Aquarium (Ocean) Week begins!
This is our first week of themed activities and I'm so excited about it! I've been preparing it for days so I'm really hoping that J would enjoy them.
I'm not sure if there is going to be much learning but my main objective is to let J have some fun and see if she remembers anything from her last aquarium trip. She was 17-months-old then and was fascinated with the fishes so I'd love to see how it has changed over these few months.
If she can revise concepts like "big, small, bright, dark", or identify some of the sea creatures, OR finally get the colour "blue" and not call it orange, that's even better!
:: Books ::
Prior to this, I've never borrowed books purposefully whenever I go to the library with J. We usually let her pick out what she wants. If she like a particular series, we will look for other books in that series and that's about it.
This time, I scoured the library for ocean themed BOARDbooks.
I didn't dare to pick out paperbacks or hardcovers in case J damages them. She usually quite gentle with the books, but accidents happen.
I found only four of them but these four are good.
Hide-and-seek, Pout-Pout Fish (by Deborah Diesen) and I Explore Under the Sea (by Dr Mike Goldsmith) complements the aquarium trip best.
Hide-and-seek, Pout-Pout Fish is a lift-a-flap book that exposes children to the various marine creatures like the anglerfish, but in rather adorable illustrations. It doesn't use the actual names of the sea creatures, so the anglerfish is Mr Lantern and the octopus is Mr Eight. But that's fine though since now J knows that there's a fish with a lantern on its head. She can learn the proper terms later. (and the illustrations are way cuter than the actual anglerfish.)
I like that I Explore Under the Sea contains more information about the ocean that is simple for children to understand, even though it does contain a non-fiction twist at the end. I also like that the sea creatures are labelled and half of what is mentioned in the book can be found in our aquarium.
J has been asking to read these two books quite a lot so here's hoping that she would find some of the sea creatures familiar when we visit the aquarium.
We haven't managed to finish Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse with J yet but I love the story and am considering adding it to our collection.
Now this one. This is a surprise find and other than the fact that it has got fishes and pictures of the ocean, it does not quite go well with what we are doing. BUT... ! Only One You by Linda Kranz is a book with beautiful messages, and I think even teens and adults should read it. I'm buying this for J when she grows older.
:: Introduction Activity ::
This is an activity inspired by J.
She asked to "pretend swimming" in the playroom one day, so I thought "Why not pretend we are under the sea?" I was trying to find a way to keep her occupied anyway so I took out my drawing pad and I drew some pictures that I plan to stick on the wall. I made it a colouring activity for her but as you can see, it didn't turn out so well. She ended up doodling instead.
She held this piece up and declared...
... "Mama!! Jellyfish!!"
Pretty close.
Update:
I left the colouring sheets as-is so that she can go back to it whenever she wants.
She doesn't seem to be interested.
So I place the fish, which I had coloured in, on the slot on her tray so that it works as a reference. She decided to colour the fish instead and ended up decorating my walls.
This introduction doesn't seem to pique her interest as much as I thought it was.
Perhaps, it's time to try something else.
And here's the activities for the week.
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