This week as we begin this mini-series of Dr. Seuss activities leading up to his 111th birthday on March 2nd, I thought I’d start out with a little activity that you can do regardless of weather – since I know many of my readers are not down here in South Texas!
Becca LOVES to play with our flashlights. She’s seriously flashlight obsessed. She’s always asking for it and wanting to spotlight things. And, she really enjoys Dr. Seuss’s book, The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
I started by showing her my hand on the wall. She really wanted to hold the flashlight, but didn’t understand the concept of holding something between the flashlight and the wall. It was a great lesson on listening to directions, as well as discovering – the shadows looked better the closer the item was to the wall, and the closer it was to the center of the flashlight beam! She tried all kinds of her brother’s toys, and enjoyed looking at her own shape on the wall. At one point, she finally laid the flashlight down on the floor, and the shape of the toolbox appeared on the wall. She was fascinated. So then, she started setting the light on the floor to discover what else would show up on the wall. It was a really fun activity, and kept her occupied for a good 10 minutes – with zero prep time on my part! Gotta love that!
EXTENSION IDEA: After you do the initial shadow play, you could easily create a basket of items to look at taking the book and finding some of the items he talks about to put in the basket. This would easily create a shadow sensory station! Just set it up in a darker area of your home so your child could do shadow play with the items when they need or want an alone-time activity. If you have a “quiet place” for your child to go when they need to escape, this would be a fabulous activity to have there.
Butterbees and Bumbleflies 