It is time for the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids again! This month the author that was chosen to read was Kevin Henkes. We were very happy about this news because we truly enjoy reading his books! Our newest find and favorite book by Kevin Henkes is A Good Day. Be sure to check out our giveaway of this book here!
A Good Day by Kevin Henkes is the precious story about a day in the forest that starts off badly! Yellow bird loses his feather, orange fox can't find his mom, and squirrel lost his nut. But then, the day gets better! Each animal in the story finds a way to make their day better and at the end of the book you find a little girl who says "What a good day!"
We really enjoy this book. The pace is perfect for my three year old. As we read the beginning, we frown and talk in sad voices, halfway through we change our voices and smile since the day gets better and better! The colors in this book are cheerful and I love that there are pictures on one page and the text is written on the opposite page. It is perfect for my six year old to read all by himself.
We had a lot of fun with this book!
Here are 8 simple activities we tried out to go along with the book A Good Day.
1. Acorn Cookies
We made some acorn cookies out of chocolate kisses, chocolate chips, frosting, and mini vanilla wafers.
These cookies are one of the first things I ever saw on Pinterest and I thought they were so cute. Here is a tutorial for Acorn Cookies at Dandelions and Lace.
Our acorn cookies didn't turn out Pinterest photo quality, but my son didn't mind! He wanted to eat one after another, after another!
2, Sink and Float Experiment
Next, we experimented with outdoor items in a sink and float game. This was all my three year old's idea. When reading the book the first time, he noticed there was water under the tree where the squirrel lost his nut. My son asked me if acorns float. I said, "Let's find out."
So, we found some sticks, stones, and leaves to put in the water and we also used some acorns that we had collected on a past hiking trip to put in the water.
Baby Girl liked pulling grass out of the ground and putting it in a box while my son and I worked on our experiment.
He was very good at guessing which things would sink or float and even opened up one leaf to get the seeds out and watch them sink.
3. Feather Sensory Play
Next, I wanted us to have some fun with the yellow feather that the little yellow bird lost. I got some yellow craft feathers from our craft closet and planned to have a search in the backyard, but first, my nine month old daughter and I had so much fun playing with them.
What a great sensory activity this was. I put a feather on her head and she giggled like crazy. Then she did her best to put feathers on my head. I tickled her feet with the yellow feathers too. I will definitely be using feathers for some supervised play again soon! So simple and fun!
4. Story Sort and Retelling
For the next activity, I took a little time to cut out pictures of each animal in the story and some other items that went along with the animals. I grabbed a piece of construction paper for each color of the animal and grabbed my three year old for a story sort!
He did a great job first looking for each animal and placing them on the right color. Then, he had to look at each picture like the fence and tree and put them where he thought they belonged.
He did a great job and then was able to use each character/color sheet to help retell the story!
5. A Good Day Downloadable Activities
Both of my boys worked on the downloadable activities from Kevin Henkes' website that go along with A Good Day. One was perfect for my first grader's reading skills and the coloring was perfect for my three year old who got creative and decided to make his squirrel blue!
6. Little Yellow Bird's Feather Hunt
Later on in the week, we were able to get to our feather hunt. I hid feathers all around the backyard and had the boys search for them, just like the little girl at the end of the book! Anything that has to do with searching for something is always a hit in this house!
In this picture, my three year old tried to use the swing to get to the feather hidden in the tree. I guess he was determined to get it before his brother!
7. Squirrel Search
After making our acorn cookies one day, it was so beautiful outside that we went for a walk and decided to search for squirrels. We found at least three and one was hopping from tree to tree trying to hide from us!
8. Pattern Practice and Painting with Stripes
Last, but not least, we needed to do an art project to go along with the book! I just love the stripes that are a part of some of the pictures, so I decided to have the boys make some of their own stripe patterns! To get ready I got out the watercolors and some paper. I quickly drew some brown stripes on the paper, so the boys could just easily paint their own pattern.
I don't get the watercolors out very often, but my son loved using them! He decided on blue, purple, and red for his pattern. It turned out great!
Here are our finished projects. We took the top paper and cut it out to make our own bookmarks. My six year old was very proud of his painting! I was proud of the fact that I got him interested in an art project since that hasn't been very easy to do lately.
We had such a wonderful time with Kevin Henkes' book A Good Day and I am excited to say that if you check back tomorrow there will be a chance to win your own copy of A Good Day! Here are some of the other books by Kevin Henkes that we have read and completed activities with in the past.
If you have read a book by Kevin Henkes and followed it up with a craft, field trip, learning experience, or cooking adventure, link up below and share your fun with all of these other great bloggers!
What a great set of activities. I think my kids would enjoy looking for the yellow feathers!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bethany! There is definitely something about "searching" for things that is so appealing to little ones!
DeleteI love all of the great activities you did for this wonderful book. I am impressed!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jennifer! I loved the way you incorporated nature into your art project for The Little White Rabbit!
DeleteI love Kevin Henkes. I planned a whole storytime around his books. We are going to use feathers to paint with my first storytime of the Fall to go along with Birds. A few of my favorites are the longer ones, which aren't good for storytime, like Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, Julius Baby of the World and Owen.
ReplyDeleteMy grandkids would love the acorn cookies!
ReplyDeleteI love these activities! You had so much fun with one book! I would love to try those acorn cookies and the feather hunt! :)
ReplyDeletehow fun! i've just put acorn cookies on our to do list! mikayla will love these!!
ReplyDeleteSo many fun activities to choose from. I like the painting stripe patterns activity a lot.
ReplyDeleteThe Acorn Cookies activity looks very fun!
ReplyDeleteHow do you keep your baby from putting grass, rocks, feathers, etc. in her mouth?? I want my 9 month old to explore things but every time I set him down on the grass he chokes on the grass or leaves because he is constantly putting them in his mouth!
ReplyDeleteShe still loves to put things in her mouth. There are many times I am happy that she has her pacifier because it keeps her from constantly "tasting" things. If we do something like this feather play, I am sitting right next to her so that if she starts to put them in her mouth I can stop her before it gets there. Babies love to explore with their mouths, so I think making sure there is supervision is most important.
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