Book Tips

Fish

Category: Language Skills

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There are over 34,000 species. They have hard skulls, swim with fins, breathe through gills, are bony or cartilaginous, have a backbone, live in fresh or saltwater, come in a huge range of sizes, communicate with sounds, can smell, hear, solve problems, use landmarks, and have remarkable organizational skills for protection and interactions. They are important for aquatic ecosystems. And young children enjoy early ‘fish’ books, being introduced to a variety of fish in size, color, actions, habitats—ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, and learning how they work together.

Big Fish, Little Fish (Tiger Tales) is a toddler book with brightly colored fish shown in die cuts that are gradually getting smaller in size for little fingers to touch and trace. The verses include opposites such as awake/asleep, up/down, slow/fast. A fun rhyming read aloud.

A must-read classic (1963) book by Leo Lionni is Swimmy—the bravest of fish whose inventiveness saves new friends. It all starts with a ‘school’ of red fish and 1 black fish (Swimmy) enjoying their part of the ocean. A problem arrived when a hungry tuna fish came and swallowed all the red fish leaving the black fish alone but finding remarkable ocean dwellers to enjoy, yet he comes to another school of red fish in hiding from big fish. Swimmy thinks and thinks for a successful solution that saves them all and gives them freedom to keep swimming. His creativeness offers positive role modeling on how to be resilient and brave. That’s what a good book can do for children.

Lionni’s art is brilliant. He has more classics to enjoy.

Count with Little Fish by Lucy Cousins is a delightful early 1-10 counting book in bright colors and simple rhyme. I appreciate the use of adjectives to describe fish: twin, flying, sharp, shy, along with the action words. Toddlers will move with the rhythm of the verses. A fun early math book to share with children.

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The Moon

Category: Language Skills

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Future, Past, and Present – All in a Wordless Book

Field Trip to the Moon by John Hare offers a realistic view of what school field trips might look like taking a yellow ‘space bus’ to the moon.  Space travel IS the future.

Reading – talking – this wordless book is an opportunity for a creative discussion about what could be next in space travel and what role your child might have on such an adventure.  The main character – who is clearly an artist came prepared for the field trip with a sketch pad and a box of 8 crayons. Eventually to draw a picture of earth as seen from the sky.  Having nodded off and left behind when the class returned to their space station school, this curious child meets 5 one-eyed friendly gray moon creatures who at first were leery of this helmeted being. Sharing made the difference.  They took great joy in getting to know one another while coloring on their bodies and moon rocks.

Finally, the teacher returns to retrieve the missing child.  Whew. I have big issues with this teacher: legal and not being able to count.  I wish the teacher had asked how the child had managed being alone.  Did the teacher ever apologize? Own up to their mistake? (It wasn’t the child’s fault!) All for a deeper discussion. But isn’t that what a quality book can do? Get us thinking and asking? Will the teacher encourage the child to safely share their story when back in school?

Some children I’ve shared this book with focus mostly on the child, some on the moon/universe/earth drawing, some on the moon men.  They all relate to the idea of an adventure.

We don’t even find out what the child looked like until the very end. This child had met the unknown, created friendships, exhibited courage, joy, and generosity. Good job! Now that’s being brave and kind.

Name the crayon colors (there is no box sold with those specific colors – another observation some children will make).  Only a remaining gray crayon was needed for the child to draw a picture of a moon man. Subtle. Yellow, red, and blue are the primary colors; purple, green, and orange are secondary colors; gray is a neutral color; and then there is pink which is found in a box of 16 crayons.

Go through this book a few times with your child to come up with new responses.  What might happen next for this class?  Or the protagonist?  Anything is possible.  What fun for a preschool class to take a field trip to the moon.

Put on helmets (your bike helmets for now) and pretend you’re on a moon walk.

Our Solar System
Present-day information and accompanying vocabulary on the moon and our solar system for young children can be learned with two nonfiction books: Hello World! Moon Landing by Jill McDonald and My First Book of Planets by Bruce Betts.  They include simple drawings and photos of planets, astronauts, etc. – enough for parents to choose what they want to share.  Our knowledge of space has evolved dramatically through the centuries, let-alone the past two decades.

Go outside at night and find the moon in the sky once a week to follow the moon’s changing shape visible from a crescent to a full moon.  Waxing and waning. Why is part of the moon not visible some nights?  What planets can you see tonight in your area?  Make sure you identify Mars and look up what exploration is going on there.  What is the brightest planet in the sky tonight?

Only quality books will give simple, accurate, up-to-date, and understandable information for you to share.  Listen to your child’s questions and find some answers together.  Then read Goodnight Moon for the hundredth time at bedtime (remember to follow the moon’s position in the window).

NASA
Field Trip to the Moon is filled with math and science vocabulary and concepts. Hare’s art celebrates the 50th anniversary of NASA’s moon landing. If you look up “NASA 2021” you can watch some of the YouTube videos of active projects. E.g., look up Artemis Moon Mission from 2021. The Orion spacecraft has 25 engines, 1.6 million lbs of thrust. And the James Webb Space Telescope goes deeper into space than we can imagine – to the first galaxies. You can follow online. The movement colors going on in space is remarkable.

NASA has named 27 asteroids celebrating 27 ‘trailblazing’ astronauts and researchers – including Jose Hernandez (a migrant farm worker), African American Stephanie Wilson (first woman on the moon and second African American woman in space), John Herrington (Chicksaw Nation), etc. You can read more about these incredible thinkers and doers – just start with one. Their biographies are important to consider. Maybe your child will become a space researcher or astronaut. Look at the board book Book on Space: Asteroids and Meteors by Baby Professor. Question: What is the closest an asteroid has gone past earth?

Gail Gibbons’ The Moon Book first published in 1997 has recently been updated. Had to be. This is the main moon book I share with children ages 4-6. Even the last 3 pages about moon milestones, legends, and more facts can give you days of talk and further investigation ideas. Pages 22-3 show the moon’s surface as seen by the most powerful telescopes. Visit a nearby Observatory to see the skies close-up. Math and science vocabulary abound in space.

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What do you know about hedgehogs?

Category: Language Skills

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A new book by Britta Teckentrup prompted me to find out more.

