Today we are featuring a brand new interactive book called Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson! It’s just one of the featured books for kids you’ll find in this month’s Poppins Book Nook theme on seasons.
As the tree in the book changes during each season, the reader is involved in the process. You will be asked to tap, shake, jiggle and even blow a kiss on each page to make the magic happen in the book. I really enjoyed how playful the book was and at the same time taught a great science lesson about the seasonal changes of trees.
Literacy Extension for Tap the Magic Tree: Letter in a Tree
After reading, we came up with a game to practice letter recognition and noticing details about trees in each season. I was inspired to create this game from Playdough to Plato’s game called Little Mouse. It’ s a super cute game for color recognition that we’ve been playing a lot in our house.
Set Up: You will need to create 4 trees (one for each season). We used toilet paper rolls as the tree trunks and construction paper for the branches and leaves. You will also need 9 milk caps labeled with the following lowercase letters- b, c, d, e, g, p, t, v and z.
To Play: Hide a milk cap under each tree. Decide which letter you want to be found. Together you say, “Little __ (insert one of the letter names), little ___ are you under the ____(insert either fall, winter, spring or summer) tree?” The child lifts up the chosen tree to see if the correct letter is under the tree. If it’s not there, then the chant is repeated again with another guess. Play continues until you are too tired to play!
Please check out more books about seasons highlighted by other great bloggers. Also, don’t forget to enter the giveaway (US only) from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom for a copy of Four Seasons Make a Year by Anne Rockwell.
Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Royal Baloo – 3 Dinosaurs – Monsters Ed – Chestnut Grove Academy – Growing in God’s Grace – Royal Little Lambs – Life with Moore Babies – Teach Beside Me – The Usual Mayhem – Mum Central – Fantastic Fun and Learning – Kathys Cluttered Mind – Play Create Explore – Toddler Approved – Growing Book by Book – Adventures in Mommydom – B-Inspired Mama – The Fairy and The Frog – Edventures with Kids – Learning & Growing the Piwi way – A Gluten Free Journey – Rainy Day Mum – Mom to Crazy Monkeys
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Karyn says
This is really cute!! What a fun idea.
Angelina says
That is such a fantastic idea for a game! I can imagine using it in so many ways! It is just perfect for the stage my 4 year old daughter is at in her reading! THANK YOU!
Jodie Rodriguez says
Thank you Angelina. I’m so happy that it’s providing inspiration for lots of fun activities with your daughter. Enjoy!
Emma @ P is for Preschooler says
I love books that have an interactive component. And the activity to go along with it looks like fun! 🙂
Jodie Rodriguez says
Thanks Emma! It is a really neat book!
Cassie @ 3Dinosaurs.com says
I just picked up this book yesterday!
Dusty@To the Moon and Back says
How cute! I bet my kids would love something like this! Very creative.
Jill says
Fun game! Any little learner would love playing this game 🙂
Ashley says
What a cute little game! We will have to look for that book!