Thursday, June 21, 2018

Narwhal Day

My kids struck up a weird conversation the other day about narwhals... and for whatever reason it prompted me planning a "Narwhal Day".  In the spirit of our "Family Book Club" days but being a little more topic-based instead of book-based but still SO MUCH FUN!

We started the day off watching several videos about Narwhals - debunking what they thought they knew and learning lots of facts.



Here's what they watched...










After they watched the videos I printed off  this page (it's from the Narwhal and Jelly book) and they each wrote a fact they had learned.  


(I wrote G's except for the last word)


... and Luke wrote three :)  



Our first craft was creating a narwhal "sea scene".  I downloaded  this narwhal template and printed them off on card stock.  The kids had free rein to do whatever they wanted to their narwhal and some went more abstract than others ;)  After we made the narwhals we thought it would be fun to put them in an ocean picture together so that's just what we did! The kids painted a large piece of paper to look like the ocean and then we put their narwhals into their ocean and Mason and Griffin made seaweed to finish it off :)










We ended up hanging their artwork here to make it look like a little aquarium.... full of giant whales :)





We worked on some color by numbers from  THIS BOOK...



... and colored/painted some pictures out of  this book as well.  This book was extra fun because it had narwhal fact pages as well!





I also printed off some extra resources from  HERE including a maze, word search and Narwhal and Jelly coloring pages.




And of course Luke remembered that the coloring page was from a picture in the book and wanted his to match :)



While they worked they had a snack of narwhal horns (aka Bugles crackers)...



... and then we read  "Not Quite Narwhal" which is the CUTEST book!  Kelp always thought he was a narwhal - but then he finds out he's actually a unicorn :)





... as well as  Wendell the Narwhal which is absolutely precious as well.  The book is full of fun noises which makes it extra entertaining reading.



The boys tore through a couple of  Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt books last week when I got these books in and they both loved them!!!  They're in the graphic novel style that they both really enjoy and they've been bedtime reading throughout the week as well.





We wrapped up our day with a nutritious snack of Twinkie Narwhals complete with candle tusks ;)


I had no intention of lighting the tusk/candles but apparently if there's a candle on a dessert it must be lit.  So Luke improved a narwhal song and it was the highlight of the day for me.



Last, but not least - when I was at Hobby Lobby earlier this week they had Christmas stuff out and there happened to be a narwhal ornament.  I grabbed it, wrote "Narwhal Day '18" on it and we'll have fun hanging it on the tree this year and remembering our day learning about this odd sea creature.




I've done several Family Book Club days over the years, but as the kids get older I'm always looking for ideas that they'll all be excited about and I think that these kind of topical days may be the way I go from now on.  I hope you enjoyed the post as much as we enjoyed the day and found a book and activity that would fit your kids interests!

PS - this post contained affiliate links - thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog!

39 comments :

  1. My family has always loved doing Family Book Club days from some of the ideas we've gotten from your blog. My kids would love a topic day like this! Thank you! Last summer, the kids picked a country they wanted to learn about each week. Then 1 day out of the week we had a country day where we made a craft, read books, made or tried a food from the country, etc. My oldest daughter (9 at the time) would make a Google slide about the country to teach her sisters about it. It was so much fun!

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    1. Love the Google slide idea. My 8 & 10 yr olds would love to do that too!

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    2. The google slide idea is awesome and I love the country a week idea as well!

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  2. I LOVE you family book club posts!!

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    1. I'm so glad you enjoy them! Thanks so much for reading, Lisa!

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  3. How fun! There’s also a Wild Kratts episode about narwhals.

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  4. I absolutely love these types of posts when you do them!!! I always get the best ideas from you, and my kids have loved your past book day ideas. I have a feeling that a narwhal day would be a big hit around here :)

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  5. Love the trays you guys use! I found a set of 4 on amazon but the reviews said they’re flimsy. Is that where you guys got yours? Is it flimsy?

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    1. They're definitely not made for carrying things - but they're perfect as placemats and art trays.

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  6. Where have I been on the narwhal thing?!?! We saw a pool float the other day and I couldn't figure out what it was for the life of me, so I finally asked. My youngest kids yelled out, "it's a narwhal, mom!"...how did they even know this?! Looks like I need a topic day to learn a few things myself!

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    1. There's a narwhal on the movie Elf... maybe that's how he knew? :)

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    2. Octonauts on Disney has a few episodes with narwhals too. My kids love that show! And I have even learned a thing or two ;)

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  7. Hobby lobby with their Christmas stuff out in June for the win! 😂

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    1. Right?!?! I mean - where else can you buy a sequined narwhal ornament in the middle of summer??? ;)

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  8. This is an awesome list of resources! Last year I found Not Quite Narwhal in a bookstore and I fell in love with it! These are great ideas and I know my kids would love it. 💗

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    1. Isn't it the sweetest book?!?! Thanks so much, Laura!

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  9. This is so great! Thank you so much for sharing all your resources and creativity! My grandchildren will love this;).

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  10. Aw how fun! I love that you create activities for your kids to all do together, but always find a way to make it relatable for Luke since he's older. Bookmarking this post for an idea of something fun to do with my niece and nephew.

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    1. Luke is opting out of some of the things we do (which is totally understandable and fine!) but he's also getting a big kick out of helping me prepare stuff and then helping his siblings - it's so sweet!

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  11. I grew up loving Narwhals since in my 3rd grade Gifted and Talented class we made a life-sized paper mache narwhal! I am saving all of these things for when I have a family.

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    1. That's amazing!!! I want to see a pic of that narwhal!

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  12. Well I have a soft spot for ornaments, so I LOVE that you found one!

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  13. I bought these and they are great. They are too flimsy to carry like a cafeteria tray with items on top but they are awesome for crafts/food on top of a flat surface!

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  14. How often do you/would you like to do topical days?!

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    1. Oh gosh - maybe once a week??? A couple of times a month? I think it just depends on what else we have gong on :)

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  15. love, love, love... Thank you for sharing!!

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  16. How much fun!! Thanks for sharing!

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  17. You are so creative...I have always loved to read! My teenage sons despise it and it drives me crazy!! Love posts like this so much...by the way I ordered one of those sticker art books for myself off of Amazon and created a masterpiece last night. I had never seen those before!! Thanks so much for sharing. I would love to learn how to do lettering and creative drawings like you do in your calendars....if you have any suggestions or books for that please share!!!

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  18. How fun! My daughters are obsessed with the Wild Kratts on the PBS app (and channel). I didn't know about narwhals until they watched that episode.

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  19. What a fun day!! My daughter and I were just talking about Narwhals so we loved watching your videos. Thanks for including those. I love seeing all the fun teacher mom things you do with your kids.

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  20. We loved that video. Thanks for the rec!

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  21. You are seriously the most with-it mom ever. I would never think to do stuff like this with my kids. Your kids are super lucky to have you, girlfriend!!
    That Inspired Chick

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