January 2022 Fun Book Activities and Curriculum

Group 1

Safety First for Homemade Toys
When making your own toys, it’s important to keep safety in the front of your mind. A good checklist to follow is:

Size of homemade baby toys: A general rule is the smaller the child, the bigger the toy. If the toy can fit into a film canister, or it has removable parts that can, then it is not suitable for children under 3 years of age.

Surface on homemade baby toys: Babies put everything in their mouths and can be easily poisoned if a toy is made from, or coated in, a toxic material. Check out paint and adhesive labels before use. You should also make sure the surface is smooth, with no sharp edges or corners.

Strings: Make sure any strings or ribbons are not long enough to get wrapped around baby and cut off baby’s circulation. Also make sure they are firmly attached to the toy.

Supervision of babies with toys: Did we mention babies put everything in their mouths? It’s important to remember any homemade toy can potentially cause choking – no matter how well you’ve made it. If anyone can pull it apart, your baby can! Keep an eye on baby at all times.

Other Books to Enjoy

Activities for Babies: Exploring Sound

Senses: Children under the age of three explore and learn through their senses. To support development across all areas, use the following activities to engage and excite your baby or toddler. 

• Listening Walk: Build awareness of the sounds of every day life. Take a stroll to a park or through your neighborhood. Help your child hone in on the sounds you're hearing, both natural and human-made. Explore every day sounds that interest your child, such as watching the dump truck work, or scouting out the nest of the bird in the tree.  

• Packing Bubbles Pop Play: Tape down a sheet of packing bubbles and tiptoe or stomp across them. How many can your child pop?

• Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Experiments with sounds provide your baby with basic lessons about music by making different sounds with objects or sounds from a music app.

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• Fun With Wrapping Paper: Captivate your child with the sights and sounds of these crinkly activities.

• Sound Discrimination: Pour unpopped popcorn, dry beans, dry rice or dry noodles into a cleaned water bottle. Glue gun or crazy glue on the top — or ensure the cap is fitter tightly closed. Place the bottle in a clean sock. Let your child explore the different sounds.
  • As he gets older, can he guess what is in the bottle without looking?
  • Make two of each kind and see if your child can find the match.
  • Have your child shake the bottle out of the sock and then inside the sock and talk about the differences you hear

• Two small, clear juice bottles – one with a small collection of buttons, the other a small amount of macaroni. The lids are fastened securely. If you are worried that your baby or toddler might be able to remove a lid be sure to glue it into place or to choose items that do not constitute a choking hazard.​

• A wooden curtain ring with four bells securely attached with short lengths of ribbon (see below)
  • A wooden curtain ring with four plastic shower curtain rings attached (see below)
  • Two small plastic canisters with lids – one with a small amount of rice and the other with sand

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Group 2

Other Farm Animal Books Your Might Enjoy

Sing-A-Long Songs About Farms

Animal  Sounds 
Introduce your young infant to the animal world through sound. Find images of animals on the Internet or in books. While the infant is awake and alert, hold an image in front of him, tell the infant the name of the animal and what sound it makes. For example, hold a picture of a cow and tell your infant it says “Moo.” Once the infant begins to move into his toddler years, take him to a zoo or local farm and point out the real animals. Tell the child the animal's name and the sound it makes. Instruct your toddler to make the same noise, as well.

Farm Animal Hide and Seek

What You Will Need: 

• Farm animal printable 1
• Farm animal printable 2
• Farm animal printable 3
• White cardstock
• Glue
• Pieces of cardboard
• Scissors

Step 1. To make the farm animal puzzle game you start by printing out the farm animal images and then cutting them out. I cut around the images but didn't do a really tight cut because I am all about keeping things easy and simple! Visible white borders are fine! the wall. 
Step 2. Once the animals (and objects- like the barn) are cut out, glue each picture onto a square piece of cardboard. The piece of cardboard doesn't have to be perfectly cut. Once the glue is dry, cut the cardboard and image into two pieces to make simple cardboard puzzles. You can cut diagonally, horizontally, or vertically.! Whatever you want to do works! The goal is just to create simple farm animal puzzles. The cardboard base makes them easier to manipulate for little hands.
Step 3. It's time to play! Start by hiding the puzzle pieces around one room in your house (or outside). Make sure you don't make them too hard to start.  Encourage your kids to look for the puzzle pieces and then match the pieces together to complete the simple puzzles. While you are playing, talk about the animals and farm objects that are in the pictures. Talk about the animals in the farm themed books you've read too!

