This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Powerful Mothering is supported by its audience, thankyou!
Poetic, lyrical picture books celebrating our role as caretakers in the natural world are some of my favorite to read to my daughter. Joanne Ryder’s Each Living Thing, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, shares the important relationship a child can have with the animals in their world. Small, large and all shapes and sizes in-between are discussed as the story progresses through the day, ending at night.
After reading this book my daughter and I discussed the importance of being good stewards in the world, caring and taking responsibility for the living things around us. Responsibility has been a common theme lately, as I encourage her to take responsibility for her toys, clothes and all the other things scattered on the floor.
Wolff has a variety of hidden animals, unmentioned in the text, living in her pages. We played a game of “I Spy” to find all the animals on each page and took notes on the ones we see often in our daily lives. Starting from the beginning, we made stories about what they might like to do during the day, what they eat, and where they live.
These are the animals we “watch out for”:
- inchworm
- spiders
- birds
- mice
- ladybugs
- insects
- frogs
- dragonflies
- cats
- bees
- snails
- worms
- ants
- scorpions
- butterflies
- rabbits
Now the fun begins…
Fine Motor Origami Garland
We hunted through origami videos on youtube and after a few false leads found the following resources to be helpful.
- Easy Origami Butterfly for Beginners
- Origami Bird for Beginners
- Very, Very Easy Origami Worm
- Cute Origami Cat, Easy
- How to Make An Origami Snake
- Make an Origami Action Frog
With younger kids, it is great to make the origami and give them free reign to decorate and color the paper creations. Add in googly eyes, glitter glue and feathers for an extra fun touch!
These videos are all very elemental, older kids (as in kindergarten if not late preschool aged) should be fine to tackle the task.
My daughter followed along during the first two animals and then took off in her own direction. Inspired by the folding she started cutting and folding her own designs independently as I finished up the videos.
Clip the origami animals on a close line to practice the pincer grasp for extra fine motor fun!
Leave a Reply