Imagination Exploration
Materials:
- Muddle and Match books from Usborne Books and More
- Paper
- Crayons
- Blocks
- Glue
- Magazine
- Letter cards or plastic letters
Skills:
- Imagination
- Alliteration
- Writing
- Drawing
- Alphabet recognition
- Initial sound
Age: 3 and up
Have you ever imagined a princess-mermaid? How about an explorer-superhero? Maybe a cowgirl-witch-ballerina? No? If you haven't then you need this book!
This is such a fun book for young children, and it is full of secret learning opportunities. Perfect! There are six different versions of the book, enabling it to either grab the attention of different kids, or provide children with different versions of the same learning experience, expanding their imagination. I have the "Imagine" version which features girls as different characters.
The first thing I love about this book is the alliteration, a fantastic skill for beginning readers. Each character's description focuses on a letter, and nearly all of the words on the page start with that letter. Perfect for helping young ears tune into those letter sounds.
After that the fun begins in earnest, however. Each character is split into three parts, allowing the reader to mix up the parts of the characters, along with the descriptions. All of a sudden "Carly, the courageous cowgirl, waves her wonderful wand and waits as she blushes and bows for being the best." Woah, what? Can you just feel the little imaginations exploding with ideas? Kids love to mix these pages up and discover new characters, imagining the crazy world that these characters could live in. It is great!
The fun doesn't have to stop there, though. There are so many activities that kids can do to continue the imagination (and the learning)! Here are some ideas:
1. Make their own book--Draw an outline of a person on a sheet of paper and copy it several times. Bind the pages together and have your child decorate each person differently. Cut the pages into 3rds just like the book and invite your child to "muddle" up their pictures. Have them describe each new character they create.
2. Story-starter--For older children, use the mixed up stories in the book as a story-starter. Ask the children to write stories based on the new characters they have created.
3. Picture prompt--Much like the story-starter, but for younger children. Ask the children to draw a picture based on the crazy sentence they created.
4. Muddle Blocks--Cut pictures of characters (drawn, printed, or snipped from a magazine) and glue them to blocks. Have your child stack the blocks to create their own crazy characters.
5. Muddle magazines--Cut out people, animals, etc. from magazines. Cut each character into 3rds and have your child muddle them up and glue their new characters to a piece of paper. You could even have them dictate a sentence about each new character.
6. Letter identification--Rather than muddling the characters in the book randomly, place a letter card (or plastic letter) for each page in a bag. Ask your child to draw out three letters and create a character with pages that use words beginning with those three letters. Talk about the crazy characters they create!
The possibilities are endless! I am going to try each of these with my own children and update this post with pictures as we complete them. Check back so you can see how it goes! I am so ready to have some Muddle and Match fun!
[Disclaimer: I am an independent consultant for Usborne Books & More, however, they do not employ me to review their books or compensate me in any way for my reviews. These are my personal thoughts and do not reflect the views of the company.]
Have you ever imagined a princess-mermaid? How about an explorer-superhero? Maybe a cowgirl-witch-ballerina? No? If you haven't then you need this book!
This is such a fun book for young children, and it is full of secret learning opportunities. Perfect! There are six different versions of the book, enabling it to either grab the attention of different kids, or provide children with different versions of the same learning experience, expanding their imagination. I have the "Imagine" version which features girls as different characters.
The first thing I love about this book is the alliteration, a fantastic skill for beginning readers. Each character's description focuses on a letter, and nearly all of the words on the page start with that letter. Perfect for helping young ears tune into those letter sounds.
After that the fun begins in earnest, however. Each character is split into three parts, allowing the reader to mix up the parts of the characters, along with the descriptions. All of a sudden "Carly, the courageous cowgirl, waves her wonderful wand and waits as she blushes and bows for being the best." Woah, what? Can you just feel the little imaginations exploding with ideas? Kids love to mix these pages up and discover new characters, imagining the crazy world that these characters could live in. It is great!
The fun doesn't have to stop there, though. There are so many activities that kids can do to continue the imagination (and the learning)! Here are some ideas:
1. Make their own book--Draw an outline of a person on a sheet of paper and copy it several times. Bind the pages together and have your child decorate each person differently. Cut the pages into 3rds just like the book and invite your child to "muddle" up their pictures. Have them describe each new character they create.
2. Story-starter--For older children, use the mixed up stories in the book as a story-starter. Ask the children to write stories based on the new characters they have created.
3. Picture prompt--Much like the story-starter, but for younger children. Ask the children to draw a picture based on the crazy sentence they created.
4. Muddle Blocks--Cut pictures of characters (drawn, printed, or snipped from a magazine) and glue them to blocks. Have your child stack the blocks to create their own crazy characters.
5. Muddle magazines--Cut out people, animals, etc. from magazines. Cut each character into 3rds and have your child muddle them up and glue their new characters to a piece of paper. You could even have them dictate a sentence about each new character.
6. Letter identification--Rather than muddling the characters in the book randomly, place a letter card (or plastic letter) for each page in a bag. Ask your child to draw out three letters and create a character with pages that use words beginning with those three letters. Talk about the crazy characters they create!
The possibilities are endless! I am going to try each of these with my own children and update this post with pictures as we complete them. Check back so you can see how it goes! I am so ready to have some Muddle and Match fun!
[Disclaimer: I am an independent consultant for Usborne Books & More, however, they do not employ me to review their books or compensate me in any way for my reviews. These are my personal thoughts and do not reflect the views of the company.]
