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I’ve seen versions of this Victorian toy many times, but I never knew it has a special name: thaumatrope. The disk has an image of a bird on one side and a cage on the other. Spin the disk and the images seem to merge — you see a bird in a cage! In our video-saturated age, there’s something comforting about a tactile, low-tech toy such as this.
Want to make one? Urban Threads is making the embroidery patterns available free through August 16. See the post.
One of my favorite summer fruits is blueberries, and there are lots of blueberry themed learning activities you can do at home or in the classroom, especially if you combine them with a reading of Blueberries for Sal.
You can read the book, pick blueberries if you have access to them, maybe make something tasty with blueberries (or just eat them) and do some fun blueberry activities.
Homeschool Preschool has printable activity sheets the include coloring a blueberry and tracing the word, cutting practice, finding the smallest thing in a group, Q-tip painting and more. Add in an adorable and easy blueberry bucket craft from Inspired Motherhood using supplies you probably already have.
You can also do some Sal-inspired pretend play with this printable bear mask from Mom Life Made Easy. Or get some blue pompoms (or whatever little blue things you have handy) and hide them around the room so kids can go “berry” picking with their buckets.
Homeschool Helper Online has a full unit study related to Blueberries for Sal, including information about bears, onomatopoeia, b sounds, counting and more. This is not a free resource but it’s a great one for kids in preschool through second grade.
Royal Baloo has a free set of letter b, bear and and blueberry printables to go with the book, including literacy and counting activities.
Learn about the parts of a blueberry with this printable booklet from Little Learning Lane.
Get blueberry themed activity pages straight from the people who grow them with these printables from Critchley Family Farms. There’s a maze, facts about blueberries, a smoothie recipe, mirror image drawing, color by numbers and more.
Life with Moore Babies has a fun dancing blueberries activity kids are sure to enjoy. It’s based on the classic dancing raisins experiment but you can do it with whatever little fruit you have handy. Dried fruit is great for this, or you can try cutting berries into smaller pieces.
I love this blueberry playdough from The Craft Train. It looks so pretty and is made with real blueberries. Perfect for those berries that aren’t quite good enough to eat anymore.