Rawr! by Todd H. Doodler and Dinosaur Farm by Frann Preston-Gannon are two books about dinosaurs that will capture your young child’s imagination and interest.
There has been two books I have been wanting to share with you for quite some time. They were instant favourites when a box of books arrived from Scholastic, so I knew that they were on the “must blog about” list. Unfortunately life has a way with interfering with blogging, and it just hasn’t happened. (Which I’m afraid is the way it’s always going to be. It is only right that my blog takes second place to living!) Because my favourite way to explore books with children is using reading in conjunction with activities and experiences, I had wanted to write an idea packed post about exploring dinosaurs, but it just so happened that the activities we did around dinosaurs were more organic and not photographed. You know stuff the kids loved, but not anything to blog home about!
I am committed to telling you about these books though because they are superb! My little two year old girl especially liked Rawr, and let me tell you, when she joins in with the “rawrs” it’s one of the cutest things ever! It really is a book that engages with children and invokes participation.
It’s all about a dinosaur who sometimes struggles with people’s perceptions of him. Because being big can sometimes be a problem. He explains that if they think he is scary because he’s big, they’re wrong. There’s a whole heap of friendly things he does. There is also a request to tell all your friends that Rawr means hello in dinosaur. So, I am pleased to pass this community announcement on to my readers. Consider yourself told, and don’t be alarmed if you are ever rawred at by a dinosaur. My kids love the page where he rawrs at everybody and they join in enthusiastically. We are such a friendly crew around here!
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| Ok, so not the most flattering photo, but she’s really connecting with the dino on the front cover, she loves him so. Especially since his tummy is soft and squishy at the front. |
Anything with the word in the farm in it has a high probability of being a hit with my children. Their Grandad (Farmer extraordinaire) is grooming them to join the family business and return to the land. At this stage, the attraction is far greater than emulating Daddy who sits in an office with a calculator. Even though they think Daddy is the bees knees, his work would be so much more impressive if he needed a tractor to complete his jobs.
And so Frann Preston-Gannon’s book, Dinosaur Farm very much appeals to my kids. The text says nothing about dinosaurs at all. It simply describes a day in the life of a farmer. It is the illustrations that bring the story to life. My kids loved looking at all the farming activities and what the dinosaurs were doing. They especially loved the page where the poor farmer had to clean up a humungous pile of dino poop. (I do have boys after all.) It is just one of those delightful books that capture the imagination of a child.
Because the children loved reading about dinosaurs so much after these two books entered our household, we started focussing on dinosaurs a lot more. We didn’t really have a chance to do dinosaur craft, despite my best intentions. The triplets had painted a paper plate which we were going to make into a stegosaurus, (there are lots of examples on Pinterest, for instance this Mum made some cute ones with her boys here). However, for us, the enjoyment ended up being just the painting of the paint, which let’s face it, the rest of the project for them needed to be completed by me, and as much as they would have enjoyed the end product, I just didn’t have the time.
We also rounded up all our dinosaurs in the house and asked to loan my nephew’s extensive dino collection. He was madly into dinosaurs when he was younger. My big boys have liked dinosaurs, but have played with cars rather than dinosaurs. The triplets have loved the dinosaurs. For the first couple of weeks it was a guaranteed quiet activity time when a child was on a mat with the box of dinosaurs.
Libraries are often stocked with dinosaur books, and we have borrowed a really great selection over the last several visits.
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| Some of the books we borrowed. I particularly liked the story about Edwina, the dinosaur who didn’t know she was extinct. |
We were recently given a beautiful dolls house. Except we have no dolls. But the dinos moved in! The triplets have loved playing with the dinosaurs in the house. We did need to teach them that dinosaurs need inside manners and they aren’t allowed to stomp inside houses because the integrity of the structure needed to be retained and protected.
Do your children like playing and reading about dinosaurs? What are some dinosaur favourite games, books or activities in your neck of the pre-historic woods?
PS. Stay tuned! I will share about another book on Monday, (An Easter book no less!) and it will also be a GIVEAWAY!
