Well, not really, but you know what I mean.
He talks about his life, his family, his best friend (a spider), what he likes and dislikes about being a worm, and more.
They love it. Every page.
So today when it was chosen for reading again, as I knew it would be, it was easy to lead into our first "Diary of a Worm" activity... which, lucky for me, didn't involve touching an actual worm at all.
Page 1:
"Mom says there are three things I should always remember:
1. The Earth gives us everything we need."
Perfect place to start, especially considering all of the fun we recently had with Earth Day activities. We did everything but make an Earth, which I was saving for today.
I was all set to do this with a freshly mixed batch of puffy paint when one Clubhouse Kid says, "Can we paint with shaving cream instead?"
Scratch today's puffy paint adventure.
I grabbed a can of shaving cream, some paper plates, and asked the kids what colors I would need so they could make an Earth. They all voted unanimously on blue and green. Easy enough.
Which is, of course, a fun activity all on it's own.
Some kids used all hands for this part.
The kid pictured (who also happens to be the one that actually belongs to me) decided to spread it evenly with the provided "tools". Go figure. Access to shaving cream and he's neat about it.
He also asked, very seriously, "Doesn't Daddy need this for his chin?"
Once the plates were full of shaving cream, I handed over the food coloring and let them have free reign over where they placed their colors. I left the book on the table, opened to page 1, so they could see the picture as they worked. Some kids enjoyed pointing out parts of the Earth in the book that they were going to paint.
Squeezing on the green food coloring.
Those little bottles can be tough, note the two hand squeeze.
Starting to spread the color around.
"I'm making that land, see?"
"Now I'm making the Earth's water."
On their own, they squeezed out drops of food coloring wherever they deemed necessary, and continued to spread the colors out.
Examining his work, he eventually decided he was done.
Now it's time for the smashing part!
Putting another paper plate on top of this creation, he patted them together...
...and then we pulled them apart.
Looks like a colorful mess, right? Well, that's because there was still a step left.
Scrape off all of shaving cream on the plate that we had placed on top.
That's right, we just scraped it off.
I helped with this part, hence no photos of the scraping.
The end result for this particular Earth:
"I made the worm's Earth!"
Yes, yes you did.
Tomorrow we will work on the second thing Worm's Mom tells him, and since the kids are now aware that we will be working our way through this book... they are super excited! I must admit though, I am even more excited then they are because I know all that is in store for us.
How much can come from one book you ask? Well, we will be digging, building tunnels, playing hopscotch, eating our homework (really!), and making macaroni necklaces, just to name a few activities. We will also be getting our hokey pokey on, talking about dreams, practicing our manners, writing some lists, and of course, eventually, observing actual worms. I am so saving that for last ;)
All will be recorded as we go, and in the end we will have each made our own book, "The Diary of A Clubhouse Kid".
Hope you join us on this Worm Diary Adventure, as I post all the way through.
Perhaps at some point we will actually get to make the puffy paint :D
By the way, eventually someone did decide he would get a little messy with the shaving cream...
"Look, I'm Daddy!!"
Which reminds me, I had better go buy Daddy some shaving cream.
Ms. Liz
If you would like to have a Worm Diary week with your kids, grab the book and join in on the fun!!
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