Storybook Week 6: Diary of a Spider

This week the storybook is Diary of a Spider, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Harry Bliss.

1. Read the Book

Language Arts/Story Interest

Together with your child, read the book or watch the storybook video.

2. Start a Personal Diary

Story Interest/Arts and Crafts/Fine Motor Skills/Language Arts

Start with a blank composition book or notebook and pictures that will be interesting and relevant to your child, like pictures of him- or herself, family members, animals, and special interests. Tape or glue a picture of your child to the cover. (Or let your child do this.)

For your younger child, write a heading on top of each page. Categories that work well are Family, Animals, Numbers, Letters, Dinosaurs, Colors, Shapes, and character pages for your child's favorite book and TV characters.

For a baby or toddler: Paste pictures and photographs of each category under the appropriate heading. Allow your toddler to color on pages.

For a preschooler: Paste one or two pictures and photographs in each category, leaving plenty of room on each page. Draw a few writing guidelines at the bottom of the page so your child can write something about the page. Ask your child to draw pictures from the category on each page and then write something about it at the bottom. You may need to write for them, but do ask what they want to say about the page.

For an older child: If necessary, show your child how diary entries can start with the date that they are written. Have them write what they want about their day and allow them to use pictures and photographs to illustrate.

Alternative 1: 

If your child is into photography, allow him or her to make a photojournal on a topic of his or her choice. If it would be easier, use a blog or other online format for your child to post digital pictures. Make sure it is a secure site so it can be kept private if appropriate and so that you and your child can monitor what information is available to strangers.

Alternative 2:

Organized Christmas has a great idea for a frugal gift that can be used in this activity: a Journal Jar. The gift idea includes a journal and a jar of journal prompts to get someone writing. I've included the link to the Child's Journal Jar but there is also one for adults.

3. Spiders vs. Insects

Science/Arts and Crafts

Learn about arachnids. You may have a favorite science book or encyclopedia at home that describes arachnids, or you can use this great fact page from BioKIDS. Talk about the differences between arachnids and insects.

Next, do a fun spider craft together. This is a good one posted at Children's Learning Activities.

4. Babysteps Flash Cards

Story Interest/Organization

Together, choose something your child wants to learn to do. Help him or her break it down into three steps to practice. Have an older child write down each step on a separate index card. For younger children, write it for them. A picture of each step would be helpful and interesting as well.

Show your child how to practice each step, one at a time. Let him or her keep the flash cards to practice at other times.

5. Differences

Appreciation of Diversity/Emotional Awareness

Have your child choose one of his or her friends to talk about. Talk about the things your child likes about the friend. Ask if there are any things about the friend that are different from your child. You can help with ideas if your child can't think of any (hair color, skin color, eye color, length of hair, where the child lives, family, what the child likes to do, the child's favorite color, the child's favorite TV show, etc.) List two or three of these differences that your child likes about his or her friend.

Now think of someone else who is different from your child. This could be another child, a neighbor, a classmate, or a character from a book, game, or show. Think of their differences. Again list two or three differences that your child likes or thinks is interesting.

You may want to ask a few follow-up questions, but this topic probably doesn't need to be belabored. Some examples are:

"Can people who are different be friends?"
"Do you like to learn new and different things?"
"Do you like to meet new and different people?"
"How does it feel to notice something different about another person?"
"How does it feel to be different from someone else?"

Storybook Week 3: Chrysanthemum

The book Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes, stars an adorable mouse with an absolutely perfect name. At least, it seems perfect until one day when a classmate makes certain comments...

1. Origins of a Name

Story Interest

Ask your child what his or her full name is. Together, look up the meaning of the name in a name book or dictionary or online. Some questions to consider together are:

What do you like best about your name?
What does it sound like?
What does it remind you of?
If you could choose any name for yourself, what would it be?

For a baby or toddler:

If you or someone you know has the talent or budget for it, you could make or purchase a name sign to hang in your child's room where he or she will often see it. There are many vinyl wall art companies to choose from these days and many online tutorials for decorating and displaying wood letters with materials you can find at any craft store.

Point out the picture to your child, saying the name and talking about the letters, pictures, colors, and shapes in it.  

We are extremely fortunate to have an artist in the family: my mom. Here is an example of part of a name picture:

2. Read the Book

Read-aloud

Read the book together, or watch the Scholastic Storybook Treasures story video. The video has marvelous, soothing narration by Meryl Streep.

3. Fat Orange Crayon

Arts and Crafts/Handwriting

In the book, Chrysanthemum loved to write out her name with a fat orange crayon. Set out a large piece of paper and a big orange crayon. Have your child write out his or her name on the paper.

For a toddler: Draw block letters of your child's name on a large piece of paper. Let your toddler scribble away at the paper with a fat orange crayon. It may be more fun if you join in!

4. Teasing

Emotional Awareness/Social skills

Use puppets that you have or make paper bag puppets by drawing faces and hair on the bottom of a paper lunch sack. Start a role play using the puppets in which someone is teased for something like a name or hair color. You can play the teasing puppet and the puppet being teased, while your child plays a friend of the puppet being teased. See what your child does as a friend. After a few minutes, you can switch all the roles.

For younger children, you can model the friend being helpful, saying encouraging statements like, "I like your name," or "I am sorry you feel bad. Do you need a hug?" You can talk about strategies such as telling the parent or teacher if they feel bad about something someone said or did to them.

For older children, talk about what teasers or bullies want. For example, you can talk about how reacting strongly and emotionally to the teasing makes bullies want to do even more teasing. Model calm, bland phrases like, "Thank you for noticing," or "It's interesting you think that." These, if repeated often, should be very boring and demotivating for a teaser or bully.

For even older children, or any children who use cell phones and online technology, research cyberbullying and address those issues with your child.