First, let me just start out by saying, “Happy belated birthday, Eric Carle.” Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of being a kid lit blogger is not only can I forget friend and family birthdays, but I can miss author birthdays too. Well, Eric Carle’s birthday was on Monday and a lovely group of kid bloggers put together a link-up celebrating him. Even though I wasn’t able to post Monday (due to my involvement with the Readathon), they were kind enough to let me co-host the Eric Carle link-up late. The good news for you is that everyone else has already linked up, so you should have a lot of fun checking out all their Carle inspired ideas! But, first let me share with you what we did to celebrate Carle’s birthday: A nature walk inspired by the picture book A House for Hermit Crab.
In A House for Hermit Crab, the hermit crab thinks that his house (shell) is a little boring. So, as he travels around the ocean he asks various beautiful creatures to accompany him and attach themselves to his shell. When the time comes to discard his shell for a larger one, he meets a younger crab looking for a new home. He gives his shell to the younger crab and finds a larger shell. Now the decorating possibilities are endless.
We decided to go on a “How Would You Decorate Your Shell?” Nature Walk after reading A House for Hermit Crab. Using our imagination, we looked for items in nature that we would add to our shell if we had one. My son came up with lots of interesting options such as the sand pit near our house, a pipe, and a hose. I chose to share with you though the more photogenic items.
An indoor version of this activity would be to take either a photo of your child or one of an animal that has a shell and let your child cut out and glue on photos of items in nature to the first photo.
Be sure to check out some of the fabulous blogs that are co-hosting this link-up. I’ve already seen some of the great Eric Carle inspired activities that they came up with!
Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
No Twiddle Twaddle
Reading Confetti
Teach Preschool
Mommy and Me Book Club
The Educators’ Spin On It
Living Montessori Now
Living at the Whiteheads Zoo
Famiglia and Seoul
Smiling Like Sunshine
The Iowa Farmer’s Wife
Rainy Day Mum
Familylicious
Our Feminist Play School
Inspiration Laboratories
Royal Baloo
Kitchen Counter Chronicles
Smile Play Learn
Do you have an Eric Carle activity? Link it up! This link-up will remain open through July 1st.
I appreciate you stopping by today. I would love to hear what you think of our nature walk.
Bethany
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Aww such a cute idea! I’ve never seen that book so we’ll have to check it out sometime!
Thanks, Farmer’s Wife! I think you would like it!
We LOVE Eric Carle, how lovely to combine it with the great outdoors!
What a great idea – Eric Carle is one of our favourite authors and this is such a fun way to get out and bring the book to life
I love that book, great idea.
The flowers would make a beautiful home!
Lovely idea to go with a great book (you look like your having better weather than were having here – would love to get out side for a walk soon!)
what a fantastic link up, wish I’d known as we have a Very Quiet Cricket post. I’ve never read a house for hermit crab, I will have to track it down at the linrary
We will have to check this book out. We have a few of his books but not this one. Love the activity you put with it-FSPDT
What a fun activity! We love Eric Carle
Such a fantastic extension of the book. I love that you included an indoor version as well.