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Maria Explores The Ocean: A Kids Yoga Book

Dive in to learn about Pacific Ocean animals through ocean yoga poses for kids! Join Maria as she explores the ocean with her granddad. Glide like a manta ray, float like a jellyfish, and cruise like a parrotfish. Learn what’s under the water, act out ocean animals, and practice colors! Kids Yoga Stories introduce you to engaging characters who will get your child laughing, moving, and creating. Reading is good for the mind AND body! The story links several yoga poses in a specific sequence to create a coherent and meaningful story. This yoga book for toddlers and preschoolers (ages 2 to 5) is more than a storybook, but it's also a unique experience for children.

Paperback: 46 pages

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; Clr edition (October 21, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1500254738

ISBN-13: 978-1500254735

Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.1 x 11 inches

Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #757,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #99 in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Health > Fitness #153 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > For Children #1196 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Marine Life

While I am a huge admirer of Giselle Shardlow's books due to their addressing of multiple intelligences, I felt like this one missed the mark in just one area. It hits the mark beautifully, as always, with its encouragement of full-body engagement in the story! The yoga poses are drawn well and are easy to imitate, and I love the opportunities for creative thinking as kids can consider how each yoga pose is similar to the sea animal mentioned on the page. These are great activities for body awareness as well. This book also hits the mark with regards to teaching about sea creatures and would be a lovely supplement to a preschool, kindergarten, or even first grade unit on sea life. The encouragement to keep the environment clean is just right, not too subtle or preachy. For me, the only place this book misses the mark is with the colors. For young preschoolers who are very literal and still learning their colors, the fact that the "black" manta ray, the great "white" shark, and the "blue" whale are all essentially grey is confusing. The "coral" fish is also confusing as it is mostly blue with a bit of orange, and the red seahorse and pink octopus are also both a similar faded red color. With older kids, this can lead to a discussion of colors in nature and the subtle nuances we see there, but for preschoolers, I guess I like the colors to be a little more easily differentiated. This is not a deal-breaker for this book, by any means; I would just not suggest using it to teach colors. Many of the names are actually just part of the animals' names so I would recommend just enjoying this book for learning about sea life and leave the color component out of it for the younger ones unless they ask.I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review which I have given.

Maria Explores the Ocean: I am going to use this tomorrow!!! I can use it will all ages! It is great for summer school! This one is so bright and colorful; though not necessarily a learning colors book. It just shouldn't be marketed as a colors book to save confusion. I typically work with students who are past that and we expand their vocabulary of colors and comprehension. I love Giselle’s yoga book formats as they inform how to use them with children, have parent-teacher guides, have a list of the yoga sequences in the back that can be used to review or on shorter days when there isn’t time for a story and It also incorporates family teamwork into the theme. Giselle incorporates yoga poses with corresponding pictures, each pose has a color-coded word in the story so students can make predictions of what is coming next, and connects with resources and the community. This book has 10 ways to save the ocean. This is near and dear to me as I grew up going to beach every Sunday and have a family member who lives on the beach who helps the turtle egg “boil.”. I’ve only seen that on you tube but see the footprints of the mom who came ashore during early am walks. Storms have made me even more aware of how fragile their environment is and how lucky we are to have such beautiful animals to look at, study, practice movements of and treasure. The illustrator, Vicky Bowes, illustrates beautifully pulling the audience into each page. The book has simple minimal text which will allow me to stop and have students spend time on the pose. I love the motivational ways to combine movement and learning and adding social/emotional strengths for the benefit of all of my students. Giselle’s stories also lend themselves to many follow-up activities. I want to make one of each animal after we do them with our bodies!

This is one of the better yoga books for kids that I've come across. The author does a fantastic job combining colorful illustrations with an interesting story and incorporating all of that with detailed and easily understood yoga stances for children.Maria's journey to the ocean is packed with all sorts of interesting sea life and short adventures. Accompanied by her grandfather, the two have a lovely relationship. This adventure alone is worth reading and sure to make a great bed-time story. The added illustrations are lovingly created and colorful as a rainbow. There's just enough details thrown in to draw in the interest which keeps those pages turning time and again.But the real treat are the yoga moves. In a corner of each scene, Maria is illustrated in a small circle as she holds a yoga position. It's easy to imitate and molds in well with the story being told on the page. The invitation to imitate Maria makes it impossible not to stand up and try the move too.At the end, there's a lovely collection of explanations and suggests. And in the beginning, there are also a few words of advice on how young listeners can be best lead in the story as well as the yoga moves. In other words, this is a well rounded book young listeners are sure to enjoy.

Maria Explores the Ocean is another wonderful book from author Giselle Shardlow. I love the ocean-themed story line and how she weaves in the concept of environmental protection. There is even a list of 10 ways to save the ocean towards the end of the book, which is a very helpful resource and teaching tool. The book includes beautiful, colorful watercolor illustrations showing the variety of sea life found in the ocean. An extra special feature of this book is the color of the ocean pages that highlight each sea animal and its color. This adds a whole other educational level to discuss with children. The most unique part of this book is how the yoga poses correlate so well with each animal. For example, tortoise pose is for the green sea turtle, warrior 3 pose is for the black sting ray, locust pose is for the coral fish, and table top pose is for the crab. Each of these poses really looks like the animal in that part of the story. Another huge benefit of this book is the Parent-Teacher Guide provided at the end. It outlines helpful ways that parents and teachers can engage their children beyond just simply reading the book. The author provides important safety tips and suggestions for yoga props that can be used to enhance the practice. She explains how the book can be catered to different ages. Finally, she explains in more detail how children can develop mindful breathing and relaxation techniques by practicing yoga, such as the resting pose used at the end of the story. I highly recommend this book and the other interactive yoga stories by Giselle Shardlow. She does a fantastic job engaging young readers and encouraging them to participate in the story through yoga. Your children will love this book, as they discover marine life and explore movement through yoga poses.

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