I now know they live in Europe, Africa, and Asia. They love woodlands, hedgerows, bushes, gardens, parks, even some desert areas, and are moving into some edges of suburbia. They need places to nest and for some to hibernate. They are generally nocturnal—very active at dusk and dawn. We can picture them rolling up into a ball to avoid danger. They remind us of porcupines but are quite different. You can research the similarities and differences.

For 1-2 year-olds introduce them with the board book A Little Hedgehog by Rosalee Wren. Follow a baby hedgehog—a hoglet— with his mother and siblings learning how to navigate until the sun rises and then they can sleep. This is a perfect beginning animal-hedgehog book.

Britta Teckentrup’s book Again! is part of a series about a big hedgehog and his friend little hedgehog on their everyday adventures. These books are very gentle in their descriptions, actions, and talk. The 2 friends awaken from hibernating and go on a walk to see all their friends. They swing, roll, laugh, play—and want to do it all again and again. They have 3 other books to enjoy reading. And Teckentrup has over 120 animal and science books.

Hedgehogs! a My Incredible World book (a series of over 100 books) is a perfect beginning reader with fun facts and colored photos of hedgehogs. We learn hedgehogs use the same terms/names as pigs: piglet, hoglet, sow, boar. They scream, squeal, huff. They eat insects, worms, frogs. And incredibly, they are one of the oldest mammals on earth—they’ve been around for 15 million years.

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Pairs is a Math Language

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The Oxford Dictionary defines pairs as “a set of 2 things used together regarded as a unit”.

Merriam Webster Dictionary describes pairs as “2 corresponding things designed for use together”. Pairs are everywhere in a variety of combinations.

Two Together by Brendan Wenzel (Ages 3-5). 2 friends, a cat Bell and a dog Bone, a pair of good friends who have different perspectives on what they find on a walk home during one exciting day exploring the world around them.

There is a lot to talk about on every page of this book.

I am partial to the moon page: “Two together with the moon.”

A quality picture book is The Missing Pairs by Yvonne Ivinson (Ages 4-6). A full-package story written in rhyming conversation between best friends bear and fox along with friends hare, badger, skunk, hedgehog, mouse, and a dachshund. It includes:

clear engaging art, (notice a balloon in the distance on the far-right of a page);
a dilemma and surprise result with an unintentional culprit who has been part of the group all
Along; hints are on the frontispiece and endpiece pages; signage/posters used for a purpose,
the use of homophones: pair, spare, bare, hare, pear. Use in later conversations with your child; and the word ‘tow’

Contrary Dogs by Élo uses 1-2 words showing opposites in dog actions, descriptions, positions—using ‘move-the-flaps’. A perfect ‘opposite’ dog book with simple clean art.

Opposites are pairs (math language): awake/asleep; sitting up/lying down; right side up/upside down, etc. Come up with some of your own. There are everywhere!

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Night Animals

Category: Language Skills

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Who is awake at night?

Gianna Marino’s engaging books Night Animals and Night Animals need sleep too (ages 2-6) are hilarious introductions to who is up and about at night in the woods, forests, and even in your neighborhood. The star of the stories is the Possum who is true to his reputation by playing ‘dead’ when afraid. In the first book, he hides, faints, and is carried along with his new friends – skunk, wolf, and bear. It takes a bat to remind this lineup that they are supposed to be awake at night. Finally, they meet someone new in the woods. And everyone RUNS!

In the second book, during the daylight we find Possum and friends (including beaver and bear) trying to find a nice dark place to get some sleep. Good luck to them. More running! Nighttime comes again and according to bat they have to stay awake. Possum makes us laugh at every page. What if you and your child were the humans in the story? How would you react?

Animal dialogue

Both stories are entirely told in bubble talk with a few sound effects here and there – aaaarrrroooooo, click, poooooooofffft, crunch, crackle, etc. and even a ‘sigh’. Each book tells a complete story with simple and fun dialogue that invites you and your child to join in. The art is in perfect keeping with the nighttime. We know exactly why there is so much black space; we can see the bright moon behind the bat in the tree; we know there is a flashlight being used by the humans. Everything about these books is quality. (You can find more Gianna Marino books to read.)

Facts about night animals

What helps make these books exceptional are the full-spread jacket inside pictures filled with brilliant art supporting information about our new nocturnal animal friends. Their habitats, sizes, physical attributes, where they sleep during the day, night activities. It feels like we are reading another book. Did you know the gray wolf’s howl can be heard up to 50 miles away? Fruit bats sleep almost 20 hours a day? So many facts.

With a beginning reader you can share Super Reading Level 1 Nighttime Animals that includes a variety of nocturnal animals.

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Pet = Responsibility

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Dogs first.

They rely on us for food, water, exercise, grooming, unconditional love, safety. They become best friends and a loyal family member—they keep us moving, talking, and hugging. All good! (We’re partial to mini-schnauzers. Can’t be without them.)

Dog’s First Baby by Natalie Nelson. (Ages 1-3) is about DOG’s first baby. What is this? It doesn’t smell or look like a dog. But it does take naps, enjoys walks, howls vociferously, likes to play, and eat—generously tossing peas onto the floor for dog snacks. They do have a lot in common and clearly can be friends, even sharing a picture book together. A full story in a board book with short sentences and crisp fun art. Perfect for dog families who have a new baby in the house.

AND there is Cat’s First Baby for families with a cat. This cat is curious and active just like baby. They figure each other out and of course, become good friends.

3 Stories to Read to Your Dog by Sara Swan Miller (Ages 4-7). Yes, read to your dog—an appreciative audience (along with snuggling). These stories include bones, burglars, barking, even sitting on a tree stump to think. A fun excuse for a child to read aloud. This book is also a favorite for reading at Dog Shelters. A good place to volunteer.

For pet cats, Miller wrote 3 Stories You Can Read to Your Cat. (Ages 5-8). Cats have plenty of adventures. And a favorite is Anna McQuinn’s Lola Gets a Cat. Lola wants a pet cat, does her research on how to care for a cat and finds the perfect cat at the animal shelter. Lola is a role model for learning how to read for pleasure and for information. 9 books in the Lola series—a delightful collection.

