MeMeTales Readathon - Week 1 ANIMALS

We can't tell you enough how strongly we, Amanda and Kim, believe in the power of books.  During the summer months, it is just as important to keep our kids reading, learning, and exploring.  As parents, we try to find exciting ways for our kids to dive into books during the summer months.  As teachers, we understand the importance of continuous daily reading though out the summer, so when we were asked if we wanted to join this Readathon, we felt it fit right along with our beliefs!  For the next 6 weeks, we will be providing you with some activities to extend your online reading experiences! This first week theme is ANIMALS!

Would you like to join in the fun?  Sign up here for the 6 week Readathon and your family will be able to "rent" different books from their online library each week!  These books can be read on-line, or through your iphone, ipad, Android phone or tablet, or Kindle Fire (Nook app is coming soon).   *** Note, I did have problems when trying to read the books online in Internet Explorer,  Google Chrome worked like a charm for me!

Hopefully, you have all signed up for the summer reading program through your local libraries!  This program should NOT replace your weekly (brick and mortar) visits to the actual library as kids need these experiences.  This readathon is ANOTHER way to get your kids excited about reading more and in a different way! Online books are great for reading on-the-go, kids who may be excited about using the computer for learning, and for struggling readers.  I had my 5 year old read along with the reader.  A beging reader could Echo read, or read just slightly behind the reader.  Although my 2 year old joined in the fun by listening and crafting with us, I believe that he is too young to read books online regularly and save these for once-in-a-while occasions. 

This morning, we read the fable called, The Donkey and The Wolf.

The Donkey and ...

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Prior to the story we talked about fables and what lessons can be learned from the stories. During the story, stopped halfway through the story to discuss and predict what would happen.  After reading and discussing this cute little fable about using your wits, we got to work making our scene from the story! 

This activity re-enforced position words, the concept of a story setting, and provided an opportunity for story retelling.  It also gave the children an opportunity to interact with different mediums and have some fine motor practice (painting, coloring, cutting, and pasting)

1. We first painted purple triangles in the top half of the paper and topped them with a little white for a snowy effect.  Then, they added a grassy field on the bottom half of the paper, below the mountains.  I like using blue paper as the background.

2.  While the mountains and grass was drying, we drew the 2 main characters from the story.  I started drawing a goat (my 2 year old doesn't draw objects yet!) and my daughter started laughing. "Don't you remember the story was about a DONKEY and a wolf, not a goat?"  Whoops, I changed it to a donkey!  Then, we colored our animals in and cut them out.

3. Our grass was mostly dry when the animals were ready, so we began to stamp a field of flowers onto the grass using different colors and an up-down motion with the brush.  I reminded them to keep the flowers on the bottom half (my 2 year old is working on this concept)!  If you do this while the grass is still wet, the colors get very muddy looking.

4.  The kids then glued their characters onto the setting.  My 5 year old added speech bubbles to her animals which is a great way to include writing into your projects!  They then practiced re-telling the story and hung their pictures on the fridge!

What is great about projects like these is that you can extend or support the activity depending on the age and needs of your child.  A 5 year old that has finished kindergarten may add speech bubbles.  A 7 year old may re-write the tale with different characters.  A 2 year old may be just working on the process and understanding of fables.  It is important to know that you can adapt these activities to meet the needs of your individual child!  Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

5 year old version

2 year old version with Mommy drawn characters

Disclosure - We will be given free books in compensation for Readathon blog posts, but all opinions about Memetales are solely ours.