"Curious George Rides a Bike" by H.A. Rey follows everyone's favorite mischievous monkey as he takes over his friend's paper route. George becomes curious about the newspapers and decides to make boats from them and float them down the river. After reading the story, provide children with newspapers and craft supplies such as glue, scissors and masking tape to make a newspaper boat. Discuss the properties of other materials that can be used to make a boat. When the children are finished with their creations, test the boats in a kiddie pool, a small tub of water or a bathtub (if you're doing this activity at home). This activity will exercise children's fine motor development, as well as sharpen their scientific reasoning skills.
This children's classic by Robert McCloskey follows the adventures of the Mallard family as they look for a new home. After reading this story together, explain to your child that a habitat is a place where an animal lives. Discuss different animals and their habitats. Using a large posterboard, create a chart with four categories: in the ocean, in the forest, in the desert and in our homes. Ask your child to cut out pictures of animals using old magazines and discuss the habitats of the animals she chose. Using a glue stick, attach the animals into the correct habitat category. As a story stretcher activity, see how many other habitats your child can name and if she can draw pictures of what this habitat looks like. Ask her which types of animals would live in the habitat. This activity will expand your child's knowledge of the world around her, as well as develop her fine motor skills.
"Quick as a Cricket" by Audrey Wood is a richly illustrated picture book in verse featuring a young boy acting as all of his favorite animals. Read through this story with your child once. Take time to notice the detailed illustrations on each page. Read through the story again, leaving out animal names, to see if your child can use his powers of deduction to guess which animal the boy is acting out. When you have finished reading, take turns acting as each of the animals in the book. Ask your child to guess which animals you are acting out. Guess which animals your child has chosen to emulate. This activity will develop your child's gross motor skills.
"Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon is the heartwarming story of a baby fruit bat that becomes separated from his mother and is temporarily adopted by a bird. After reading the story with your child, discuss the differences between birds and bats. See how many differences your child can spot. Ask him what he thinks it would be like to live with a bird mother. Talk about which animal family he would like to live with, if he had the choice. Open-ended questions such as these often can lead to further discussions and increase understanding of early science concepts. As another story stretcher idea, create a matching game. Find pictures of baby animals with their mothers. Cut them apart to create puzzles that match a baby animal with its mother. Use the cut-up pictures to play a memory game, matching each baby to its mother. The story becomes a jumping-off point to discuss bats and other animals your child may find interesting. Learning about mothers and their babies is a social and emotional milestone.