27 action verbs indoors and outdoors (+ 3 additional words) about a boy and his dog are found in Good Boy by Sergio Ruzzier (Ages 2-5). The colorful illustrations encourage conversations about the adventures of these two best friends. The ending is a surprise—a reversal—with the dog tucking in the boy with a final, “Good Boy.” Fun! Ruzzier has written more favorites.

John Schindel’s The Babies and Doggies Book (Ages 1-2) is filled with photos of babies and dogs doing similar actions—licking lips over ice cream, yawning, eating, smelling. Babies can imagine seeing themselves in these photographs.

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Baby Animals

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Photos of Baby Animals in Their Environments

The series of 12 books Baby Animals by Kate Riggs (Starting Out series) includes a variety of unusual animals – Lemurs, Meerkats, Red Pandas, Flamingos, Sea Lions, Cheetahs – and some more well-known – Zebras, Polar Bears, Whales, Otters, Hippopotamus, Chimpanzees.

|Start with one book to introduce your child to a baby animal’s first year of life.   Then add another.  Compare them.  What do they have in common?  How are they distinctly different?  Keep adding some more books. Act out how the animals move; how they sound.  Get on all fours and go for it. Hippos live in a school with other hippos.

Visit your local zoo and find as many of the baby animals as you can. Take some of your books along.  Keep going to see how they grow during their first year of life. She has 3 levels of animal books depending on a child’s age.

Beginning Descriptive Animal Vocabulary

Each of these books have clear, beautiful photographs combined with simple sentences (many with just 9 sentences) with basic descriptions. Simple vocabulary words with definitions. 3 more book suggestions at the end. These are great books for sharing at a preschool. Some five-year-olds will be able to read the text. These books are ready-made for use in conversations with a child reinforcing their meanings and usefulness.

A baby otter is a pup
A baby hippopotamus is a calf
Baby otters chirp, squeal, and grunt
Baby hippos snort, grumble, and wheeze

Riggs shares a link to access to hear the sounds.  Your child will want to hear over and over.

Growing Comparisions

Talk about how your child developed during their first year of life. Look at baby photos. Note the changes in growth. What sounds did your child make that first year? Squeals? Snorts? Gurgles?

How much did your child weigh compared to how much a hippo weighed at birth? Get on a scale.  How many of ‘you’ would it take to weigh as much?

Now find additional nonfiction books by Riggs that show what these animals look like after 1 year.  What can they do differently?  Where do they live?

Learning how each animal baby develops during their first year of life is a perfect way to start learning how we can and should value and protect animals.

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Busy Squirrels

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In the Fall

Leaves are changing colors with the coming of crip, cool weather – brilliant gold, orange, red – carpeting yards and sidewalks. Children take advantage of the growing piles to jump into and kick around. Many deciduous trees are becoming bare as acorns shower the ground under oak trees. Squirrels start gathering them to store in their nests for a winter nap (‘torpor’).

In the amusing book Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater (ages 4-6), squirrel is panicked to find so many of ‘his’ leaves missing – falling from the trees. He repeatedly turns to his friend Bird for answers as to why this is happening. Bird reassures him it is just the wind that is blowing away the leaves – not thievery. Bird tries valiantly to convince squirrel this is an annual occurrence. A final surprise for squirrel – he thinks the grass is stolen. No. It’s only snow that has covered the grass with the beginning of the next season. A perfectly illustrated autumn book (notice Bird’s modern home and we see he is a serious bowler!) to read after a walk with colorful leaves floating around you and your child. Note this squirrel prefers hazelnuts! Try some and see how they taste.

Nancy Tafuri’s board book The Busy Little Squirrel follows a busy squirrel readying himself for fall (ages 1-4). His animal friends each asked him to play, but he was too busy staying focused on gathering acorns and fruit for his winter nap. He needed it after all the effort he expended. Perhaps have a stuffed squirrel to join you in your read aloud (from Aurora World Miyoni).

Autumn Descriptive Words

Both fall books use simple and useful words you can share when outside with your child on a walk or in conversations: snug, canopy, wait a minute, relax, disaster, rustles, fast asleep, nibble, busy. Talk about colors gold, red, orange – and green. Stop and watch squirrels. Describe their actions. Why do they wave their tails at you?

What other words come to mind?

Heap = jump in a heap of leaves (a heap of laundry from the dryer ready to fold; a heap of kids piled up on each other playing.

Crunch = when we step on the leaves we can hear them crunch.

Fall Science

In the book In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzak, we can follow the changes in the tree with a child swinging, the colored leaves falling, the ground turning brown. Since we are in the ‘middle of fall’, we can expect the air to be cool, the sky to change from mostly gray to white and empty – until the snow comes and many animals hibernate – in a torpor.

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The Ocean Deep

Category: Language Skills

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Exploring the Ocean on a Field Trip
The next field trip for the school children we met in The Field Trip to the Moon is on their trip to explore the depths of the dark ocean on a school-bus-yellow submarine in John Hare’s book Field Trip to the Ocean Deep.

There is only one word used in the book – CLICK – with a curious student taking photos with a camera.    As you picture ‘talk/read’ this book with a child, you will see the children walking on the ocean’s floor with the marine life.  Notice the variety. Four-year-olds will be able to tell a story from the illustrations.

For a simple extension buy a few plastic toys that match what we see in this book for play in the bathtub, pool, in the sand at the beach, or wherever.

Wordless Books force us to use our ‘own’ words
Now our student adventurer wanders off checking out a treasure chest, then he drops into a deeper section of the ocean deep where parts of an ancient structure is still standing. He meets a shy sea creature (reminiscent of the moon aliens in Hare’s Field Trip to the Moon book). They bond and as they take photos of each other, a section of the standing pillar collapses. The friendly sea creature helps to restack pieces of this mysterious building.

The teacher finally reunites with his student. I’m hoping he is gobsmacked at what the child has found.  Is it the lost city Atlantis? I’m hoping so and recommend the DK book Atlantis, The Lost City? by Andrew Donkin (ages 8-12) to read about this legend.  You can spend days just researching Atlantis. With younger children you can ‘talk’ the information.

