Play with Me is a classic children’s book written and illustrated by Marie Hall Ets. Originally published in 1955, the picture book received a Caldecott Honor in 1956. The simple story and delicate charcoal illustrations teach a gentle lesson about patience and kindness toward animals.
Synopsis
In Play with Me, a little girl goes to a meadow hoping to play with the animals. When she tries to chase the animals, they all run away. She chases a grasshopper, a frog, and a rabbit, but they all flee from her. Feeling sad, she stops running and sits quietly by a pond. When she stays still, the animals cautiously return, and a baby fawn even comes close enough to lick her cheek. This is a very simple, powerful story. The narrative teaches young children a valuable lesson about observing and appreciating nature without force. It highlights the virtue of patience. The distinctive illustrations, created with black charcoal and a delicate, light-yellow wash, have a unique and nostalgic quality. The Caldecott Honour award recognition ensures its place as a distinguished and high-quality work of children’s literature.
Other Pond Books To Read
RSPB First Book Of Pond Life by Derek Niemann
Ponds (Beginners) by Emily Bone & Lucye Rioland
On the Top of Dudley’s Pond by Dinah Mason Eagers, Anna Platts
The Tiny Tiny Tadpole by Judith Nicholls
Play with Me Pretend Play
Pond Animal Puppets
I made some pond animal puppets, which they enjoyed playing with. Making felt animal puppets is a simple and fun craft project that can be done with or without sewing. The basic process involves using a template to cut felt pieces, adding details like eyes and ears, and then joining the front and back of the puppet
Materials Needed
- Felt sheets in various colors
- Paper for making a template
- Scissors (small embroidery scissors are great for detail work)
- Glue (fabric glue, a low-temp hot glue gun, or quick-dry tacky glue)
- Optional for sewing: Needle, embroidery thread, or a sewing machine
- Optional for details: Googly eyes, pom-poms, permanent markers, yarn, or pipe cleaners
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Create a Template
- For hand puppets: Place your hand on a piece of paper, separate your thumb and pinky finger, and trace around your hand, leaving about an inch of extra space for movement and seams. Draw a simple outline of your chosen animal’s head and body shape within this outline.
- For finger puppets: Trace around one of your fingers, adding extra space around the edges.
- Draw separate outlines for smaller details like ears, a nose, eyes, or a tail.
- Cut out your paper templates.
2. Cut the Felt Pieces
- Pin your paper templates to the felt, or trace them with a pencil or marker.
- Cut out all the felt pieces. You will need two matching main body pieces for each puppet (a front and a back) and single pieces for the features.
3. Decorate the Front
- Take one of the main body pieces (this will be the front).
- Arrange and attach the smaller felt pieces to create the animal’s face and features. You can use fabric glue or sew them on using simple stitches like a running stitch.
- Add googly eyes, draw a mouth with a permanent marker, or use embroidery thread for extra detail.
4. Assemble the Puppet
- Once the front is decorated and any glue is dry, take the back piece.
- Place the front and back pieces together, ensuring the decorated side faces outwards.
- Attach the two pieces by either:
- Gluing: Apply a fine line of fabric glue around the edges, making sure to leave the bottom edge completely open so your hand or finger can go inside. Press the layers together firmly and allow them to dry completely.
- Sewing: Sew around the perimeter using a simple blanket stitch or overcast stitch, about half a centimeter from the edge. Again, leave the bottom open. If the animal has ears or a tail, tuck them into the seam before sewing the main body pieces together.
5. Finishing Touches
Once the puppet is dry or fully sewn, your animal puppet is ready for imaginative play! You can make a whole set of different animals using the same basic process.
Play with Me Trays
Pond Play with Foam Shapes Tray
EVA foam is an excellent choice for making floating pond animals and shapes because it is durable, non-toxic, and water-resistant. You can cut out shapes by hand or with a machine, and kids can use them for sensory play in a water table, tuff tray, or even the bath.
Materials and Tools
- Colored EVA foam sheets: Available in various thicknesses and packs
- Safety scissors: Essential for cutting the foam into shapes.
- Template(s): You can draw your own shapes or find and print templates online to trace.
- Permanent marker: Use a fine-tip permanent marker to trace the shapes from the template onto the foam.
- Googly eyes: A fun addition to bring your pond creatures to life.
- Craft glue: Use a strong, waterproof craft glue suitable for foam to attach details like eyes. Do not use PVA glue, as it might not stick properly.
