5 Splashingly wonderful water children's picture books + bookish craft

Today, I would like to acknowledge the Yuggera people as the Traditional Owners of the beautiful land I am standing on today. From the mountains to the river, I open my heart and my eyes as I walk this land, listening, learning and caring for Country. I want to extend this respect to Elders; past, present and emerging and to all First Nations peoples reading this post today. We are all remembered here.

Just so you know, this post does contain sponsored content through the use of affiliate links, my proud partnerships and my own products and resources and I want to thank each of you for continuing to use my affiliate links to support the work I do. As you know, each blog post is based on my own experiences, opinions, and what I have been taught, and does not represent all First Nations peoples or Communities. Please remember that, connecting with your local First Nations Community is always the most respectful way for you to embed First Nations content specific to your area.

Are you doing a unit on water this term or need a water resource for a sustainability unit? Well, this is the blog post for you!

Water is something we physically can't live without, water gives us life and everything around us life and for that I know I am forever grateful!

Today, I want to share with you 5 children's picture books, a special teaching resource illustrated by Bundjalung and South Sea Islander Digital Artist - Kimberly Engwicht @k.rae.designs and a free set of Scannable Book Labels that you can use in your very own copy of these incredible children's books in your classroom and home library.

Alright, let's get started!

Thank You Rain!

Written by Sally Morgan and illustrated by Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr

Oh wow do we love Thank you Rain! in our home!

From the incredible First Nations team that brought us Little Bird's Day and The River. Thank You Rain! is written by highly accomplished Palyku children's book author, Sally Morgan and illustrated by highly respected award winning Yolŋu illustrator, Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr.

Thank You Rain! is such a beautiful hard cover First Nations children's book, that celebrates the beauty and gift that rain brings to us all and nourishes Mother Earth.

I love using Thank You Rain! to create discussions around life cycles, along with using the text to explore nouns and verbs with our littlest readers.

Thank You Rain! is a perfect book for any Early Childhood - year 2 classroom or in your home for your young ones. It would also be a really beautiful gift for a teacher too.

The River

Written by Sally Morgan and illustrated by Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr

A truly memorable book, made for the hearts and minds of our youngest readers. The River will have your students fall in love with all of the Australian animals featured on every page and get them moving along with all of the actions.

Drip

Written and illustrated by Maggie Li

For many years, I have searched high and low for board books on life cycles and sustainability to share with our daughter and I am so excited to now be able to share with you, this Little Life Cycles Series.

Drip is written and illustrated by Maggie Li and centres around a single drop of water named Drip and its journey of life.

Made for our youngest readers and beyond, this gorgeous board book is simple, factual and visually articulate.

Being a board book, the pages are of course strong and resilient and have a unique cut out in the centre of each page of Drip, travelling through each page with you and sharing its journey.

I would recommend this board book for any teacher, librarian and parent who wants to share their love for Mother Earth with their students or children aged 10 months +.

For teachers it would be a perfect addition to your English and Science program, for students from Early Childhood all the way up to year 4 where, Biological Sciences, Life Cycles, and Sustainability is studied in the curriculum.

Blurb

" Drip is a drop of water going on an adventure. Will Drip become a drop of rain?"

This book is available to buy through Booktopia and if you liked this review and my website, I will include my affiliate link below for you to use. Thank you so much for all of your support and as always and happy embedding!

The Dunggiirr Brothers and the Caring Song of the Whale

Written and illustrated by Aunty Shaa Smith with Yandaarra

A stunning Dreaming story by Ngambaa and Gumbaynggirr Elder Aunty Shaa Smith with Yandaarra. A perfect First Nations children's book for Year 1 - year 4 teachers teaching in NSW and particularly on the Mid - North Coast of NSW on Ngambaa and Gumbaynggirr Country. Also, perfect for anyone creating a unit of work or with a themed classroom about the ocean, waterways, the sea and whales.

Sea Country

Written by Aunty Patsy Cameron and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy

Sea Country is a stunning First Nations children's book exploring Aunty Patsy Cameron's seasonal island life and traditions in Tasmania with her family.

Activity: Thank you water for...

To celebrate all of our books about water and any units of work about water that you have coming up. I wanted to create a special little resource that really makes our children think about the beauty of water, how it is a living thing and how it also contributes to the life of other living things including ourselves. For me, getting my students and my daughter to talk about and build those important connections and love for Country and all that Mother Earth shares with us, is so important and this is just a little activity to help them engage with and develop this love.

As you know giving back to community is very important to me, so to make this resource even more beautiful, I reached out to sissy over at K.Rae Designs and she came up with these gorgeous illustrations to be the feature of our water printable. Thank you so much Sis you are incredible and I know all of you teachers will love them as much as I do!

You can download this resource from my Unlimited Library, along with all of my other exclusive Unlimited Library resources.

Freebie!

Download this free collection of Scannable book labels for you to stick in your very own copy of each of these titles, to have easy access to all of the important info you need while you are teaching.

This collection is available with all of my other FREEBIES in my Freebie Library or click here to download this set by itself.

Further reading and useful links

If you are looking for any of the books that you saw in my videos and then you can find them by visiting my books page on my website.

If you are looking for the water printable that I shared with you earlier in this post then you can find all of those in my Unlimited Library and many more to come in the future.

I know many of you are also resource creators or looking at becoming a resource creators and I honestly cannot recommend Canva Pro enough. It is all I use to create ALL of the resources I share with you and that you see on my website and social media. If you are interested in using Canva pro then I will attach an affiliate link here for you to use, so you can get a free trial of the pro version.

Free Community Email List

If you enjoyed this post and would like to receive upcoming posts straight to your inbox, then you can join my FREE Community Email List. Our Community is growing every day and I can't wait to start sending you all of the freebies too. If you are already on my list then all of these FREEBIES and this blog post has been sent straight to your email, so be sure to check it out there too.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me and for using your time to listen, learn, unlearn and share, together we will make the greatest difference.

And as always, happy embedding!