hill with this Channels to Children rhyme:

Here’s a hill.  (Make a hill with your arm at an angle.)

All covered with snow.  (Tickle arm with a hand as snowflakes falling.

We’ll get on our sled.

And, ZOOM!, Down we’ll go.  (swoop a hand down the arm hill.)

• Repeat rhyme as a bounce (with baby, too), bouncing the entire rhyme and dropping child backwards on “Zoom”, “Want to got to London…fall in” style.

Third Story

• Read Monica Wellington’s Bunny’s First Snowflake.
• Talk about the change of seasons and how animals prepare.

Movement Break

• Act out parts of the story, particularly the onomatopoeic ones.

 
Fourth Story

• Read Stranger in the Woods.
• Name creatures in the story.
• Guess who the stranger is,
• Discuss ways to be kind to animals.

Craft

• Make and play with snow dough

Snack

Sincence staying out of the snow, safe at home, to have storyhour worked for us, we are sharing it at worked for us, we are sharing it at We are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday.  Enjoy the links there and be sure to leave a comment here to tell us about your recent storytimes or to request one on a particular theme.

I am also linking to Sunrise Learning Lab's Reggio Emilia Wednesday Link Up, for even though our home storyhour was more parent-led than child-led, it was a mini-project.  The kids really wanted to do it and set up the storyhour space, got snack set out like "at real storyhour", etc.  Also, it is part of our greater explorations on the theme of snow - something very present and real in the childen's environment, which is "teaching" them.  Baby steps to Reggio... Check out the links at sunrise Learning Lab for more Reggio inspiration.

Book Nook: Bubbles! Bubbles

Summer is at its height, but school is just around the corner.  How can you embrace the ethereal joys of summertime and the edifying tasks of school-time all while attending to SPD needs?  Perhaps by grabbing your SPD Lenses and taking a look at a common thing with new vision.

Today’s challenge:  How can bubbles – and inspiration from them – offer sensory fun and a few lesson ideas as well?

To help you focus on each of the seven senses while meeting this challenge, check out my post about Wearing SPD Lenses: 7 Sense-ational Ways to Use Bubbles! at OJTA Sensational Homeschooling (which is now Special-ism).

And, if you want to tie in some reading and experiments, check out these books:

* * * * *  The Bubble Factory by Tomie dePaolo 

 Mama’s Take:
If I were to select one non-fiction book to use as past of a bubble study unit for young children, it would be The Bubble Factory by Tomie dePaolo. True to most of dePaolo’s books, this book is a delight – a simple story that engages children, but also offers plenty of inspiration for extensions.

The story is a basic one: A set of mischievous twins accompany their grandfather to a bubble factory. When left alone there for a moment, they slip away and get into a bit of trouble – creating the most amazing, imaginative bubbles!

So, how can this story inspire learning, discussion and further study? Well, on the first two pages, a set of illustrations depict some of the trouble the twins get into and how their grandfather helps them out. Problem solving discussion can ensue…

The next page depicts wands with “double bubbles”, which just begs for experimentation with blowing single, double and groups of bubbles with different types of wands.

The pages depicting the imaginary bubble factory tour inspire invention and experimentation of one’s own – with examples of different mixtures, tests and note-taking, observation, etc.

The illustration of the children’s bubble mix creations – with all sorts of colorful, imaginary bubble shapes, inspires creative writing and drawing. An easy starter: “what would your WISH BUBBLES look like?”

And, finally, the closing page of the book shows a memo from Mr. B, the factory owner, to the twins. A great start to a Memo and letter writing lesson!

A fun plotline, rich in learning possibilities, I just love the potential that can be unleashed by The Bubble Factory!

Kiddos’ Take
Oh, what fun my children had reading this book over and over – and paging through the story to “read” on their own. With each reading, they seemed to find more in the illustrations and story. And, their imaginations bloomed. My son declared he wanted to make his own bubble factory (and often did so, “just pretend”, when building constructions with various toys.) And, both kids identified with the twins, “because they are so curious”. The love this story!

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* * * *  Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy and Polly Dunbar

Mama’s Take:
When I first started reading this book to the kids, I was not too enamored with it. For while it has wonderful rhythm – with both internal and end-rhymes – and a rich vocabulary, it almost seemed like too much nonsense to me. Sister Mabel blows a bubble which swallows baby and, thus, begins an adventure. The baby in the bubble floats through the neighbors’ yard, above streets, through town and right up beyond the church steeple, with an increasing crowd of folks chasing after it. At the church, much to my dismay, a character named Abel, “clambered up the steeple with nefarious intentions and a pebble in a sling” only to shoot the bubble, thus worrying the entire crowd of people that there’d be a baby “who’s a goner”. Indeed, nonsense and ill behavior and scary ideas that I don’t need my children thinking about!

