A Ball For Daisy

This week's activities were inspired by the wordless picture book  A Ball for Daisy.

 It was probably one of our favorite day of activities ever!  Especially our ball bounce painting!

Gathering Activity: Marble Runs

We explored balls of all sizes this week.  We started with very small ones.  The children each played with marble runs while we waited for everyone to arrive.  We had three different configurations set up, in order to allow all of the children a chance to experiment.  They had a lot of fun, and this activity extended well past the normal amount of time we allot to gathering time activities. 

Circle Time:

We read a wordless book this week A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka.  This book is a Caldecott Medal winner.  Through lovely and expressive illustrations the author tells a story about a doggy who loves a red ball.  You know she loves the red ball because she plays with it, can't sleep without it, and smiles whenever she has it.  Then one day at the park, another doggy pops her ball by accident.  The pictures show a very sad doggy who cannot sleep or play or smile without her ball.  In the end, the other doggy and owner bring Daisy a new ball, a blue one!  Daisy is happy again and plays with her new ball and friend.  

This was a fun one to do with my 2 and 3 year olds.  It is the very first wordless book I have featured at Mommy and Me Book Club.  I showed the pictures and guided the children through questions and observations. The children shared what they thought was happening in each picture.  They loved helping tell the story.  They were focused on the story and very engaged as they interacted with the book. 

We sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." 

Then we sang one I made up on the spot about our story.  

Daisy's Ball Song

sung to "Mary had a Little Lamb"

Daisy had a little ball

little ball

little ball

Daisy had a little ball

that she loved.

Daisy's friend, he popped the ball

popped the ball

popped the ball

Daisy's friend he popped the ball

that she loved.

Daisy got a new blue ball

new blue ball

new blue ball

Daisy got a new blue ball

that she loved! 

 

Snack: Fruit Bouncing Ball Pizzas

We were inspired by this beautiful fruit pizza at Hungry Happenings.  We wanted to make ours all red, like Daisy's ball, so we used only red fruit.  We made a large one for the moms to share, using watermelon, raspberries, and strawberries.  The individualized small ones for the children were made on flattened biscuits instead of cookies, and spread with strawberry flavored cream cheese.  Yum!  

Art: Ball Bouncing Painting

Messy outside art fun!  We dipped bouncing balls into sidewalk paint and then let the children bounce and splatter the paint onto large butcher paper.  These trays were perfect for this activity!   Talk about fun!  There were so many giggles and squeals.   This was a great process, not product activity!  

Materials Needed: Sidewalk Paint (we used these great Crayola trays), tennis balls, large sheets of butcher paper, and lots of water for clean up! 

Like all great activities, this one was flexible enough to allow the children to explore in lots of different ways.  The children quickly discovered that it was also fun to paint with their toes.

Activities: Ball Free Play

We set out assorted shapes and sizes and kinds of balls for the children to have free play with outside.  We even had an impromptu ball wash out of necessity.  The kids loved it!