Scope for Imagination

Whose Land are You Standing On?

It’s Indigenous People’s Day, and I’m thinking of whose land I am standing on, as challenged to do so at the recent ALSC Institute. The conference site included a “Land Acknowledgement” statement which included the following:

ALA and ALSC acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of all Indigenous peoples that call this land home. The Institute was originally going to be…

Hanna is tired of moving from place to place. Since her mother died, her father has moved them from California further and further east. Hanna longs to stay in one place, to go to school, and dreams of being a seamstress. She draws and designs any chance she can. And she hopes that this latest move to LaForge, in the Dakota Territory, will be a lasting one.

Hanna is half Chinese, and faces…

So much is happening in the world right now. I haven’t been actively blogging for a while, but I need a place to record some of my thoughts. Going back, I’m pleased to remember some of how I got to this place — proud of the posts that reference diverse books and books in translation — books from around the world. But this year I’ve been reminded how far I have to go. And that’s okay, it’s already…

by Nandini Nayar, illustrated by Proiti Roy. (Tricycle Press, 2009. First published in 2006 by Tulika Publishers, Chennai, India in English and Hindi.)

A little boy, Neeraj, helps his mother make chapatis, an Indian flat bread in this appealing children’s books from India.

  Song: One From the Left by Jim Gill

This is a great song for stretching those fingers (plus counting!)

Book: Dave the Potter

by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier. (Little, Brown, 2010). Caldecott Honor & Coretta Scott King Award Winner, 2011.

  Explore STEAM, art, and poetry extension activities for teachers (Dave-Edu-Extension) and parents and families (Dave-Parents created by Reading is Fundamental (RIF).

Activity: Create with play dough

Play dough is great for building hand strength — pushing, pulling, kneading, shaping with dough uses lots of hand and finger muscles. It’s also pretty easy to make at home, and generally is much more pliable than store bought play dough. There are many recipes out there, and you can add color and scent (with kool-aid mix!) if you choose.

Easy basic play dough recipe

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 cup water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

food coloring

Boil water and add the food coloring, then mix with other ingredients. Mix/knead until a soft dough forms. No cooking needed! Many recipes use cream of tartar, which helps the play dough last longer, but it works fine without it (I tested it to make sure!) This is very forgiving — if it is sticky, just add more flour. If it is too dry, add water (just a little at at time). Keep in a plastic bag and it will last for a few weeks!

More Books!

Find additional books & e-books about clay, dough (think pizza dough & cookie dough) and tactile/sensory projects to explore with kids.

Growing: Virtual Wonderworks #8

Book: Up, Down & Around

by Katherine Ayres, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. Candlewick, 2007.

You can even see the author read the first part of this book on Youtube, as it was a OneBook selection for Pennsylvania in 2008.

Song: Scarves Up, Down & Around

by Johnette Downing. Listen to this one on her YouTube channel:

 Book:

Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox (Penguin, 2003)

I love fairy tales and using them to explore science (like with bridges & The Three Billy Goats Gruff, which we explored earlier this spring). Leah Wilcox’s fractured take on Rapunzel is so much fun to share with kids!

Song: My Ups and Downs by Jim Gill

(jimgill.com/videos.html)

This is a fun one that builds listening awareness as children move high as the musical line rises higher, and then move their bodies back down as the sound pitch lowers. This fantastic video is from Jim Gill’s website and features kids of all ages:

  Book: Anastasia Suen’s Up Up Skyscraper (Charlesbridge, 2017)

is a wonderful nonfiction introduction to building for preschoolers. It has details to satisfy those curious young minds presented in simple words and illustrations so that you actually gain an understanding the building process.

For more books and e-books on skyscrapers and other tall towers, including the Eiffel Tower, search the library catalog.

Activity: Building with Everyday Materials

Use whatever you have at home to build towers: blocks, legos, or create your own set of blocks from recycled materials. Save those cereal boxes, oatmeal containers, cracker boxes, almost any kind of box will do! You’ll need to tape any open ends so that kids can  build with them. Other great “blocks” include butter and egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, and paper towel tubes.These materials are light enough that they won’t injure anyone when they topple over, and you can build pretty high and still get a satisfying sound when they do come crashing down.

I try not to have many rules for children in programs and to keep things as open-ended as possible, but I do share one rule for in-person building programs that may serve families with siblings well. First I ask if they like knocking down towers (and most respond with vigorous head nodding), and then I ask how it feels when someone else knocks down their tower (often there is no response but a lot more serious/sad faces.) Then I explain the rule: If you build it, you can knock it down.

For more tower building challenges, take a look at this list from Kid World Citizen: https://kidworldcitizen.org/fun-stem-activities-on-a-budget/

The first three challenges involves building towers, two with paper.

  Activity: Cup Stacking

Another activity you can try at home is cup stacking. This is an activity that is fun for kids from toddlers to age 12 (though you’ll see widely differing results, it is fun for all ages). See examples from Bedtime Math’s “Crazy for Cup Stacking.”

Shapes & Collage: Virtual Wonderworks #6

  Michael Hall’s Perfect Square is a perfect jumping off point for creativity. View a preview of it here: https://www.michaelhallstudio.com/books/bk_perfect_square.html

https://vimeo.com/22848732

Activity:  Go on a Square Hunt

Build shape recognition – by going on a square hunt. How do you identify a square?

4 corners

4 equal sides

Trace the shape in the air. Draw it on paper. Look for squares…

With the 50th annual celebration Earth Day this week, we’ll explore some of the wonders of nature all around us, and spring is a great time to do that — right in your own backyard or neighborhood.

The books I’m sharing today focus on prediction, utilizing interactive elements like holes to or peek through or flaps to lift and reveal. This is both fun and builds children’s skills at guessing and…

Birdwatching is a great family activity that you can do at home and in your neighborhood. When my kids were younger, we started participating in Project Feederwatch,a citizen scientist program in which you count birds in your yard over a series of months (November to April), sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Their common feeder birds poster is still on our wall in the kitchen, and…

Our first book is The Three Billy Goats Gruff, illustrated by Janet Stevens.  Check out the eldest of the Gruff brothers, one of the hippest, toughest brothers I’ve seen in a picture book:

You can create the “trip-trap” sound of the goats hooves on the bridge, patting your hands on your knees and getting louder as the brothers grow in size, even hitting the floor to make the loudest “trip-trap”…

Our first book is The Three Billy Goats Gruff, illustrated by Janet Stevens.  Check out the eldest of the Gruff brothers, one of the hippest, toughest brothers I’ve seen in a picture book:

You can create the “trip-trap” sound of the goats hooves on the bridge, patting your hands on your knees and getting louder as the brothers grow in size, even hitting the floor to make the loudest “trip-trap”…

This past weekend was great for getting outside! While cleaning up some flowerbeds and digging up some weeds, I discovered a fair number of wiggly worms. And that was the inspiration for today’s storytime. If you have a bit of a yard or green space, consider designating a small space for your child to dig. You might just discover some worms in  your backyard!

Today we read:

I Can Only Draw Worms

Look up in the sky, and what do you see?

Clouds are amazing. A few years ago I took photographs of the sky at different times when I saw different clouds. Soon I had enough photographs to illustrate several different types of clouds that we are learning about: cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and nimbus. This topic is great for vocabulary; what a funny word cumulonimbus  is! Try saying it slow . . .…