Hare’s quality wordless book gives us so many ideas and extensions to consider and research. The 8 photos on the last page help the boy retell the adventure story to his classmates. You can do the same with your child after any trip you’ve taken and ‘click’ 8 photos. Have your child tell the story you have documented.

Identifying Names

On the last page of the book, the 8 photos identify the names of various things and animals this curious child wanted to record – his documentation – ‘Bioluminescent Squid’ is just one.  Many bioluminescent ‘life forms’ are only found in oceans and only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored. The book Glow – Animals with Their Own Night-Lights by W. H. Beck is filled with dramatic photos of these magnificent glow-in-the-dark forms with simple text descriptions.

What are some of the names of the sea animals and marine life the children saw?  The book Ocean Animals for Kids by Bethanie Hesterman (ages 4-8) is a resource.  Identify as many as you can. And our hero’s new friend is definitely prehistoric.  Is he a pliosaur? To find out more (more than you may want to know) look through the book Firefly Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals.

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Chores and Kids are Good for Each Other

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Basic Chores for Young Children
Some chores are easier said than done. In the book Max Cleans Up by Rosemary Wells, it is clear that Max is always a mess. Yet he is very happy in his own world while somewhat oblivious. His sister Ruby is competent, organized, and relentless. She gets Max to join in picking up in his room, but he doesn’t do exactly what she says. He does manage to rescue several of his favorite items which then starts a new mess thanks to his big front pocket to accommodate his fresh stash. We don’t see Ruby’s face, but we can guess what it must look like when she realizes what he is doing. What next?

This book creates giant laughs. Perhaps it will even give your child some ideas for their next foray into cleaning up their room and give you some funny talking points while cleaning is going on. (NO popsicles, please.) This is just one book in the series of these two strong characters. They are also found in a Young Readers rhyming book series. ALL of the Max and Ruby books are sheer delight.

FYI: The books came long before the TV shows.

Tidying Overkill: Tidy by Emily Gravett definitely qualifies as a quality book with its art and storyline. And it gives a whole new meaning to the art of cleaning up. Pete, the badger, who has OCD, gets carries away with his version of tidying to the point that he has even covered over his food source and his home. Sleeping the empty cement mixer is not comfortable. He realizes he has gone too far, remedies his mistakes with a lot of help from his true friends (and funny characters). The hope is he will stay calm – get a grip on himself – after this debacle, but on the end=page we see him already vacuuming up the book’s publication information words. This doesn’t bode well.

There is fabulous art in this rhyming book, including a self-standing jack cover that is its own piece of art. I’ve never seen a book jacket so complete. There are so many hilarious details in this book: Pete in an apron, rubber gloves, cleaning brushes, countless trash bags. The FLOOD and MUD pages tell their own story.

Little Ren Hen Tale
The folktale Little Red Hen is all about helping and participating.  Or not.  Paul Galdone’s version is true to the original telling of this tale.  The red hen did all of the work with wheat gathering, tending, and taking it to be ground into flour, gathering sticks for the fire, mixing the cake.  And then eating it.  The dog, cat, and mouse did not help with any of this effort.  Nor did they get to eat any of it, but they learned their lesson and became “eager” working helpers from then on.  We are confident they will get to have some cake the next time.

In Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges the duck, dog, and cat also don’t want to help with making the pizza – they would rather play. They won’t go get a pizza pan nor the ingredients that the hen needed. She only had tomato sauce; eggplant and jumping beans which won’t work!

Duck, dog, and cat wouldn’t even help put the pizza together.  Yet, Little Red Hen was generous and shared the entire pizza with them.  They developed a conscience and were grateful for the food and happily offered to wash, dry, and put away all the dishes for her while she read and had her chickweed tea.  Oh, that it was always that easy to have a change of heart.

Amy Walrod’s artwork is detailed portraying each of the animal’s character.  Even hen’s cupboard and refrigerator contents create their own conversation with all the foods stored.  What is in your food cupboard and refrigerators?  What would you still need to make a pizza at home right now? Make a list, shop, measure, mix, knead, and bake until “a delicious smell drifts from the oven…fills the room…and floats out the window”.  Share, eat, cleanup.  Two different takes on the same tale with both resulting with new helpers. “I won’t.” “I will.”

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Movement

Category: Language Skills

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Move with Rhymes
Douglas Florian is a favorite poet and author of mine.  I often pull out his books to share with children of various ages. There is always movement in his poetry and with the words themselves.  bow wow meow meow it’s raining cats and dogs! is an example.  The poodle poem is in ‘curls’.  The Dog Log poem lists words every dog enjoys in his ‘brain design’ – bones, walk, rollover, wag. His four books of seasons all have words twisting and turning to match the text – even a tree shaped poem.  He repeats words to make a point.

In Play! Play! Play! by Florian for ages 2-5, children are outside playing in the fresh air.  Running, sliding, riding, hiding, racing.  When inside they are role playing with toys and more toys.  All active and all sharing with each other.  There are 7 pages with 3-word repeats that rhyme – seek, seek, seek and peek, peek, peek.  The vocabulary is simple enough that a 4-year-old will be able to recognize some words and ‘read’ along.

His poems are visual.

Diversity
In Play! Play! Play! by Douglas Florian, the 6 children in this book represent diversity. They share, hold hands, play together. The simple text is subtle. These children get along with each other. Their goal is to play, to move about, and have fun. That’s a good beginning book for a child. The naturalness of these children playing together is as it should be.

Action Verbs
13 action verbs all used by animals – 2 at a time.  We know exactly what they are doing.  No one is standing still.  The super large paintings in Move! by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, let us know how each of these verbs ‘move’.  We can waddle with the penguin and swing with the gibbon.   Seeing this vocabulary in action adds to a child’s word bank.  And for older children Jenkins includes 2 pages of detailed information about each animal.

This book includes is all – engaging text, geography, science, math, and vocabulary.  And best of all it gets us to MOVE!

