Boats Go

We had a blast with Boats Go by Steve Light at the library this morning!
This is a great read aloud for any age, and it was especially fun with birth through two age group.

Here's what we did at the library:

Interactive Read Aloud

I read the book, and the children and parents helped make the sound for each boat. We also did a little motion to reflect the different types of boats as we read about them.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

With parents and children facing each other (or little ones on parents laps), we rowed boats to the beat. Repetition is essential with this age group, so we rowed front/back, side to side, swung arms in and out, and bounced up and down. We also changed the words to la, ba, doo, etc. This helps the children begin to play with words and is also beneficial for music learning.

Of course, there's so much more you can do! Here are a few ideas for other age groups:

Teach Onomatopoeia

Such an awesome example of this strategy! You could use this book as an example of onomatopoeia (I love that it's more than animal sounds, which is where I always end up going for examples!). 

Showing Details in Writing

Steve Light does an awesome job jumping right into the action, almost making it feel like each boat is talking to us!

Fine Arts

The movement in the illustrations would be a great springboard for painting, creating a musical composition, or using movement to reflect the different types of boats.

Themed Activities

I think it would be fun to use this as a kick off for a unit on transportation, community helpers, or even the letter B. You could do a boat craft, make a boat snack, have a water play sensory table with different kinds of toy boats - even try to see which will sink or float!

I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did!