13 Fun Winter Animals Books for Kids

By Melissa Droegemueller | January 3, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Winter is absolutely my favorite season. I love watching the snow fall and sledding down hills with my girls. I also love all the extra reading time that comes along with the cold weather.

We are lucky to live in a small town, near a creek that attracts a lot of the local wildlife. We see rabbits and squirrels, a family of three deer, large possums, and a little tiny chipmunk who travels back and forth across our driveway daily. After a snowstorm, it’s really fun to see all the different tracks criss-crossing our yard.

However, we know that the most exciting things happening are under the ground and in little hideaways that we’ll never see. The best way for us to learn about how animals behave in winter is through books.

13 Fun Winter Animals Books for Kids

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Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson is our favorite book on this list!

We also love Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner and Secrets of Winter by Carron Brown.

Author Jan Brett has a couple of classic winter animals books for kids, The Hat and The Mitten.

Grab our Family Activity Guide with 40 hands-on learning activities using these winter animals books!

More Winter Animals Books for Kids

The Bear’s Cave by Regine Schindler appears to be out of print, but your library may still have a copy!

How Do Bears Sleep? by E. J. Bird

Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows

When It Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator

The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader

Baby Bear Counts One by Ashley Wolff

Winter, Winter, Cold and Snow by Sharon Gibson Palermo

The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss

Which winter animals books are your favorites to read with kids?

Click here for MORE winter books for kids!

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13 Fun Transportation Books for Kids

By Melissa Droegemueller | November 15, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

All young children love all things related to transportation and vehicles. From airplanes to trains to school buses, toddlers and preschoolers are obsessed with things that go! These transportation books for kids are a great way to match early literacy skills to a topic children already love.

13 Fun Transportation Books for Kids

13 FUN Transportation Books for Kids

(Reminder: Rolling Prairie Readers uses affiliate links at no additional cost to you. You can see our full disclosure policy here.)

Bear Takes a Trip:

Where would you go on a trip?
Find all the things on each page that are round/have stripes/triangles/etc.
Spot the clocks. Discuss what time your family eats meals, gets ready for bed, participates in activities, etc.
Related: Bear on a Bike

Little Blue Truck:

Why is the Little Blue Truck so happy?
How can we show kindness to others?
Make a related sensory bin with corn filler and farm animals. Add a little blue truck and yellow dump truck if you have them.
Everyone is dirty after helping the dump truck—give your child a small bowl of water and a washrag to clean his/her toy vehicles (or wash the family car together!).
Related: Little Blue Truck Leads the Way

We All Go Traveling By:

Talk about the unique illustrations and set up a sewing station for older preschoolers to decorate a blue train car made from felt.
Take a walk/drive and discuss all the vehicles you can “spy” with your little eye. What sounds do you hear?
Listen to the story on CD.

Grab our Transportation Family Activity Guide with 40+ learning ideas for kids ages 2-6!

More Transportation Books for Kids

My Bus/My Car (or any book by Byron Barton)

Freight Train/Sail Away (or any book by Donald Crews)

Curious George Loves to Ride by Margret Rey

I Read Signs by Tana Hoban

Red Light, Green Light by Anastasia Suen (great for opposites!)

JUST FOR FUN: Play “spot the sheep”—several books have sheep in the illustrations (Little Blue Truck, Bear Takes a Trip, We All Go Traveling By).

Read Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox

Creating a transportation sensory bin for your child is a perfect way to connect play with early literacy!

Our latest sensory bin features characters from Little Blue Truck in a bin of unpopped popcorn. Our daughter loved filling and dumping the corn in and out of the trucks and re-enacting the story with our farm animals.

What are your favorite transportation books for kids?

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Transportation Books for Kids and Little Blue Truck Sensory Bin

17 Awesome Space Books for Kids

By Melissa Droegemueller | August 8, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

As much as I would love to take my girls into space to learn more about our solar system, technology isn’t quite there yet! Thankfully, we do have the ability to see videos of the Earth and moon from outer space–thanks to NASA and companies like SpaceX. We can also explore the Milky Way from the comfort from our couch, thanks to a variety of space books for kids that are available at the library.

Whenever we start a new unit of study, I like to provide a big stack of books for my kids to peruse. Space is such a fun topic to learn more about, from the sun to the planets, past missions to the moon and future expeditions to Mars! Books about space can inspire, educate, and engage even the most reluctant reader.

(Reminder: Rolling Prairie Readers uses affiliate links at no additional cost to you. You can see our full disclosure policy here.)

Space Books for Kids: Solar System

Space Walk by Salina Yoon

The Solar System by Emily Bone

National Geographic: Planets by Elizabeth Carney

The Sun’s Family of Planets by Allan Fowler

The Planets by Gail Gibbons

Demoting Pluto: The Discovery of the Dwarf Planets by Steve Kortenkamp

Find the Constellations by H. A. Rey

Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids by Seymour Simon

Space Books for Kids: Astronauts and Exploration

Space Travel by Martha Rustad

Rocket to the Moon: The Incredible Story of the First Lunar Landing by Lisa Combs

One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong by Don Brown

Neil Armstrong and Traveling to the Moon by Ben Hubbard

On the Space Station {A Shine-a-Light Book} by Carron Brown & Bee Johnson

Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed

You Should Meet Mae Jemison by Laurie Calkhoven

Space Books for Kids: Fiction

Life on Mars by Jon Agee

Meteor! by Patricia Polacco

Learning more about the solar system with your kids is a fantastic way to make learning fun at home! I have never met a child or adult who isn’t interested in space and there are so many subtopics to explore.

Let me know which of these you read with your kids in the comments below!

Want even more space fun?

The summer months are a great time for learning together as a family! Grab our space-themed Family Activity Guide today for a full month of fun as you discover more about the sun, planets, and the moon.

Click here to purchase our space activities!

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