Each issue of Playful Picks includes links to projects and articles, and sometimes a peek at what we’re currently reading or creative products we love. I’ll also be linking to one or two past posts at Let’s Explore – after 5 years of blogging, the archives are getting deep around here!
Happy playing!
From the Let’s Explore Archives
Celebrating Presidents’ Day - links to books, coloring pages, and activities about Washington & Lincoln, plus a design-your-own coin printable
I Wish… Poems – use a simple sentence starter to write amazing poems with your kiddos
Activities & Projects
15 Cute Homemade Wordplay Valentines :: The Crafty Crow
DIY Winter Bird Feeders :: Fireflies and Mud Pies
Snow Volcano :: Science Sparks
25 Ideas for Family Time at Home :: Childhood Beckons
Valentine Art for Toddlers: Scratch, Roll, Resist :: hands on : as we grow
Hardware Store Bath Toys :: The Brooding Hen
What We’re Reading
Poetry books are getting a lot of love around our house right now. Do your kids like to listen to or read poetry? My girls love silly poems, clever word play, and poems that describe everyday things in new and interesting ways. It only takes a couple minutes a day to share a poem together! Here are five favorites we’re digging right now:
- My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States – collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
- A Pizza the Size of the Sun – Jack Prelutsky
- The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems – Mary Ann Hoberman
- Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices – Paul Fleischman
- All the Small Poems and Fourteen More – Valerie Worth
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
~ from the movie, Dead Poet’s Society