But, think they did – and not about Abel and the nonsense. Simply about the fun of the book. Thus, I found myself reading the book over a number of times upon request, and, the more I did, the more it grew on me.

Truly, Bubble Trouble is an exuberant, rhyming, tongue twister of a story with rich vocabulary and a playful (albeit unbelievable and, sometimes less appropriate for the impressionable) plot. The water-color and paper-cut illustrations are lively. They capture the excitement of the chase after baby-in-a-bubble, and mirror the text, which literally swirls up and down on some pages as the story follows the bibble-bobble path of the baby in the bubble.

A seemingly nonsensical book filled with tongue twisting language and less-than-thrilling behavior by one character, this book became an acquired taste for me. In the end, I found it delicious as a delightfully fun read-aloud that truly gets to the heart of playful use of language when read aloud. And – bonus – since the author is from New Zealand, there is a Kiwi flair to the language used, so it could open doors into culture study as well as language (and it is rich in language!), art (inspiring mixed medium exploration) and even math (with sequencing as each member of town joins the chase!)

Kiddos’ Take:
My children not only delighted in having this book read – and re-read and read yet again…and again…and again. – to them without tiring of it. They also often took the book to a quiet spot to “read” to themselves, following the pictures and coming up with stories that were a mish mash of the rhythmic tongue twister language of the true text of the book and their own playful plot lines. Indeed, both of my kids loved this book, were inspired by it and asked for it time and time again.

I had to hide it in a bag in order to return it to our local library and, even then, they asked where it was,. Out of sight was not out of mind with Bubble trouble. It may be one I have to purchase at some point!

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* * * * *  The Unbelievable Bubble Book by John Cassidy

Mama’s Take:
Since we borrowed The Unbelievable Bubble Book, we could not take advantage of the “Bubble Thing” that comes with it, which I hear is absolutely fantastic for young and old alike! We did, however, enjoy the book, which is targeted at children but fun for all.

Replete with facts, The Unbelievable Bubble Book is a complete read for those who want to explore bubble history, science, experiments… just about any aspect of bubbles. Laced with humor and peppered with pictures, it is also an easy, enjoyable read. Truly, if I had but one book about bubble experiments, history and science to offer my children, I think this one would be it. Both full of sound learning and silly fun, it promises to keep kids (and kids at heart) engaged and exploring for hours on end!

And, bonus, the book is a great one for inspiring inventive thought! David Stein, inventor of the Bubble Thing, tells his personal story in the book – an inspiration to many about how trial-and-error, with an eye for improvement and a heart for fun – can really pay off!

Kiddos’ Take:
My children were enamored with the photo of the boy in the midst of a massive bubble on the front cover of this book. (So much so, in fact, that I am going to have to purchase a copy of the book and Bubble Thing at some point, I know!) And, although the book is aimed at much older children than they are, they enjoyed paging through the book as well. Almost every page of the book contains a black-and-white (albeit 70’s-esque) photo, a diagram or a comic-like graphic as well as text. These got my kids asking questions and wanting to know more… I can definitely see this becoming a book we go back to time and time again for fun and learning.

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* * * *  The Ultimate Bubble Book, Soapy Science Fun by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone

Mama's Take:
Although this book is aimed at children aged 9-12, as a self-directed book for exploring math and science concepts through fun experimentation with bubbles, I recently borrowed it from the library as a resource for bubble exploration with my pre-schoolers. Because 9 to `12 year olds are the main audience of the boo, it is set up in a format that makes it easy to navigate for a multi-tasking mom. Likewise, it also has all the “parts” of a good non-fiction, resource book necessary for older elementary school children to use it on their own – contents, a glossary, an index, a note to parents and teachers, chapters on clean up, safety, do’s and don’t, bubble solutions, techniques and tools and even a easy to identify notation about the difficulty of each activity.

Blowing bubbles with your bare hands, watching bubble “swallow” one another, blowing bubbles in your milk in the name of experimentation, proving bubbles don’t like heat, discovering why soda fizzles, even making bubble candy… The book offers both easy and difficult experiment, with clear directions and formatting that appeals to kids. To be honest, we didn’t end up being able to try many of these due to life circumstances during our loan period, but we are eager to try them when we get the book out again.

Fun and engaging, this book could truly be the basis of a fun bubble unit!

Kiddos’ Take:
Although, as mentioned, we did not get to give the experiments in the book a fair go, Luke and Nina enjoyed paging through the book, looking at it’s appealing illustrations, asking questions about different ones and requesting we try certain experiments when we could.

As such, I will definitely borrow this book again!

