October 2021 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 Llama Books Your Might Enjoy

​Talk to your child while reading this book about colors.  Specifically, the color red.  Look around your house with your child and find items that are the color red.  From their branch out to other colors.  You also can talk about Llamas.  What are they? Maybe even talk about other animals and the sounds they make. 

Maybe even try to do rhyming words.  Even young children love to hear you talk and share language with them. 

Acting Out a Story
Acting out a story is a common activity in classrooms around the world. There is no reason little ones can't join in too though. Little llama is quite active in this book and wee ones will have fun joining in. Jump on the bed. Stomp on the floor. Hide behind covers. You can even discuss how to be patient and things you can do while waiting. 

Shadow Puppets

Has your child ever said they are scared of the dark? You can discuss the fear and emphasize how safe they really are, but that doesn't always work. Coming up with fun activities you can do in the dark is one thing that is suggested to combat that fear. How about shadow puppets? If you aren't great with your hands, try cutting out familiar shapes and getting kids to guess what they are based only on the shadow they see cast on the wall. 

Sing-A-Long with Llama Llama

Download Other Activities and Games at Activities - Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama (llamallamabook.com) including:

• Mazes
• Coloring Sheets
• Spot the Difference
• Party Games​

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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.
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. 

Other Books to Read about Colors

Songs About Colors

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Group 4

Sharing and Taking Turns
Teaching toddlers and preschools the importance of sharing and taking turns is an important skill. Learning to take turns and share is difficult for almost all young children.  Sharing and taking turns is a learned skill, and adults need to be patient and model sharing for their child.

Mix and Match Eggs
Number of Participants: Two to ten
What You Need: Assorted plastic eggs
Directions

1. Rearrange eggs ahead of time so each is made up of two different colors. For this age group, the activity will work best if you exchange halves on two eggs of different colors. For example, make one egg with a blue top and purple bottom and its counterpart with the purple top and blue bottom.
2. Divide eggs evenly between participants.
3. Have the group sit in a circle.
4. Explain the directions. The purpose of the game is to make each of your eggs totally comprised of just one color.
5. One participant starts by asking another person for the color he needs for a particular egg. For example, if you have a green top with a red bottom you would ask the person with a green and red egg to trade bottoms with you.
6. Go around the circle until everyone has completed the task.

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How It Teaches Sharing: Children will learn they need help from others to complete the task. You can't make a blue egg in this activity without another person sharing their blue half with you. One of the benefits of sharing is helping each other reach a goal.

Goose's friends love the stories he makes up when they're playing. Except one thing - Goose is always the hero. And when they ask to take turns leading the fun, Goose doesn't agree. While they argue about it, no one notices the hungry wolf sneaking up on them until he shouts, "Hello, Lunch!"

This real-life danger shows Goose how silly he's been and that his friends make terrific heroes!

Other Fun Reads about Sharing

Simple Ways to Teach Children to Share:

1. Praising children when they share-  Whenever your child shares anything with anyone, appreciate it. The words of appreciation encourage children to repeat that act.
2. Teach sharing to children through right labeling-  Make them understand the difference between, “Mine”, “Yours”, and “Ours”. It will help them know the importance of sharing.
   
3. Helping to realize their fear-  One of the reasons children are scared to share anything is because they doubt if things will come back to them. Help them realize this fear by saying, “Are you afraid you won’t get it back” or “Do you think that he will return it to you broken?”  Once they realize that they are scared, parents can help them get over their fear by actually showing them how to share and how you can get the thing back in the same condition.
   
4. Teach children about taking turns-  This is more useful when there are siblings. If there is one toy between two children, teach them to take turns while playing with that toy.  It is better to start this exercise at an early age. That is because their feeling of identity and belonging is developing at the toddler age.
   
5. Teach them to ask for things rather than grabbing-  Sharing is not always about giving things, it is also about taking things from others when needed. Teach your children to ask for the things that they need. Tell them that grabbing someone else’s belonging are not good manners. The right thing is to ask for it.
   
6. Do not yell if the kid is not sharing- ​ True that teaching sharing to children is a tough task. But do not yell at children if they refuse to share something in public. They presume that sharing comes with yelling. It will discourage them.

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Group 5

Create and Paint a House

You Will Need:
Small and jumbo craft sticks (plain wood, not colored)
Glue
Sturdy poster board or paper
Paint and brushes

Directions:

1. Have your child create a house on the poster board or paper with the sticks and glue in place.
2. Paint the house.

Out and About

1. ​Take a walk or drive with your child through your neighborhood. 
2. Talk about the different houses you see and what they are made from.
3. Ask your child what colors the houses are painted. 
4. Show your child the numbers of the houses and ask them to name the numbers. Teach your child his address by telling your child the number of your house and the name of your street.
5. Bring a pad of paper and write down your findings to talk to your child later.

Animal Homes
Teaching children about animals homes allows them to build their vocabulary and understand why we need to respect nature.​

Children Love to Build  

Your child can build with blocks, Legos and wood unit blocks.  But in reality, children can build with anything.  Recycled materials such as cereal boxes and plastic containers can make great building materials.  Use your imagination, you can build with anything.  Have fun with your child and look around your home and see what you can use to build together.  

Paper Bag House
Materials needed:  
Brown lunch bags
Glue sticks or glue
Arts and craft materials (yarn, sequins, felt, construction paper)
Scissors
Markers and crayons
Newspaper

Directions:

1. Have your child decorate the bags as they want drawing or making doors and windows. This can be a holiday project by making the house a gingerbread house.
2. When done, crumple newspaper and stuff bags.  Staple closed. (if you do not have newspaper you can use junk mail, paper towels and tape if you do not have staples. )
3. Give your child a large piece of construction paper and crayons.  Ask them to draw a road, sidewalks, trees, etc. and place their house on their street!

Act out the Story
You Will Need:
3 Stuffed Bears and a Doll or Make Puppets
 
Using the stuffed animals, the doll or puppets, act out the story. This is a great way for your child to use their imagination.

Other Books To Enjoy ​

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Group 6

Other Books About Rocks

Rocks and Roll

Create your own NOT BORING STORY.
Get a rock.

1. Draw a face on your rock using paint
   or chalk.
2. Write your rock's story.
3. What kind of rock is it? (for more
   information on rock types, check out
   a book from your library).
4. How old is your rock?
5. What (or who) has your rock seen?
6. Maybe your rock has witnessed a
   historical event, or lived under the ocean,
   or met a now-extinct animal.

Making a Volcano

Things You’ll Need For Volcano Experiment For Kids:

• 100 ml of warm water
  
• 10 ml of dish soap
  
• 400 ml of white vinegar
  
• Empty 2-litre soda bottle
  
• 2 drops of red food coloring
  
• Baking soda slurry ( ½ cup baking soda and ½ cup water)

Directions:

1. Mix the dish soap, water, white vinegar, and food coloring and pour it into the empty soda bottle.
2. Make a baking soda slurry with ½ cup baking soda and ½ cup water. Mix it thoroughly with a spoon, until it’s completely dissolved.
3. Now, it’s eruption time! Quickly but carefully pour this slurry into the bottle and step back.  Now, watch the volcano erupt and spill out red lava!