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Trees are Vital to Our World

Category: Language Skills

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Learn About Trees
What kind of trees can you see out your window? On your street? In a park? In a woods? A forest? Each tree has a name.  Just like people.  And dogs.  And fruits.  If you live in northern California or southern Oregon you can see the Giant Redwood trees. If you live in Texas, you’ll see Oak and Ash. If you live in Georgia, you’ll see American Chestnut and Beech.  Minnesota, you’ll see Cedar and Balsam Fir. In Maine, the Birch tree.

Go for a walk, find a tree, find out its name and 3-5 pieces of information about it.  Keep going back to that tree and see what changes it makes during the 4 seasons.  Maybe take a picture of your child hugging it during the four seasons.  For 3-5 year-olds look at Britta Teckentrup’s book Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book. By peeking through various holes, you’ll see how a tree grows, who is living in a tree, how it changes through seasons.  The colorful book let’s a child play with the various pages to find out information. A good starter book.

Tree Descriptions
Tall, Tall Tree Book by Anthony D. Fredericks and Chad Wallace is a rhyming and counting book for three- to seven-year-olds about the California Coastal Redwoods.  These trees can grow up to 300 feet and spread their shallow roots out to 100 feet to keep their balance; these trees have deep, deep roots.  Fredericks’ book teaches that there are ‘other’ trees can grow differently because of where they live.  This is good background knowledge for your child!  And there are STEAM activities to use.

Trillions of Trees by Kurt Cyrus is in rhyme for three-five-year-olds telling the history of trees and the crucial importance of planting new saplings.  Cyrus is a master at including numbers and counting in his picture storybooks (Billions of Bricks).  This new book is timely and hopefully will encourage children and their families to plant, plant, plant.

Another favorite tree book is Strange Trees by Bernadette Pourquie and Cecil Gambini.  Amazing trees around the world.  Rainbow Tree, Walking Tree, Gum Tree.  This is a must-have quality book!

Tree Descriptions
DK Smithsonian Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds is for 9+ year-olds but younger children will enjoy the beautiful photos in specific categories, especially the trees.  You’ll see trees close-up with detailed descriptions.  This is a perfect science reference book for the whole family.

Even the ‘Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library’ has a book about trees:  I Can Name 50 Trees.  In rhyme of course, this fun book identifies 50 trees around the world, includes a Glossary with 9 words defined, and the last page says, “…go plant a tree please.”

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Korean Food and Families

Category: Language Skills

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Korean Bee-bim Bop In a Blog I mentioned my interest in Korean culture and history from watching historical dramas and reading children’s books especially by Linda Sue Park.  Her book Bee-bim Bop! (mix-mix rice) for 4-6 year-olds shows a contemporary multi-generational family preparing dinner from start to finish – the young girl narrator helps to set the table (spoon and chopsticks in the correct spots). The story is in rhyme. You can’t help but sway as you read. And then eat a helping of bee-bim bop at home or in a restaurant.

Family
The book’s art by Ho Baek Lee is active, friendly, inviting, and tells a story on its own.  It fits perfectly with the rhyming texts.  Quality picture books always have art that matches the text.

The family in this book is clearly supportive of each other, happy – look at their facial expressions.  Even the dog!  The little girl is encouraged to help prepare dinner with her mother.  She tries to pour water into a pan, it spills – that doesn’t matter, she apologizes, uses a mop to wipe up the spill – easy peasy, no recriminations.  Everyone comes together to the table and enjoys the delicious meal.  We want to join them!

Weather:
There is a recipe for bee-bim bop at the end of the book.  Have your child help make a list of what is needed from the market, help choose the fresh vegetables and meat, help measure what is needed in the recipe, help make the meat marinade, help serve the food – rice first.  With your toddler here is a chance to use the Learning Tower to safely reach a counter for food prep.

Talk about how vegetables are grown – spinach, carrots, bean sprouts, onions. Do they grow above the ground or below?

Plant some carrots outdoors in a garden or in a large pot.

The recipe says to cut the carrots in julienne strips (2” long) – new word ‘julienne’
It calls for green scallion onions. At the market, find other kinds of onions – red, sweet, white, yellow, pearl, shallots
Crack open eggs, whip them together in a bowl, cook into flat-pancakes
Where do sesame seeds come from? Find the answer together with your child using real books
Taste test kimchi with older children (if you dare)
Kimchi, Kimchi Every Day by Erica Kim (the book’s paper used is traditional Hanji made from mulberry trees native to Korea)
No Kimchi For Me! by Aram Kim (including Grandma’s recipe for kimchi)
Check out different cabbages at the market.  Maybe there a Korean or Chinese market in your area to find ethnic foods/ingredients.
All cooking uses math and science vocabulary. All cultures have favorite traditional foods.

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Photos of Animals Body Parts

Category: Language Skills

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Noses
You start talking to your baby the minute you see them. You’ll be naming and describing body parts automatically – how we use our feet and legs to walk, our hands and arms for touching and holding, our noses for smelling, our ears for hearing, our eyes for seeing, our mouths for eating, talking, and kissing.  Ready-made talk, play, and vocabulary building.

Ask your toddler to wiggle their nose.  Wiggle your nose. That’s what the Cottontail rabbit does.  He even wiggles it while he is sleeping.  What do we use our noses for? What can you smell right now?  The soap that mommy used for your bath?  The cookies that just came out of the oven?  The toast? The cheese you had for lunch?

The board book Snouts and Sniffers by Stan Tekiela shows us how 10 animals use their noses to smell, swim underwater, protect themselves.  We also learn that the Eastern Hognose Snake even uses its tongue to smell.  We can’t do that!  When you go for a walk with your toddler stop to smell the outdoors – grass, flowers, even tree bark, the air.  Maybe you’ll see a rabbit twitching its nose.  Take advantage of connections that your child can recognize.

Ears
Stan Tekiela’s photographs of animals in their habitats shares the right amount of information for young children to understand. Tekiela uses just one or two short sentences on each of the 10 animal/insect double pages.  Floppers and Loppers shows long ears, short furry and leathery ears, ears that are bigger than an animal’s head and ears that are used to find food in the dark.  Peepers and Peekers show how animals can have their eyes in a variety of places on their bodies and use them for finding food and staying safe.
His board books are perfect beginning reference books for young children to look at over and over.

