Throwback Thursday

This week's Throwback Thursday I am going to give you a new twist on an old classic.  I am pretty sure almost every child out there has Bill Martin Jr.'s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? on their bookshelf.  On the same note, I am almost just as sure that parents tire very quickly from reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear over and over again (DISCLAIMER!!! It is very good to read the same book to your child over and over.  It helps them to develop several pre and early reading skills like tracking, memorization and one-to-one correspondence so even though it is boring to you your toddler loves it!). So I decided to spruce up on of my copies of Brown Bear, Brown Bear  to help my 17 month old with his color recognition.

What I did was very simple and everything I needed I had at home.

Materials
- the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear?
- brown, red, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black and orange construction paper cut into small one inch circles
- contact paper
-velcro

Instructions:
1) Cut out a circle about one inch in diameter of each of the colors mentioned above.  I used a water bottle cap to trace.
2) "Laminate" the circles by covering them in the contact paper.  Cut the circles out.
3) Put a piece of soft velcro on each colored circle and a piece of the rough velcro on each animal.
4) Attach the colored circles to the matching animal.
5) Viola you have just taken a classic children's favorite and transformed it into an activity that will keep your child entertained for HOURS!  Okay who am I kidding what toddler is entertained for hours in anything- but it does keep them busy for a little bit!

Here are some pictures of my finished product:

Here you can see the brown circle velcroed onto the bear's leg.  

Same with the frog. 

Here are all the colors laid out ready to be matched to the correct animal. 

So far my little boy has really enjoyed pulling the colors off each of the animals.  We are slowly working on matching the colors.  Of course I model for him how to put the right color on the right animal, but right now he just likes playing with the colors and feeling the velcro which is fine with me! Because of this easy revamp we can both enjoy reading a favorite once again!

Happy Reading!

Laura