Animal Cracker Charades
At snack time, play animal cracker charades. Using a bag of animal crackers, have your child take out one cracker and act out the animal while you guess what it is. 

Feeling super energetic? Try making your own animal crackers with your toddler! For the recipe, visit Absolutely Adorable Homemade Animal Crackers » Bigger Bolder Baking. To watch how to make Animal Crackers with follow the link below:

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Group 3

Cereal Necklace

1. Buy a box of Fruit Loops or a similar off-brand cereal.
2. Cut a string to fit around your child's neck safely.
3. Have your place the cereal onto the string saying what color it is each time. 
4. Tie the end of the string to make the necklace.
5. Allow your child to enjoy their treat after this fun activity.  

Rainbow Art
Items you will need:

• Large White Paper
• Various Color Pom Poms (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple)
• Markers (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple)
• Glue Stick

Directions:

1. ​Use the markers to draw a rainbow on the white paper.
2. Ask your child to sort the Pom Poms and
3. Match and glue the Pom Poms to the colored line.​

Mixing Colors

What you need:
1 Gallon Ziplock bag
Tape
2 Primary Colors of Paint 
Small toys, crayons, or other items

Directions:

1. Add a small amount of the first color paint to one corner of the bag.
2. Add a small amount of the second color paint to the opposite corner of the bag. 
3. Close the Ziplock bag and add tape for extra security.
4. Allow your child to play with the bag. He may uses his hands to squish it or a crayon to draw on it. He may even want to use his play cars to drive on it.
5. As the colors mix, ask him what color they are making.
6. Repeat the activity using different colors of paint.

Colors

There is so much you can do with your child developing skills with colors.

1. Gather items of different colors from around your house.  Have your child put all the same-colored objects in a pile.  Or play I Spy “I spy with my little eye something red” Then your child tells you things they see that are red until they guess the right object. 
   
2. Take colored sheets of paper that match each color in the book.  Write the emotion from the book that associates with each color for example in the book red is anger.  Ask your child what other things are that color.  Do those things make you feel that emotion?

Other Books to Read about Colors

Songs About Colors

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Group 4

Sign-A-Long Time

Paper Plate Pig Masks

What You Need:

• Pig Mask Template
• Paper Plate
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Craft or X-Acto Knife
• Paint & Paintbrushes
• Glue Gun
• Hole Punch & elastic, string, or even pipe cleaners

Directions

1. Once you’ve printed and cut out the pig mask templates, trace them onto the back of a paper plate. Line up the face part of the mask with the edge of your paper plate to trace, and trace the ears and nose on the flat part.
2. Using a cutting mat cut out the eyes of the mask with a utility knife.
3. Now to assemble your mask. Start with the center slit. Slightly overlap the right side over the left and hot glue together. For the left slit, fold the right side over the left and hot glue together. For the right side slit, take the left side and fold it over the right side and hot glue together.
4. Now to add the ears. Fold the ears back (use the template to see where to fold), then fold slightly together so they’re somewhat curved. Hot glue each ear onto the mask.
5. It’s painting time! Paint the base of your mask 1 shade of pink, then the inside of the ears, cheeks and nose a different shade of pink. Finally paint 2 nostrils on the nose. You can also add eyelashes, or beauty marks, maybe even a ring around the eye. Whatever you want to do to add a little personality.
6. Hot glue the nose to your mask. Finally, punch a hole on either side of the mask and thread through some elastic, string, or even pipe cleaner. You’re done! Wear with pride and don’t let any big bad wolves into your house!

Sequencing 
Understanding sequences of events helps children recognize patterns and make sense of the world around them. Sequencing skills are a pre-cursor to learning how to tell time, but they’re also important to the development of other skills such as learning how to read sequences of letters or understanding their daily routine.

