When my daughter started walking up with monster dreams I decided to spend some time intentionally talking about monsters. Read on to learn about monster books we read, crafts we did, and to download free printables.
A few weeks ago my almost 3-year old had a pretty traumatic fall and hit her mouth HARD, severely impacting her front teeth. One front tooth was very loose, and the other was shoved up into her gum. After cleaning up the blood — so. much. blood — we rushed her to the dentist for an emergency check-up. Amazingly, gratefully, the x-ray showed her teeth weren’t as bad off as they looked, and so a decision was made to leave them to see if they’d correct themselves. You can always pull them out later, but you can’t put them back in. . . .
But then the Monster Dreams Began . . .
Besides being a bit snaggle-toothed, Addy’s mouth is doing MUCH better than I expected. But right after the accident she started waking up with bad dreams and almost every night she’s asked to sleep in my bed, or talked about monsters in her room. And because of the timing, I’m not sure if the change in her sleep is related to the fall? Or if it’s just a normal stage for kids to go through?
{Join our free Facebook group to find out why I was feeling like a “momster.”}
Introducing the Monster Books and Projects:
In my Facebook children’s literature group (you’re in there, right?!) we often have weekly themes to guide the discussion of books and projects. It probably comes from my elementary teaching days . . . because I LOVE a themed unit study! So with the monster dreams happening at our house I decided to spend some time exploring the “monster” theme with my younger kids and the Facebook community.
Monster Books we recommend: Nibbles the Book Monster, Muddle and Match Monsters, Jonathan James and the Whatif Monster, The Worry Monsters, The Fright Night, That’s Not My Monster
The theme conveniently worked during Halloween week, but I also wanted to be more intentional in talking about monsters so we read several cute monster books, watched some non-scary monster shows on Netflix, did a fun make-a-monster craft, and made “monster spray” with a calming essential oil blend. (It’s too soon to know if it’s helping Addy sleep, but she does enjoy spraying it!)
The Make-a-Monster Kit
One day during our monster/Halloween week my kindergartner brought home a little “Halloween gift” from her teacher. I LOVED that it wasn’t candy (because seriously, we were starting to drown in sugar. . . ) but I literally LOL’ed when I saw that it was a “Make a Monster kit” (with a small container of play doh, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and pom poms). Is Mrs. Laura a fly on our wall?! I couldn’t have planned it better myself!
Lydia has been playing with her little monster kit for the past few days, making and re-making her monster creation. It’s of course adorable and I love that she’s getting so creative with just a few simple supplies. But what really struck me this morning was the follow-up project she created for herself. Unless we have somewhere to go, most Saturday mornings are pretty lazy and slow at our house and I let the kids have lots of free time after chores–their popular request after a busy, schedule-packed week.
Lydia was hard at work, focused and hunched over paper and crayons for quite a while before I peeked to see what she was up to: a “story” about her made-up monster, “written and illustrated by Lydia.” (With a little help in spelling from big sister, Emery.)
That moment and her monster story weren’t necessarily grandiose, but the moment struck me as confirmation in my personal belief that creativity can be a powerful learning tool and can help kids make strong connections as creative projects are linked with literacy.
Connect with Creativity, Literacy, and Community
If you’re looking for more ways to connect creativity with literacy, I’d love to invite you to join our Facebook community! Over there you’ll also find recommendations for non-scary monster books, and the free printables for: Create-a-Monster Craft Template and Monster Spray label!! See you soon!