Animal Descriptions
Paws and Claws shows us how 10 animals walk, hunt, dig, and climb.  You can use those action verbs to describe and compare your child’s actions to the animals in the books.  These 4 small books introduce a young child to 40 (‘real’) animals, learning something basic and unique about each as well as acquiring purposeful vocabulary found in those short descriptions:  suction cups, pincer, paddle, gooey, tearing, pounce, direction, gliding.  All words that can be used in your talk and exploration while you are out on a walk.

Find more of Tekiela’s books Whose Butt is That? Whose Track? Do Beavers Need Blankets?  His photography is brilliant.

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Our Five Senses

Category: Language Skills

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Smell, taste, touch, hear, see
Babies know you are playing when you touch their nose then touch your own. Exaggerate. Smell the air when you are on a walk outside or smell a flower.  They can taste the difference between bananas and green beans.  They can feel the different textures when touching a soft blanket then touching a toy that has ‘bumps’ or grooves on it.  Or cold water and warm milk.  They can hear the difference in your voice when you whisper to them or sing loudly to them.  They can see the difference between the stuffed brown bear and the striped zebra.  They will quickly learn the words nose, mouth, hand/fingers, ears, eyes through your play and talk.  This is the beginning of learning about the five senses.

Find the opportunities when you are playing to use this new vocabulary.  Karen Katz’ book Toes, Ears and Nose is a good beginning board book for identifying body parts with a baby and you can add the words smelling, tasting, touching, hearing, and seeing in your talk. This is the beginning of learning about a baby’s own five senses. Ruth Spiro and Irene Chan have a series of 16 Baby Loves Science board books including Sight! Touch!  Taste!  Smell! Hearing! Talk about what the pictures are telling you.

I hear a Pickle
I Hear a Pickle by Rachel Isadora is a must have book for 3+ year-olds.  Simple sentences and pictures to go along with the 5 senses all in context with activities that children can relate to over a 6-page spread for each.

From the SEE pages: “The lamp is on.  I see.  The lamp is off.  I don’t see!” along with a child in light with a lamp on and in the dark with the lamp turned off (and eyes agog).  “I don’t see the words in my book.” along with a girl trying to read a book.  “I wear my glasses.  I see the words!”  showing the girl wearing glasses and able to read.

Make sure you have a jar of pickles to eat – for all 5 senses:  sour, spicy, green, slippery, and CRUNCH. What other foods could use all 5 senses? Think of more foods and how you can describe them.

Anatomy
For 4+ year-olds read the book The Five Senses by Aliki.  It is a classic that has been brought up to date. Still a favorite, as is Aliki herself.  It is a good start, a lead-in for more serious science books on the senses such as the DK Human Body books.  With your roll of white ‘drawing’ paper (butcher block) cut off a piece 5’ long.  Have your child lay down on it and trace their body.  Let them help to add their eyes, ears, mouth, nose, then limbs = include hands (for touch).  Fill in as much as your child wants with your help (or not) – at least your talk about what is next.  Use your reference book for adding other parts.  Maybe a brain?  Heart?

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Animals and Their Habits

Category: Language Skills

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Sing: You can sing.  Maybe not to everyone’s liking, but anyone can sing something.  Now listen to how your singing voice is different from your reading and speaking voice.  (I mentioned this in the 1st Tip).  Again, try all three.  You’ll hear the differences in intonations and inflections.

Singing automatically shares emotions – joy, drama, silliness, sadness, seriousness.  Songs tell stories. You know your young child will join in. There are many songs about animals to share with young children.

Most of us know the traditional tune to Over in the Meadow and some of the words –
Over in the meadow, in the sand, in the sun,
Lived an old mother toadie and her little toadie one.
“Jump!” said the mother; “I jump!” said the one.
So they jumped and they jumped, in the sand in the sun.
Over in the meadow, where the stream runs blue,
Lived an old mother fish and her little fishes two.
…up to ten.  The original was written by Olive Wadsworth in 1870 (that date can vary a bit).

Listen to a recording of Over in the Meadow along with the book by Barefoot Book Publishers (art by Jill MacDonald who illustrated the weather book mentioned in an earlier Book Tip).  Their series of books and singalong music are good fun.  I admit I own almost all of them and have shared them with children countless times.

Over... Marianne Berkes has a delightful series of rhyming books that follow the tune of the song ‘Over in the Meadow’. Her books Over – in the Forest, in the River, in the Arctic, in the Jungle, in the Mountain, in the Ocean, in the Grasslands, in Australia, etc. include descriptions of each region and 10 animals that live in each area.  The verses are easy to memorize for singing while out on a walk or getting dressed.  How about a stuffed animal to match – an otter, a giraffe, a polar bear – as a reminder of one of the animals from a specific habitat?  A new friend that has a connection to the book.

Choose one of these books at a time.  Reading all of them would be too much at once (your child will tune out or you will!).  Keep adding one more to your collection.  Each has its own message about their areas: the mountain book takes you to all 7 continents; the river book has a map outlining where each river is.  This series became board books in April 2021 for younger ages. I am a big fan because of the multiple ways these books can be shared.

Otters Over in the Forest includes otters. Have fun finding out more about where they live – rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, marshes, often using leftover dens made by beavers. There are 13 kinds of otter species. A family of them is called a ‘raft’ – a good collective noun. Yet again, start with Kate Riggs book Baby Otters.

For a one-two-year-old have the little board book. A little Otter by Rosalee Wren. Then Goodnight Little Sea Otter by Janet Halfmann and the National Geographic Reader Sea Otters. Have a Folkmanis otter finger puppet handy to hear the stories with your child.

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Names

Category: Language Skills

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Animals Have Names Too:

Read, read, read to your child.  20 minutes is not enough in one day.  Yes, you are busy.  And the pandemic created new challenges with our time and attention, but perhaps you might be at home more and able to have more one-on-one time with your child.  Grab the time – make the time – to read with your child. Enjoy this togetherness. It won’t last long.

A favorite early childhood book of mine is Zoe and Her Zebra by Stella Blackstone (embroidery art by Clare Beaton). Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a child and their name along with an animal ‘who is chasing them. You’ll quickly see each animal begins with the same initial letter from the child’s name.  The animals are not identified so you will have to guess what they are until the last 3 pages. Each animal is described, e.g., xoona moth.