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* * * *   The Nature and Science of Bubbles by Jane Burton and Kim Taylor

Mama’s Take:
Half-way between a text book and simply an informative, well-illustrated (with photographs) resource book, The Nature and Science of Bubbles can help young readers – or parents of preschoolers who know little behind the science of bubbles – to expand their knowledge of the natural world through exploring how bubbles appear in air, water, rock, metal, glass and ice. Beginning with the basic question of, “Why are bubbles round?” and progressing through more ways that bubbles appear in nature than I ever thought of – and all while explaining the why and how behind these ways, the book connects bubbles to our world in ways far deeper than simply watching them dance in the wind after blowing them out of a wand. Then, it closes with just two pages of activities, a glossary, a list of further resources and an index. Thus, it makes a worthy resource for depending bubble study beyond simply experimenting with bubble mix into nature study and observations.

Kiddos’ Take:
This book is way beyond the kids level and yet they asked me to read pages of it to them and remained interested while I did. They also enjoyed the real-life photographs of bubbles in water, out of water, in ice, around creatures, etc.

As the children get older, we will look to take this book out again as a resource for bubble and nature study, but I doubt we would purchase it. That being said, if I were a school librarian or science teacher, I might consider purchasing it.

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* * * *  Bubble Trouble (My First Hello Reader) by Mary Packard

Mama’s Take:
Bubble Trouble is an early reader with simple rhyming text and cute illustrations. It follows a young child who makes bubbles with bubble mix, shampoo, bubble gum, dish soap and a straw and drink, as well as by while washing his dog, washing the car and – oops! – putting too much laundry soap in the machine.

As an early reader, it works well as it is realistic, yet fun, with easy text, appealing illustrations and built in extension activities. The extensions include 32 punch-out flash cards and six pages of activities that include focus on rhymes, plot predictions, decoding words and the concept of big-bigger and biggest.

Kiddos’ Take:
The kids enjoyed watching the first-person character explore bubbles in so many ways throughout a single day and asked to repeat some of his antics on their own – which, at times, received a big “Yes, let’s try it!” while at other times was met with a “No, that would be bubble trouble!” With this in mind, I caution anyone who has monkey-see, monkey-do exploring children. While fun, this book might lead to an extra tiny home disaster or two!

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* * * *  Experiments with Bubbles by Robert Gardner

Mama’s Take:
We did not get to dive as deeply into Experiments with Bubbles as I had hoped we would. However, this was not due to any problem with the book. (But, rather with constraints of our own lives during the period we had the book out on loan.) That being said, I can definitely see us revisiting the book, first, with Mama as a researcher for lesson and exploration ideas, and, later, with the kids using the book to conduct their own experiments.

A straightforward guide to bubble experiments that takes one from simple ways to make bubbles to the science of bubbles to just plain having fun, the book offers dozens of clearly written experiments to try. Chemistry, motion, light, color and geometry are all explored. And, some puzzlers and surprises are thrown in, too. Launching giant bubbles, moving bubble s with electricity, making bubble pyramids… Through such engaging endeavors, readers of Experiments with Bubbles can gain hand-on, first-hand knowledge of scientific principles, understanding complex ideas through simple bubble fun.

Kiddos’ Take:
The kids had little opinion about this book. Why? Because with very few illustrations and relatively dry text, the book was hardly engaging for my pre-kindergarteners to page through, and, as I mentioned, we didn’t get to doing experiments from it. That being said, I think the kids would love to do some of them at some future point and will likely revisit this book with them in the future.

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* * *   Bubble Bubble by Mercer Mayer

Mama’s Take:
Bubble, Bubble by Mercer Mayer is a cute, first person, fantasy story about a young boy who buys some magic bubbles and then blows them everywhere – creating bubbles-creatures and things of all shapes and sizes. (Bubble boats, cars, various animals, etc. are all fun for children to find in the illustrations!) Then, suddenly, one bubble becomes a dangerous snake. To combat it, the boy blows another bubble, which begins a seriesw of predator-prey type bubbles until the boy simply decides to start popping all the bubbles, tires of them and blows the rest of his mix home, staing there is no such thng as magic bubbles anyways – just as a bubble dragon peeps up behind him from the puddle of his spilled bubble mix.

With just enough detail in the illustrations to keep kids enthralled, a simple storyline and some repetition, as well as a big dose of imagination, this book is one I would read my kids again. It is also one that lends itself easily to creative storytelling through its illustrations alone as well as sequencing activities and imaginative drawing extensions.

Kiddo’s Take:
Overall, my kids enjoyed this book and asked me to read it a number of times. They got very excited by the pictures of the bubble creatures and things, especially during the predator-prey sequence, but didn’t like when the boy popped his bubbles and made me skip that page.

Once the book went back to the library, they did not ask after it. All things considered, for us, this is
“borrow, not buy” type of book – one I can see us borrowing from the library again.

What are some of your favorite bubble books and resources?  Do share in a comment!