We are in the third week of our summer storytime ideas series. Each week we gather in our local park to read great books for kids together with our neighbors. This week we featured The Deep Blue Sea by Audrey Wood.
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Storytime Ideas: The Deep Blue Sea
The Book
The Deep Blue Sea by Audrey Wood is a vibrantly illustrated book to help little ones learn their colors. The cumulative and repetitive text provides lots of practice for learning.
The Group Activities
Fish Color Song
We sang this cute interactive song about colorful fish. Each child was given a fish cut from various colors of foam sheets. One at a time they came up, named the color of their fish and dropped it in a bucket of water.
There are so many fish in the deep blue sea.
What is the color of the fish you see?
Red, red, this one’s red.
This little fishie is red, red, red.
Continue to repeat until all fish have been placed in the bucket of water.
Skill building: fluency and color recognition
Color Run
Next, we scattered a variety of colored objects in the “sea” which was really the grass. We held up a color word and identified the word. Then, the kids ran, hopped, skipped, etc. to something that was that color, touched it and returned to the “dock”. We played several rounds of this activity.
Skill building: color word recognition and following two-step directions
Follow-Up Activities
Felt Board Retelling
Cut out the objects in the story from the corresponding color of felt. Use the pieces to act out and retell the story. You can see a sample of the completed felt board for The Deep Blue Sea from Crafty Mom Shares.
The Deep Blue Sea Water Sensory Bin
Water play is a fun summer activity. Creating a sensory bin based on a book also helps to build comprehension and retelling skills. Check out this deep sea water bin from Happy Hooligans.
Fish Fruit Snack
How about a fun fish themed fruit snack? Your kids will love this easy one from Canadian Family.
More Color Themed Books
Planting a Rainbow by Ehlert is great for learning about colors and different kinds of plants.
Monsters Love Colors by Austin is a fun, silly and energetic book about colors.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Martin is a classic book for learning your colors!
End of the Rainbow Fruit Salad by Walsh, Moore and Puzniak even has a recipe at the end of the book!
Mouse Paint by Walsh is a fun book to help kids learn about the colors you mix to create other colors.
Color Dance by Jonas is another book that explains which colors combine to make different colors.
Spot the Dot by Carter is an interactive book that will have you seeking out the dot in this colorful adventure.
Train lovers will love Freight Train by Donald Crews.
The Day the Crayons Quit by Daywalt is a bestseller and will be appreciated by 4 and up crowd. The Day the Crayons Quit was one of our Family Dinner Book Club selections.
For more storytime ideas to go along with the book, The Deep Blue Sea and other great books, follow our Storytime Ideas Pinterest board.
Follow Jodie Rodriguez @ Growing Book by Book’s board Storytime Ideas on Pinterest.
Join us again next week when we feature the book, The Great Gracie Chase by Cynthia Rylant.
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