March 2nd is fast approaching and kids everywhere will be reading Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish in celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. I can’t wait to see all the great activities that go along with these classic children’s stories! I haven’t come up with any activity for my kids yet, but I’m hoping to put something together that both Cannon and Hunter will enjoy in honor of the great Theodor Seuss.

In the meantime, I decided to create a dramatic play opportunity with another classic book: Inside, Outside, Upside Down by Stan and Jan Berenstain.
Like the classic Dr. Seuss books, Inside, Outside… has simple and repetitive text to help reinforce vocabulary to younger audiences. What I especially like about this book is it introduces prepositions in an easy to understand format (quick grammar review: prepositions link nouns, pronouns, and phrases to other words in a sentence).

By two years old, most children show an understanding of prepositions (they can follow a command to look “on the table” for an item. “On” being the preposition in that sentence). While many toddler books emphasize naming words (nouns), action words (verbs), or descriptive words (adjectives), very few focus on the less glamorous world of prepositions. But prepositions contribute to spatial awareness and deserve some focus! That’s just one reason why I appreciate this little gem of a book- I can use it to develop vocabulary that many other toddler books overlook.

Cannon (now 22 months old) has recently been putting together 2-4 word sentences. And while I know he understands prepositions (he can follow a command to look on or under something), he hasn’t started using them in sentences. Being the former teacher that I am, I decided to create an activity which would foster growth in this particular area of language development.

I gathered a few toys we already had laying around the house and set them up to mimic the book’s text. We used little a Little People tractor set and a yellow nesting block by Playskool. I added the eye stickers and writing to look like the box from the book 🙂

Then we got to reading

 
 
We acted out each scene using the toys I had set up before us:
 
Inside the box.
Upside down.
On a truck.
 
It was really great to see Cannon making connections between the noun “box” and what the farmer toy was doing with it.
 
 
 
While Cannon didn’t walk away using prepositions from the book, I know each experience he has will lead to internalize the meaning of the vocabulary he hears on a regular basis. Perhaps next time I read the book to him, this activity will come to his mind as he further develops spatial awareness and the vocabulary to express it.