Animal Babies Book
Make a book featuring your preschooler's favorites.
Baby Food by Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers
What you need:
• Baby Food, by Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers (optional)
• old magazines
• glue
• scissors
• construction paper
• crayons and/or markers
• stapler
Reading tips:
1. If available, read Baby Food with your child. This whimsical book presents all kinds of animal babies — as sculptures made out of fruits and vegetables!
2. Does your child know the names of the animal babies in the book? Point out that sometimes baby names are the same as adult names (hippos have baby hippos) but sometimes they are different (kangaroos have joeys).
To extend the reading:
1. Invite your child to create her own animal babies book. Search old magazines for pictures of adult and baby animals. Help your child cut out the pictures. You might find additional animal pictures online. Your child may prefer to draw the animals himself, or use a combination of magazine photos and drawings.
2. Fold pieces of construction paper in half. Paste the picture of the adult animal on one half, and the corresponding baby on the facing half.
3. Help your child label her pictures ("dog," "puppy").
4. Staple the pages together and let your child decorate the cover.
Learning Benefits:
• increases awareness of animal names
• supports vocabulary development
• enhances early literacy
