Go on an Adventure with River Rose!

Posted by Feb 9, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books, Family Fun

On a recent visit to the library, my daughter and I discovered the book River Rose and the Magical Lullaby written by Kelly Clarkson (the singer), and she has since fallen in love with it! My daughter loves this story and the adorable illustrations (I just want to hug little Joplin!). I like the lullaby and the message River Rose learns about needing to sleep and home being the best place. I also appreciate that the lullaby helps lull her to sleep!

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River Rose and the Magical Lullaby by Kelly Clarkson, tells the story of a little girl named River Rose (named after Clarkson’s daughter) and her little dog Joplin. River Rose and Joplin are supposed to go to the zoo tomorrow, but River Rose is so excited she has trouble sleeping. Her mother sings her magical lullaby to her (which is available online for you to listen to or play along with the book). When she is awakened in the middle of the night by a bunch of magical balloons outside her window, she uses them to fly away on a great adventure at the zoo. There are many fun activities you can do to go along with this story.

Go on a zoo adventure like River Rose and Joplin!

Zoo Day – We are members at our local zoo, and if you follow my Instagram, you can tell that we are frequent visitors! My daughter loves seeing all of the animals, and she is one of those lucky kids who seems to draw the animals over to her! If you have a local zoo, why not bring the animals in the story alive for kids and have a zoo day. (You may want to remind them that the animals in the real zoo shouldn’t be played with like the animals in the story – a lesson I am sure I will need to remind my daughter).

Balloon Adventure – Where would your kids want to go if a bunch of magical balloons appeared outside their window at night? Would they go to the zoo, or would they want to go somewhere else? Would they bring their pet or a favorite stuffed animal along? Encourage kids to be creative and illustrate their adventures! This printable gives kids a place to start, but have them draw themselves landing in their favorite place for their own adventure!

Hop on some lily pads while practicing the alphabet!

Lily Pad Hop – In the story, River Rose hops around on the lily pads with the turtles. To bring this part of the story to life, I created a set of lily pads out of heavy paper and wrote the letters of the alphabet on them. Have kids jump from lily pad to lily pad in the right alphabetical order. You can make this more difficult by moving them around the room so they are in a different pattern or farther apart. If they fall of the lily pad, they have to start over.

You can adjust this game for the age and skill set of your children. For older kids, you could write numbers on the lily pads and have kids jump in numerical order, or have them skip count by 2s or any other number. Since River Rose lands on a hippo in the story, you could also create “hippo spots” with gray circles of paper. If kids land on these, they are out and have to start over.

Learn a new skill while having some fun with balloons!

Balloon Animals – Do you know how to make balloon animals? I actually learned how to make a few when I was younger, and it is one of those weird skills you can pull out at random times and impress everyone! There are many sets available to get you started learning the basics, such as the Balloon Animal University Kit. Not only will this be a fun activity for you and your kids to learn and practice together, but it’s a fun skill to have, while also working on dexterity, fine motor skills and creativity!
River Rose and the Magical ...Shop on Amazon

Party Time – River Rose and Joplin decide to have a dance party with all of the animals and eat some delicious ice cream sundaes. Have your kids bring their favorite stuffed animals to a dance party in your living room. Once they have worked up an appetite dancing with their animal friends, invite them to live like River Rose and Joplin and make some delicious sundaes. Set up an ice cream toppings bar in your kitchen and let kids make their own sundae creations!

Creative Writing/Discussion – Talk to your kids about what they would do if they landed in the zoo at night. Would they do the same things that River Rose did? Is there something else they would want to do?

Have you read this book before? Do you visit your local zoo frequently? Let me know in the comments!

 

78 comments on “Go on an Adventure with River Rose!”

    • My daughter loves visiting the animals! We will definitely have to go even more this year, now that she is a bit older!

  14. As always, I love all of your ideas! I wish I had discovered this when my daughter was little, she is 9 now but I think she will enjoy the activities with a little modification.

  22. What a gorgeous book! I love your ideas for the book, such creative ideas! The balloon adventure makes me think of the movie “Up”, so the book could be a great way to build connections between the two texts and develop comprehension strategies too (sorry, Year 2 teacher here!)

    • Love that! I love combining books and movies and encouraging comparisons! I’m a teacher too, so I understand the instinct!

  23. I love that you bring the stories to life with activities! I think I am going to try this at home too.
    I wonder if Kelly Clarkson was inspired by Janis Joplin? Do you know?? JJ has a song called “The Rose” which has some river lyrics in it, and then there’s the dog’s name!

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun with it! Janis Joplin was my first thought when I read the name of the dog too. Turns out she had a dog named Joplin who passed away 4 years ago. She considered him her best friend. Nice way to memorialize him!

    • We went to the zoo a lot before we even had our daughter. It’s a nice way to spend some time outdoors in the nice weather!

  30. I don’t have any little kiddos anymore, but if I did, this would definitely be a book I’d read him/her. It sounds adorable and so much fun.

  31. I actually have not heard of this book, but if sounds wonderful. I love the idea of being carried away by balloons in an adventure. All of your activities look perfect for literacy, math, and even science with the animals!

  32. I love the name River Rose, never heard of this series but I will totally look it up. So cool!

    Thanks for sharing at #bloggerspotlight

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