Book Review: This is How a Ball Rolls

August 8, 2025 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Make it a fun-filled ball-rolling and playing day when you read This is How a Ball Rolls by Heather Tekavec, illustrated by Suharu Ogawa.

This book talks about increasing larger balls, starting with marbles and moving on to juggling balls, tennis balls, soccer balls, basketballs, beach balls, balls that people can get inside (known as Zorb balls) and the largest sports ball in the world, the Kin-ball, to name a few. (It’s a Canadian invention that measures about 4 feet/1.2 meters tall but weighs only 2.2 pounds/1 kg. It takes teamwork to throw and catch it, and there are apparently 50 different games you can play with it.)

Each kind of ball is introduced on a two-page spread, with a little rhyme about the ball or the sport that is played with it, a longer text section about the sport and a little lead in to the next bigger ball.

At the back of the book you’ll learn about the science of balls, including elasticity, trajectory, aerodynamics and drag force. Each of these sections has a question you can ask kids as you read (such as which ball has bigger drag force, a marble or a beach ball?).

You’ll also learn about the fastest a ball has ever been thrown (it’s a baseball, thrown at almost 106 miles an hour, or 170 km an hour).

Kids will enjoy the fun illustrations and guessing which kind of ball comes next. You can talk about which balls you play with at school or at home, watch a video of people playing Kin-ball or learn about the history of the Zorb (which is Australian). Then head outside and play a game with a ball. And make sure you watch for the girl in the frog hoodie in every scene as you read.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by Kids Can Press. Suggested retail price $19.99.

[Photo: Kids Can Press]

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Printable Letter Books for Preschoolers

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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