f is for football- books & activities

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Another thing Jonathan is enamored with is sports. Although it's not football season, I figured that football would be of interest to Jonathan.

Books 

My Football Book by Gail Gibbons

This book introduces the basics of the game of (American) football. It covers the basic rules, equipment, field, and positions of American football. The book emphasizes that football is fun to both play and watch. The illustrations show a friendly game between two different teams and features a female referee. Jonathan really engaged with this book and wanted it read several times.



Family Huddle by the Manning family

This is about football's famous Manning family. It recounts a typical weekend during the childhood of Peyton and Eli Manning and their older brother Cooper. The boys go on a trip to Mississippi to visit both sets of their grandparents. The weekend is full of football as the boys attempt different plays. However, there isn't much of a plot beyond the different football plays. The story is stilted and awkward. I didn't really care for it. Jonathan enjoyed it though, so maybe other little boys would as well.

 Touchdown! My Football Book by Davd Diehl

This board book is a perfect introduction to football for babies and toddlers. One football related word is illustrated per page such as "helmet" and "quarterback". The bold illustrations are are very eye-catching.This is more of a concept/first word book, so it probably wouldn't hold the attention of older children.  Jonathan enjoyed looking through this board book, but did gravitate more toward the stories with a plot.



Gross Motor Skills 


We played with Jonathan's toy footballs (indoors) and played with daddy's football (outdoors)

Fine Motor Skills 


We did a puzzle which features different balls, including a football:

Art 


And we colored an "F is for Football" page from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Web Resources 


Football Unit & Printables @ 2 Teaching Mommies
Football Printables @ Making Learning Fun