Which animals begin with the letter of your child’s name?  What about other names in your family – what animals match them?  From where does your name originate?

Diversity: If you are reading from a quality book that has strong, clear, uncomplicated art that supports the text and has a story that will be of interest to your child, then you will be able to easily read for more than 20 minutes.  One great book leads to another.

The diversity in this book is natural, subtle, and respectful. Zoe and Her Zebra gives us 26 different children from various cultures and backgrounds with different colors of skin and different clothing and hair.  None of the background countries (where these children’s families are from) are identified.  With older children you might look up some of the names to see where they originated; find them on a world map you have taped up on a wall in easy reach for reference.

Clare Beaton always uses fabrics, elaborate stitching, buttons, sequins.  Look for a variety of art in books.

One to Ten – and Up to Twenty

A variety of animals are being counted in One Moose, Twenty Mice by Clare Beaton with the constant question, “…but where’s the cat?” who is hiding behind various pictures.  This is a book for children who understand counting from one to ten. (Let them use their fingers.)  The variety of animals in this book creates more questions: where do they each live?  And what else can we learn about a moose?  They live in cold climates, forests, near ponds and streams – but what do they eat? Who are their friends? What do their antlers tell us?

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Biligual - Spanish and English

Category: Language Skills

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Kisses - Besos: Besos For Baby by Jen Arena is a perfect bilingual baby ‘kiss’ book using simple words from a baby’s world:  Mommy/Mami, Daddy/Papi, Sun/Sol, Doggy/Perro, Butterfly/Mariposa, etc.  Babies can identify with the pictures.  I particularly enjoy the ‘…sun shines kisses’ and the ‘…wind blows kisses’.  All the pages can easily be referred to when playing with your baby.  Give lots of kisses while you practice some Spanish.

Children’s books are a natural and easy way to learn about other cultures – if they include accurate and clear representations.  Kiss by Kiss by Richard Van Camp counts kisses up to ten in his bilingual Plains Cree/English board book.  The photographs of babies being kissed express such joy.  Babies seeing the photos in this book will naturally respond to the babies’ faces and the love being shared with them.  What a delightful way to see another language from the people of the First Nations (Native Americans).  Look at more books by Van Camp.

Mamá Goose A Latino Nursery Treasury by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy is filled with bilingual nursery rhymes, saying, and songs from a variety of Hispanic countries and has colorful illustrations. ĺPío Peep! also by Ada includes traditional Spanish nursery rhymes.

Counting Kisses by Karen Katz starts with ten kisses on various body parts – counting backwards; including a belly button ‘zerbert’ for number 7.  Read the book with your baby then perform all the actions one by one.  Identify each body part as you go along – toes, cheeks, belly button, etc.   Read the book again.  Kiss and kiss again and again.  Keep counting.  Your baby will expect it and might offer up a hand or a foot and even remember the number of kisses required (from the book).

Lots of early rhyming is extremely helpful to early readers.  They will listen to word endings more carefully, they will use the rhythm of words to feel and hear what might come next, they are nudged to think of new words that are needed to complete the rhyme.

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Early Biographies

Category: Language Skills

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Early Biographies: Start introducing biography books to your 2+ year-old with a basic board book; there are many to choose from.  You could start with the board book series Think Big, Little One by Vashti Harrison that has 18 strong and creative women who invented, built, flew, painted, led, researched, wrote, and saved people and the world. Each page has one woman with one descriptive sentence.  Simple – clean.  Choose one or two of these women to keep referring to in later conversations.  As your child gets older introduce the books with more information on each page.

Paint a picture with your child after reading about Frida Kahlo; build a ‘tall’ skyscraper with your LEGO DUPLO pieces after reading about Zaha Hadid.  Keep the book open and refer to their pictures as you create.  Mention their names out on a walk.  Ask what your child might invent.  (No one right answer!)

Vashti Harrison’s quality books represent the best in clear, clean, uncomplicated art and text for a young child. Little Dreamers Visionary Women Around the World is the expanded version of the board book with full page biography information for a three- to four-year-old.  Both sets include a diverse representation of cultures and backgrounds.

Harrison’s books are not too simple and not too complicated for the appropriate ages, a good mix.  She also has Little Legends Exceptional Men in Black History and Bold Women in Black History for different ages.  Her books include important people to inspire young children.

Vashti Harrison’s biographies use short sentences with specific verbs to describe the actions each woman took – explained, uncovered, planted, created. One of her trailblazing women in Little Dreamers Visionary Women Around the World is Wangari Maathai who planted millions of trees in her homeland of Kenya. She was an activist committed to helping rebuild the land that deforestation and urbanization has damaged. As a result of her efforts, thousands of people have planted trees and teach practical facts about what can be done to help save the land, animals, and the people that live together.

You and your child can plant a tree sapling in your yard or find an area that would welcome new plantings (with city or town permission if not on private property). Engage your neighbors to do the same. Take pictures following your sapling with seasonal photos and measure the growth (math). This is participating in land conversation with your child – setting an example of a useful activity that benefits everyone.

With a three-six-year-old, read the rhyming cumulative story The Tree That Bear Climbed by Marianne Berkes. It begins with “these are the roots that anchor the tree that bear climbed”. Good word to learn – anchor. The book ends with the bear eating honey. Four end pages give information on basic needs of plants; tree parts; how plants and animals interact; some plan experiments. You might start looking at bee books next. This book is an example of how a quality book can be extended into new activities, talk, and vocabulary.

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Simple Words Can Make a Complete Story

Category: Language Skills

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A Classic: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is a classic baby/children’s book first published in September 1947. I have gifted it countless times and it is still a favorite must-have book of mine for children. The rhyming text can be used as you are walking around with your baby: “…and a comb, and a brush and a bowl full of mush” to be said when combing hair or eating breakfast cereal. As your baby gets older and you’ve read and recited various lines from the book over and over, you can pause and not say the last rhyming word and let your child fill it in. “Goodnight kittens, goodnight—Goodnight little house and goodnight—“. This is good recall and indicates how well your child is listening.

