Thanks for your Thoughts Thursdays: Dog's Colorful Day

Adventures in Reading has been exploring the theme of dogs for the past week. I suggested they check out Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd, and they did! Kim came up with some wonderful activities to go along with the book, and asked to see the one I had suggested. Since I didn't already have a post about it, I'm making one, which has led to the first "Thanks for your Thoughts" Thursday post. I'll try to make a

post inspired or in response to a comment or email each Thursday, so keep them coming!

I made 15 Dogs, one for each child. I have lots of blue contact paper, so I back everything in blue and use the clear on the front. The pattern came from Children's Programming Monthly Volume 1 Number 12.

I handed out Dog and Fruit Loops in a sandwich bag to each child, promising they could eat after the story. You can use any colorful candy or cereal. Depending on what you find, you'll have a different number of dots. Skittles have five colors, while Fruit Loops (the off-brand kind) have six. The book goes all the way to 10. However, I was fine with having less dots, because I teach children under 3. Counting to five or six is a big accomplishment! Not eating until the end of the story is another big accomplishment. While I read the book, the children placed their dots on the dogs.

At the end of the story, Dog needs to get clean. We used mini-loofahs to wipe the cereal off. The loofahs were my favorite part! I used white tulle and a pipe cleaner to make them. The babies in my first class loved the texture.

You can also use this idea to re-tell the story. If you are teaching a preschooler, you can use washable markers to color dog and wipe him off with a paper towel. Candy is always a favorite in my house, though! Now, I'm going to eat those Skittles, they are too tempting... 

Check out more children's book activities on Come Together Kids.