Book Inspired Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers

One of my favourite ways to create invitations to play, for the girls, is by using a book for inspiration. Unfortunately, it's not something I've blogged about much, although I have plenty of photos of book inspired activities just waiting to be posted!

When Karen, from Raising Little Superheroes, invited me to be a part of her Book Inspired Crafts and Activities series I jumped at the chance!

The activity I'm sharing with you today is a simple one-but like most of our simple activities, it was a big hit with the girls!

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I currently have our reading basket full of Australian themed books and Bubbles and Squiggles have been enjoying reading one of my favourite books from my childhood-Possum One: The Outback Rocket Ship!

In the book the residents (all Aussie animals) of Possum Creek come together under the guidance of Professor Cockatoo to build and man a rocket ship (which looks quite like a bottle!). I won't giveaway the ending but let's just say what happens next is both funny and exhilarating.

To invite the girls to play and retell the story, I set up a little small world area on their light table. (Why the light table? Because it was a nice flat surface that could be dedicated to this activity.)

I placed an old scrap of fake grass on the table, along with a glass full of herbs-to add texture and scent to their play experience. I then added a basket of small tree cookies and a glass bowl full of water coloured glass beads . Finally I rescued an old plastic bottle from the recycling bin and added a container of old Yowie toys.

I'm very grateful to my sister-in-law who recently went through all her childhood things and gave Squiggles and Bubbles several gifts, amongst those gifts were the old Yowie toys! I miss Yowies and wish they were still available in Australia-such a great little educational tool in the disguise of chocolate! Whilst you can't get the Yowie toys anymore you might like to use these figurines , although sadly, the set doesn't include a possum-try as I might I couldn't find a possum figurine online to share with you!

Bubbles loved the invitation to play-it remained out for ages, growing and changing as these activities so often do! She was a little disappointed when she realised the figurines wouldn't fit inside the bottle but soon improvised!

She took great delight in playing with all the animals, recreating the story and creating stories of her own.

Squiggles mainly played with the glass beads, tree cookies, grass and herbs-exploring each item with her senses.

Looking for more Book Inspired Crafts and Activities? Be sure to jump over to Raising Superheroes where you'll find an extensive directory of just that!

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

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