Step-by-Step Guide
Firstly, gather your supplies. Lay out your foam sheets, templates, and safety scissors. Secondly, use a permanent marker to trace your animal and shape templates onto the appropriate foam colors. For example, use green for frogs and lily pads, brown for turtles, and so on. Then, carefully cut along the traced lines with safety scissors. Smaller children may need assistance with this step. Next, for any pond animals glue on googly eyes to give them personality. You can also cut out additional smaller shapes from the foam, such as fins or spots, and glue them onto the main shape for more detail. And, lastly allow all the pieces to dry completely before playing with them in water.
Ready for Play
Fill a shallow container or water table with water. Add your newly created foam pond animals and shapes. The foam will float, providing a fun and interactive sensory experience. Or, for a less wet activity, dampen the shapes and allow the children to play with them on a fridge or white board. The wet allows them to stick to the plastic quite nicely!
Pond Animal and Shape Ideas
- Frogs: Cut a simple frog body from green foam and add two back legs.
- Turtles: A brown or green foam circle for the body and smaller pieces for the head and legs make a simple turtle.
- Fish: Create colorful fish by cutting out two identical shapes and stitching them together with yarn to make a 3D toy. Or, just cut a single fish shape for floating play.
- Lily pads: Cut out large, freeform lily pad shapes from green foam sheets.
- Dragonflies and butterflies: Use various colors of foam to cut out wings and bodies.
Fishing Numbers Game Tray
The second tray was another homemade game, this time a magnetic fishing game. I cut fish out of foam, wrote numbers 1 to 10 and pinned a safety pin to their mouth. I made a fishing rod from a set of chop sticks by adding wool and a (rather large!) magnet at the end.
This tray was the biggest hit. A4 played and played. B2 didn’t quite have the coordination, but adapted it so she could still play! A4 needed to fish for each fish in order 1 to 10, which she did brilliantly!
Life Cycle of a Frog Tray
The life cycle of a frog is a process of growth and transformation known as metamorphosis, which includes four main stages: egg, tadpole, froglet, and adult frog.
1. Egg
The life cycle begins in the water, typically in a pond, lake, or stream. A female frog lays a large cluster of eggs, which are surrounded by a jelly-like substance. These clusters of eggs are known as frogspawn. The jelly provides moisture, nutrition, and protection from predators. After about 1 to 3 weeks, the tiny black comma-shaped embryos hatch.
2. Tadpole
The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles. Initially, tadpoles look more like fish than frogs, with long tails and gills for breathing underwater. For the first week or so, they survive on the leftover yolk from their egg. They then begin to swim and feed on algae and other plant matter in the water. Over the course of about 14 weeks, the tadpole undergoes significant changes. It begins to develop hind legs, followed by front legs, and its lungs start to form. The tadpole’s diet shifts to include insects as its digestive system changes.
3. Froglet
During this stage, the tadpole finishes its metamorphosis into a small frog. Its tail gradually shrinks and is absorbed into its body as a source of nutrients. Lungs take over for the gills, allowing the froglet to breathe air and spend more time on land. Once its tail has completely disappeared, the froglet is ready to leave the water.
4. Adult frog
The froglet matures into a sexually reproductive adult. Adult frogs are carnivorous, hunting insects and other small prey. It can take up to four years for a frog to reach full maturity. When a mature female frog lays her eggs, the cycle begins anew.
This tray was intended to help the littles explore what would happen to the tadpoles when ‘they grew up’! I included a book, the actual tadpoles and some felt cut outs which I made showing the transition from a tadpole to a frog:
Games or group activities
Gathering Tadpoles to Raise (see tray activity above!)
We took the girls down to our local pond:
A4 took her net down to the pond to try to capture something….anything would do:
We’ll be keeping an eye on these and releasing them back to the pond just before they become fully formed frogs!
Pond Sensory Box
We used the water beads from the little girl’s polymer science on Monday, ducks from the bathroom toys, some plastic animals and some of the foam pond stuff we made for the tray activities which very handily floated! Looking down on the box: I put glass beads of all colours; some green and blue water beads; tadpoles in various stages of growth; pond weed, wood and cone; plastic animals and I cut a lily pad and lily from foam
Pond Themed Food
- Frogspawn (tapioca coloured slightly green). I also melted some chocolate and put it in a frog shaped candy making mold.
- Pond Punch – blueberry ice cream, made with frozen blueberries, whizzed up with natural yogurt and sprinkled with blue sugar.
- Fruit fish, made from an apple, banana and raisins.
Pond Muffin Tin Meal
Our pond muffin tin meal consists of fish fingers, duck shaped fried potato, pea plankton, carrot fish, lemonade jelly dyed blue for pond water and chocolate pudding as the muddy banks! This was one of their favourite muffin tins
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