Dolphins are my favourite animal. I love they way they swim, communicate and the fact that they always look like they are smiling. A Day in the Life: Sea Animals -Dolphin by Louise Spilsbury and Michael Bright and published by Raintree is a factual book about dolphins. This book is the first non-fiction book on my blog (I think it's important to do a mixture) and its a fantastic informative book without going into too much detail. It uses short sentences, displays beautiful photos and sometimes uses labelling on the pictures. You learn a lot through reading it and it kept the attention of my 2 year old.
Activities
Dolphin Fact sheet
Dolphin quiz
Dolphins jumping through the waves
Bath time with dolphins
Dolphin painting
Trip to the sea
Boat ride
Dolphin water tray
Pretend to be a dolphin
Trying different fish
Fish pie
Dolphin fruit cup
Blue jelly and dolphin biscuit
Indoor
As the book is factual older children could make a fact sheet about dolphins and share what they have learnt. Younger children could take part in a quiz where you can ask them different questions about dolphin body parts, what they eat etc. You could make a dolphin who jumps through the waves using some crayons, a split pin and two paper plates. On one plate draw some dolphins (this will be the plate at the back) and cut a triangle out of the other plate (make sure it is big enough to see the dolphins. Draw the sea and then attach the two plates together. When you spin the back plate you should be able to see the dolphins jumping in and out of the sea. When it is bath time you could put some dolphin toys in the bath and they could play with these while you read the book or talk about some facts with your child/children. A final indoor activity can be to do a painting of a dolphin. Older children can label the body parts and you could talk about the body parts with younger children. You could add some glitter to the blue paint to make the sea glittery and stick some shells on if you have any available.
Outdoor
If you want to be really adventurous you could take a trip to the sea to see where dolphins live. Sometimes there are trips to go and see dolphins depending on where you live and this would be a really fun experience. Your child could take their own photos of what they see whilst they are on their trip. Closer to home you could set up a water tray with some toy dolphins, some bubbles. You could make the water blue with food colouring and your child/children could get the dolphin to jump through the bubble waves and have fun in the water. For something a bit dryer your child/children could pretend to be a dolphin. They could jump about, dance and if you have more than one child chase each other like the dolphins do. If you have some bubbles handy they could chase them and imagine what it would be like as a dolphin in the sea.
Cooking/Food
Dolphins eat fish so you could introduce some different fish to your child/children for them to try or you could make a fish pie and get them involved in the cooking process. Choosing the fish, mashing the potatoes or serving it out to family members. You could make a dolphin fruit cup with blueberries and bananas. Leave the banana peel on and cut it in half and then cut a slit in the pointy end to make it look like a dolphins mouth. Put a blueberry in the mouth and then stand it in a cup or bowl and put blueberries around it to make it look like it is in the sea. You could also draw an eye on the banana peel. If you can get hold of some blue jelly you can put this in a dish and then make some dolphin shaped biscuits to swim in the sea by using a basic biscuit recipe and a dolphin shape cutter. My son loves greasing the tray, mixing and licking the spoon. He also loves decorating when they are cooked and cool.
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