There is an entire world of Eric Carle books, toys, games, and other products. Dominik & Filip have particularly enjoyed The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Quiet Cricket, A House for Hermit Crab, From Head to Toe, and the Brown Bear series. We also like playing Brown Bear - Panda Bear, What Do You See? game.  

                    

A House for Hermit Crab is a beautiful story about a crab who outgrows his shell, finds himself a larger one, and sets off on a journey through the fascinating world of marine life, searching for items that would be suitable for decorating and protecting his brand new house. Quite unexpectedly, he finds many new friends along the way and he learns a lot about the dazzling underwater environment. Fun and remarkably educational, A House for Hermit Crab received An Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children Award, presented by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), in cooperation with the Children’s Book Council (CBC). 

Our book-related activity involved recreating the marine world and making two crabs to live in it. The project took a few days to complete. First, we assembled our nature supplies and made our own sand. The nature supplies (pebbles and shells) came from our summer outings in Florida (Forth Myers beach) and upstate New York (Rushford Lake). The sand was based on the popular moon dough (moon sand or cloud dough) recipe, which requires two simple ingredients: flour and baby oil. To make the 'sand' sparkle and the 'water' shimmer, we added blue and yellow glitter to the moon dough. As expected, this was the most enjoyable part of the project!

When the moon sand was ready, we smoothed the surface and arranged the shells and pebbles on it. The house for hermit crab(s) was ready. All we needed now was a pair of crabs! To create them, we pained two larger seashells, filled them with play dough, and attached chenille stem legs to it. The claws were made from round, red foam stickers. We also used wiggly eyes.   

Our seashell crabs found their moon sand beach home pretty quickly! 

Most of the time, my husband and I use the bedtime routine to calm down and unwind. On Eric Carle's actual birthday (June 25), I decided to let the boys have a pajama party. We assembled all Eric Carle's books we own and we played in bed until everybody was tired and ready to read. The boys had a blast and a lot of appreciation for bending the bedtime rules a little bit! 

Please visit the following blogs to see what others came up with to celebrate Eric Carle's birthday. Happy reading and creating!

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