Sounds: Red Hat by Lita Judge is a simple book using sounds to tell the story along with the clear artwork. “Swish swash” while the child is washing clothes in a tub; “Hemmm?” looking at a red hat drying on a clothesline; “Roweeeee” as the bear runs away with the hat. “Hiii-ya” when raccoon grabs onto the hat’s tassel; “Whoa” as mouse flies away holding on to the tassel. All the way to the end when the child looks at the unwound hat on the line and mutters “Hmmm?” Then knits it up again with a “Tink-a-tink tink” of the knitting needles and with an audience of seven animals happily watching the hat being remade. A complete story with clear art and only sound words. Later try using a couple sounds during your child’s play. Reference the book. Make a connection. You can do that with a ‘quality’ book. Maybe knit a hat.

Counting from five back down to none – with the classic rhyme Five Little Ducks illustrated by Pamela Paparone. “Five little ducks went out one day, Over the hills and far away. Mother duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack.” But only four little ducks came back.” It continues until there are none, but they do return to mother duck one day. Thank goodness! Even the words far away are descriptive math words. This rhyme is a simple introduction to counting down. Just like “Three, two one – Blast off!”

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Rhyming Fun

Category: Language Skills

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Rhyming

Pictures

From Wibbleton to Wobbleton

Now is the time to start reciting rhymes to your baby. Rhyming is extremely important for babies to hear (and eventually recite). It helps them differentiate sounds in words which leads eventually to learning to read. Rhymes have distinct sounds and patterns. Hearing and using these sounds will train your baby’s ear to hear those differences in word endings.

Quality picture books always must have exceptional art. Rosemary Wells is one of the masters at making sure her art accommodate what has been written while telling a story. Her pictures have detail that children can notice on their own. Continuing with her Mother Goose books, recite “Dickory, dickory, dock, the mouse ran up the clock.” We can spot the mouse eating some cheese. Perhaps Gouda? With an older child buy Gouda and eat it together while revisiting the rhyme and art.

Continuing with the Opie/Wells Mother Goose collection is the story-rhyme: “From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is fifteen miles, From Wobbleton to Wibbleton is fifteen miles, From Wibbleton to Wobbleton, From Wobbleton to Wibbleton, From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is fifteen miles.” Children respond and enjoy repetition. It is satisfying. Recite this while you’re on a walk, driving in the car, on a train or bus ride. Ask the question, “Are we driving fifteen miles? Walking fifteen miles?” I would say yes – at least during the first couple years then you need to start being more accurate.

My Very First Mother Goose books by Rosemary Wells and Iona Opie is a favorite collection. Play with your baby’s hands while reciting “Pat-a-Cake”. Clap your hands, then clap his hands. Over and over. Pretend to pat the cake, prick it, mark it with a T (for Tommy in the rhyme) OR change the letter to your baby’s first letter in his name. Write the letter in the air. Recite it again when your family is having cake. This action can last for at least two years. Move with the actions in the verses.

Then there is another mouse on top of the clock, the face of the clock is a cat, the clock hands are at 1:00 (I’ve seen versions of this rhyme where that isn’t so!), the wallpaper has pictures referencing another rhyme – the cat is napping and his fiddle is next to him (‘Cat and the Fiddle’). EACH one of the rhymes has accurate supporting artwork.

Have fun with simple rhymes. Both fifteen and miles are math words. Use them. And make the reference to the book it came from.

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Babies See Black & White First

Category: Language Skills

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Colors: During their first three months, your baby will only see black and white, along with some gray and red. Strong colors will kick in after month five. Include in your early book collection, black and white board books that illustrate different shapes. Babies will focus on those items – a panda, stripes, spots, etc. These books will be wordless or have just a word or two on a page. Tell stories about the figures. Ask questions. Keep the talk going.

Keep it simple: Simple objects and shapes are what you want in first books. Not too much detail nor intricate designs filling a page – that’s potentially confusing (I think dizzying). Peter Linenthal’s Look, Look! has simple objects – face, hand, sun. Tana Hoban’s Black on White has a bib, fork and spoon, leaf. All items your child will be learning to identify at some point and easy to reference later in your child’s day in your own environment.

Black and White Animals: Phyllis Limbacher Tildes’ Baby Animals includes a dalmatian, panda, even a mobile of b/w animals. These items are springboards for strong talk using interesting vocabulary. Dalmatians have spots, we think of them as mascots of firemen. Pandas eat up to 40 pounds of bamboo (an evergreen grass) each day. Find out more about pandas. Read Baby Panda by Kate Riggs describing how pandas grow up in the wild. Her photos are perfect for telling their story. Become informed so you can answer future questions about animals.

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Starting from Day 1

Category: Language Skills

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Talking and Listening: Describe what you're doing when you're bathing or dressing your baby. 'Left hand/right hand being washed, dry and warm now, arms being put into the onesie, kissing toes.' Provide a running commentary on what you're doing. Do this from the very beginning, well before they can understand any of the words you are saying.

Bodies, Faces, and Clothing: Look for books with clear, simple text; with uncrowded, strong art that matches the words, the story. Start with board books which are easy to hold. Where is Baby's Belly Button by Karen Katz introduces parts of the body that children can have fun matching to themselves with your help – belly button, arms, legs. Talk and point to each part.

Weather: Hello World! Weather by Jill McDonald shows children dressed in appropriate clothing for all kinds of weather and seasons. A great beginning science book where children can recognize items in the context of their own experiences. Take this book with you outside on walks or to the beach. Point and count the two sandals, one cap, etc.

Describe what you’re doing when you’re bathing or dressing your baby.  Left hand/right hand being washed, dry and warm now, arms being put into the onesie, kissing toes.  Provide a running commentary on what you’re doing.   Do this from the very beginning, well before they can understand any of the words you are saying.

What’s on my Head by Margaret Miller let’s children see themselves in the faces of the photos of children while playing with hats, caps.   Both books allow children to relate to their bodies, faces, and clothing and promote ongoing conversations.

There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather, Only Bad Clothes by Linda McGuirk

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Explore these educational booktips designed to help you—parents and caregivers—unlock your child's potential and foster a love for learning.

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