In the Three Little Pigs, sequencing is part of the story. First, the big bad wolf blew the house of straw down. Then, he blew the house of sticks down. Finally, the big bad wolf tried to blow the house of bricks down. To teach sequencing, you can ask your child questions while reading the book like: "What happened first?" or "What happened next?" You may also ask your child to predict what will happen by asking, "What do you think will next?" 

Sequencing Activity
1. Download ​the Three Little Pigs Sequencing sheet.
2. Cut out the pictures and mix them up.
3. Ask your child to put the pictures in order according to how the events happened in the book. ​

The Three Little Pigs is an old all time favorite.   Three little pigs set out to make their fortunes. The first little pig builds a house of straw. When he refuses to let the big bad wolf inside, he blows the house down, and the first little pig flees to his brother's house made of sticks. When both pigs deny the wolf once more, he blows their house down. The two pigs scurry to the brick house their brother built, which, try as he might, the wolf can't seem to blow down, and he leaves the pigs alone once and for all.

There are so many activities you can do with this classic tale. You can act it out, make fun props and have a ball.  Keep in mind too that there are tons of variations to this great story that you can also go to the library and get out or you can find the read aloud on YouTube.  

Other Fun Reads about Pigs

Sequencing 
Understanding sequences of events helps children recognize patterns and make sense of the world around them. Sequencing skills are a pre-cursor to learning how to tell time, but they’re also important to the development of other skills such as learning how to read sequences of letters or understanding their daily routine.

In the Three Little Pigs, sequencing is part of the story. First, the big bad wolf blew the house of straw down. Then, he blew the house of sticks down. Finally, the big bad wolf tried to blow the house of bricks down. To teach sequencing, you can ask your child questions while reading the book like: "What happened first?" or "What happened next?" You may also ask your child to predict what will happen by asking, "What do you think will next?" 

Sequencing Activity
1. Download ​the Three Little Pigs Sequencing sheet.
2. Cut out the pictures and mix them up.
3. Ask your child to put the pictures in order according to how the events happened in the book. 

Teaching Responsibility 
What is the Moral of the Three Little Pigs. Hard work pays off – The primary moral lesson learned from “The Three Little Pigs” is that hard work and dedication pay off. The first two pigs quickly built homes in order to have more free time to play. But the third pig labored in the construction of his house of bricks. You can use The Three Little Pigs to teach your child about hard work paying off by introducing a chore chart. 

Recent studies suggest giving children chores from an early age helps them learn essential lessons of life — responsibility, self-reliance, and work ethic (just to name a few).  Using a chore chart lets toddlers see their progress in completing their chores each day. Set goals for your child and let them pick rewards for being successful. 

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Group 5

Other Good Reads for Your Little Magician

Abracadabra Arts and Crafts 
Things You Will Need

• Black and Red Construction Paper
• Glue
• Safety  Scissors
• Silver or Gold Sparkles

Top Hat Directions:​

1. Cut the black construction paper into three pieces, one large circle, one small circle, and a rectangle.
2. Fold the rectangular piece into a circular shape and glue the ends.
3. Glue the rectangular piece onto the large circle and glue the small circle on top of the rectangular piece.
4. Cut a strip of red construction paper and glue it around the end of the rectangular piece that is glued to the big circle.

Wand Instructions:

1. Roll the black construction paper into a wand shape. 
2. Tape both ends. Color one end black. This is the end your magician will hold.
3. Dip the other end into glue and sprinkle with gold or silver sparkles. 

Sing-A-Long Songs​

After failing to perform any good magic tricks during his show, Milo is close to losing his job, but while searching for a rabbit in the woods, Milo encounters a clever bear and quickly decides to use him for his next great trick that is sure to wow the audience.

Your Little Performer
Children are often drawn to magic. It's exciting and allows them to use their imaginations for play. But, ever wonder if magic can help your child  develop? Here are ways magic can help your child grow:

1. Performing magic helps build self-confidence and helps children feel comfortable in front of others.
2. Magic engages children in pretend play and keeps their imaginations active.
3. Magic helps build friendships and teaches children social skills.
4. Magic tricks require minimal equipment and is inclusive no matter the child's abilities. 
5. Magic helps develop memory, logic, and critical thinking.
6. Magic is often based on Science, Technology,  Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills.
7. Magic teaches children to express themselves.
8. Magic empowers children to believe in themselves and influence their world. 

