| Eric Carle is best known for his classic "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" or "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?", which he wrote with Bill Martin, Jr. It is easy, when an author is famous for one or two books, to overlook some of their less known work and that is why I was excited to find the children's book "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle . |  |
While books are usually sit down and snuggle events, there is no reason they should not also be get up and jump around opportunities. Gross motor development, along with language skills all in one 15 minutes of fun with your toddler? Check!
Each page features an animal doing an animal type of thing, and then a child doing it too. For example "I am a monkey and I wave my arms. Can you do it?" I love the child's response on every page "I can do it!" Not only are we moving around and having fun, my child is practicing positive self-affirmation too. Love it!
One great way to use motion books like this is to all stand up and read the book together while doing the motions as a way to get the wiggles out before reading more sedate stories. Alternately, keep it in the pile as a change of pace if reading is becoming boring for one or more of your children, or to transition from book time to another activity.
Each page features an animal doing an animal type of thing, and then a child doing it too. For example "I am a monkey and I wave my arms. Can you do it?" I love the child's response on every page "I can do it!" Not only are we moving around and having fun, my child is practicing positive self-affirmation too. Love it!
One great way to use motion books like this is to all stand up and read the book together while doing the motions as a way to get the wiggles out before reading more sedate stories. Alternately, keep it in the pile as a change of pace if reading is becoming boring for one or more of your children, or to transition from book time to another activity.
Development Activities
| Books for Children Ages: 18 months to 5 years old Related Discussion Topics: How different animals move, how we are different from and the same as animals, exercising our bodies, trying new things. |
Reading Activities for Kids:
Culture Differences: Like all of Eric Carle's books this one is filled with a many different multicultural representations of children having fun. This book is also available in Spanish:
Children's Book Review Rating: 4 Stars - Beneficial Book
- Get up and move with this book. Do the motions on each page - and even add your own sound effects!
- What other fun animal movements can you think of to try? Take pictures of your child doing the action and saying "I can do it!" Make your own book by having your child color the animal, or cutting out pictures of the animal from a magazine for one side of the page, and then putting their picture on the other.
- Get out in nature. Look for as many animals as you can find and talk about how they move and what sounds they make. Can you make these sounds too?
Culture Differences: Like all of Eric Carle's books this one is filled with a many different multicultural representations of children having fun. This book is also available in Spanish:
Children's Book Review Rating: 4 Stars - Beneficial Book
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