Perfect Picture Book Friday: In My Flower

Title: In My Flower
Author: Sara Gillingham
Illustrator: Lorena Siminovich

Publisher: Chronicle Books; Board book edition (December 30, 2009)
Suitable for age: 1 - 4
Opening: 

In my flower, I scatter pollen with my wings.

Brief Synopsis: Turn the colorful die-cut pages of this irresistible board book to discover just what makes little butterfly's flower so cozy. Bright pictures, sweet reassuring messages, unique layered pages, and an adorable finger puppet combine to create interactive reading and playtime fun!


Resources and Activity Ideas:
There are so many things you can do to expand on the ideas of this book. You can study butterflies and flowers. I used it during our week learning about spring and gardening.  Observe flowers bloom, watch butterflies in your garden (if you don't have a garden, visit a butterfly garden/observatory), butterfly life cycle, and raise your own butterfly. Learn about butterfly rearing here.  Here, here and here are some flower and butterfly coloring pages as well. Here are some cute butterfly craft ideas. Butterfly hand prints are fun and easy. DLTK has a bunch of fun flower and butterfly related crafts and art activities that I have tried out in my classroom with much success and I work with one year olds! :D

What I like about this book:


 My toddlers love this book especially when I stick my fingers in the butterfly puppet and make it fly. This book was added to our spring curriculum as we talked about flowers and things associated with flowers. The last page reinforces family as the butterfly is seen with her family. The thick pages are great for young hands just learning how to turn pages (and teething). It is colorful and simple to read, which is great because it will quickly become a favorite and you will have to read it over and over and over again! :D