The Magic of Science
So much of magic is simply science. If your child is too young to be a magician, ask him or her to be your assistant. Magic tricks are full of wonder, great sensory activities, and always hands-on.

The Incredible Levitating Balloon
Directions:

1. Blow up a balloon or ask your assistant to do so if they are old enough to do so without the risk of choking.
2. Ask him/her if the balloon can stay in the air without anyone holding it?
3. Have your child rub the balloon on his or her shirt creating static electricity.
4. Say some magical words and hang the balloon on the wall without tape or glue. Float the balloon over your child's head.

The Amazing Disappearing Pepper Trick

What You Will Need:
Pepper
Plate or Bowl
Water (Optional to Color with Food Coloring)
Dish Soap

Directions

1. Pour some water onto a plate or bowl. You want it to cover a fairly large part of the plate. Coloring your water blue with some food coloring is an optional step, but sometimes makes it easier to see the experiment in action.
2. Sprinkle some pepper onto the surface of the water.
3. Dip your finger into the dish soap.
4. Say the magic words Hocus Pocus. Place your finger in the center of the plate into the water.
5. Watch as the pepper quickly scatters to the edges of the water on the plate.

​Magic tricks can be so much fun.  This is a fun topic to play pretend with your child.  You can use hats and scarves.  You can hide in boxes and even hide stuffed animals in boxes.  You can learn cards tricks like the one below:

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Group 6

Other Books About Rocks

Sing-A-Long Songs

There are many things we can begin to teach our kids about money before they’re even in kindergarten! By modeling behaviors, involving your kids in “real transactions,” and incorporating play, your kids can pick up on basic financial principles very easily. Here are eight financial principles you can teach preschoolers.

Financial Principles To Teach Your Kids Before Age 5

1. You Need Money to Buy Things- Teach  the concept of trade before introducing money. Money is a symbolic and can be difficult for toddlers to understand. Since the concept of trading one thing for another is really the basis for understanding how money works, this can provide an early foundation for understanding financial concepts later. Allow your toddler to pay at the store or at a restaurant to introduce this concept.
2. Money is Earned by Working- Explain to your toddler where you work and how your job provides money. Take your child to work with you if possible so they can see where you go when you are not home.  Allow your child to earn money for chores. Assign an amount per chore and have your child track whether they successfully completed the chore. Pay your child at the end of each week. Have your child add up the amount they have earned and count out the money that you give him/her. 
3. Waiting Before Buying is Often Necessary- When your toddler asks for a toy in the store, set a goal together to save money to purchase it. If the toy is too expensive for the child to afford on his or her allowance, consider giving more money for household chores or "matching" the child's contribution to make the goal attainable.
4. Save Money for the Future- Consider giving your toddler a very small weekly allowance. For example, you might give your child a quarter or fifty cents. Your toddler can put that allowance into the piggy bank and save it. You can help him or her count it regularly. Be sure to explain that each week, there is more money than there was before. The more he or she saves, the more the money grows. Set a goal for something your child wishes to buy and help him/her make a plan to buy it. 
5. There's a Difference Between Wanting Something and Needing Something- Help your child understand the difference between necessities versus wants. Have your child help you create a grocery list and then go shopping. Ask your child which items are important for your family to have and which are treats if money allows. This helps children understand budgeting in the future and helps decrease temper tantrums now. 
6. How Much Do Coins and Dollar Bills Represent- Counting with your child is an important first step to learning about money.  Allow your child to sort coins into piles and count them. Have your child tell you the name of each coin or dollar. Explain that each one has a different value. Have your child match each coin to its value by writing the number on a piece of paper.  
7. What is Credit- Help your child understand how credit works and why it is important to only buy what you can afford. Explain that credit allows you to borrow money from a bank or store, but you have to pay it back with interest. For example, say, if you want a piece of candy today, I will give you one only if you give me three pieces tomorrow. 
8. Giving is Receiving- Help your child to understand the importance of donating and volunteering. For birthdays, ask friends to bring canned foods or pet supplies instead of gifts that your child can donate to a food pantry or shelter. If you are cleaning out your child's dresser and closets, ask your child to help so they can donate the like-new clothes to a church for a family in need.