It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Posted Apr 7, 2010 by Jenn Reid | Comments ( 1 ) | Filed in: Book Club, Early Childhood Development

One way to encourage creative and imaginative thinking is to help children find ways to expand story topics beyond the pages of a book. When ideas can be transferred from one experience (e.g., reading a story) to another (e.g., a real life experience) they become more meaningful. A child's ability to link abstract ideas to concrete experiences is an important part of early childhood cognitive development as well as the development of higher thinking and reasoning.

With the arrival of spring, many children and families begin to spend more time outside. The book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw, is a collection of simple white shapes that all turn out to be a cloud in the sky. This book can easily be extended to an outside activity. What do the clouds in the sky look like to you? With a notebook and pencil in hand, you and your child can venture out and make your own version of a book like It Looked Like Spilt Milk. Encourage your child to look hard and think creatively to see different objects in the shapes of the clouds. If your child is up for the task, have him draw or paint the shapes. Other possibilities include cutting out abstract shapes of white paper or felt and gluing them onto a piece of paper or into a notebook. Add labels (either child-written or dictated to you by your child) to the pictures to complete the book.

If you and your child create your own version of It Looked Like Spilt Milk, feel free to send a copy to us for the possibility of being featured on our website! The first family to respond will receive a copy of It Looked Like Spilt Milk. Happy cloud watching! 

Send your submissions to jreid@lucydanielscenter.org.

Click here for additional tips on reading together with young children.

1 Comment(s)

  1. Posted by hotels book on Aug 21, 2010
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