Take Lessons from Books Archives

Read.Explore.Learn.- Electing to Change

November 5, 2010 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Ordinary Oscar by Laura Adkins reminds its readers that it is okay to be you. Oscar wants to be famous. He is bored with his color, his night eating, and sleeping during the day. He gets a Fairy Godsnail to grant him three wishes. He gets each of them. The final wish is the only one that truly makes him happy. It isn’t the wish to look stupendous and spectacular that makes him happy. It isn’t the wish to be huge that fulfills his dreams. Can you guess what it is? Did you guess that he wanted to be ordinary again? If you did, you were right!

The Bear with Sticky Paws Goes to School by Clara Vulliamy is about a little girl named Lily who doesn’t want to go to her school. It is boring. When she goes to visit Sticky Paws school she realizes, she misses the routine of her school. Sticky Paw’s school is filled with chaos, messy play, and a little counting. He only wants to play and do work that focuses on him. Lily learns a wonderful lesson about school routines and in the end finds a friend who loves her school too.

Coloring and Tracing

I printed a snail coloring page and we traced the outline of the snail together.

Playdough Fun

JDaniel has learned to roll snakes with play dough

We wrapped the snakes around the snail until JDaniel got bored with it and started piling play dough on the snake.

Read.Explore.Learn- Things in the Dark

October 29, 2010 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-In of the Week

We read The Fox in the Dark by Alison Green. A fox is sighted by many animals in the dark forest one night. One a time they each end up at rabbit’s house seeking refuge and a place to sleep for the night. Rabbit’s bed gets crowded. Animals are shoving and pushing for space. Still, there is knocking on the door. A small fox wants a place to stay. He is lost and can’t find his mom. Finally, Momma knocks on the door looking for him. The animals surprise her by letting her and her little one stay for the night. This book scared JDaniel a little the first time we read it. When he realized the fox wasn’t looking for a midnight snack, he relaxed and enjoyed subsequent readings of the story.

What did we do?

Craft

It has become a tradition for JDaniel and me to visit his Aunt Jane at the high school she works in costume and deliver her a treat. This year I had him decorate an old shoebox with Halloween stickers. We put cookies we baked into the box and took it to her school on Wednesday. She loved the box and I bet she inhaled the cookies.

Writing a Poem

Shape Poem interactive tool

Read.Explore.Learn- Pumpkins

October 15, 2010 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit as many of the other links as you can. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

My Book Tie-In of the Week

We read Five Little Pumpkins illustrated by Ben Mantle. This wonderful version of the book has light hearted pictures that didn’t scare JDaniel. I love the happy pumpkins and fun characters in the book. It is a padded board board which I have found helps books last. That is really important when it comes to this book. We will be reading it for a long time.

Craft

We painted egg carton cups with orange bingo markers and placed them on a fence. It was fun to use the egg pumpkins to retell the story. The green strips were left over from a Sunday school lesson I taught two weeks ago. They are lick and stick.

Experiment

Orange food coloring was created using red and yellow neon food coloring. JDaniel and I mixed the colors using cotton balls. This was fun, but very messy.

Disclaimer: I review books for Tiger Tales. Five Little Pumpkins is a book I was sent to review. The thoughts about the book are my own.

Read.Explore.Learn.-Fire Safety

October 8, 2010 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore. Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit as many of the other links as you can. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

My Book Tie-In of the Week

We read Chief Rhino to the Rescue by Sam Lloyd. Chief Rhino thinks he sees a fire in the window of a nearby apartment building. He mobilizes the fire crew only to find out that Great-Granny Wrinkle is having a 100th birthday party with a cake full of candles.

We also read Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill by Jamie Harper. Miss Mingo’s class is afraid of fire and each animal student reacts differently to just the discussion of fire. The proboscis monkey honks loudly and his nose grows big. The elephant stomps his foot and trumpets his nose. Finally, Miss Mingo and a visiting fireman teach the class about fire safety and getting ready for a fire drill.

Cooking Project

JDaniel helped me put together this graham cracker fire truck. I put on the icing and he helped with the wheels and windows. The icing got all over everything.

Field Trip

The storytime JDaniel attends focused on fire trucks and firemen this week. The librarian read Meeow and the Big Box by Sebastien Braun. She walked the children through the steps Meeow used to create a fire truck with a cardboard box.

First, he painted one side of the box red. Then he cut a hole in the box. Finally he added wheels, a ladder, and lights. We also got to see a fireman in all his fire gear and climb on his truck.

Read.Explore. Learn- Signs of Fall

October 1, 2010 By Deirdre

Steps:

-Link your activity below.

-Please try to visit as many of the other links as you can. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

My Book Tie-In of the Week

That’s When I’m Happy is a wonderful book about activities a little bear loves doing with his family in the fall. He collects leaves with his dad and picks a special one to bring home. The leaves are also used to play soccer. Mom knows the special place on a little bear that will bring out the largest laugh. With dad, he picks out a star and mom picks out a book. She knows just which one is his favorite. Mom teaches him to read the words that start with the first letter of his name.

The parent bears in this book really take the time to play with and know their little one. I love how many ways they find to play together.

We created a sculpture of leaves falling based on one I saw in a post by No Time For Flashcards and hung it from the kitchen curtains. It looked pretty for a few minutes.

Then a small boy decided to tug on it and the leaves and the branch they were attached to fell to the ground.

We gathered bits and pieces of nature from around our yard. JDaniel and I were able to use these wonderful found objects in sorting activities. We sorted them by color, size, and texture.

I have also linked this post to stART found on A Mommy’s Adventures.

Bella- The Fairy Ball and a Bubble Wand Craft

September 9, 2010 By Deirdre

All summer I have been sharing Tiger Tales books I was sent to review. Today’s book is the last one in the box I was sent of Spring releases. The book is called Bella-The Fairy Ball by Mandy Stanley. I have shared Bella with you before when she visited a birthday party. In Bella- The Fairy Ball a beautiful fairy chain Bella has made is whisked out of her hands and carried in a hole in a old oak tree. Bella finds that her chain is needed for a Fairy Ball in Fairyland. The fairies shrink Bella down to their size so she can visit the ball too. They also give her a special dress to wear to the ball. Later she is also given a wish by the Fairy Queen for sharing her daisy chain. Bella wishes that her family could meet the fairies too. I love that she makes a wish that is for others.

This book is a wonderful book filled with lessons about giving and sharing. Bella shows children how to be grateful and thankful. This is great book to talk about with your children and share ways they can give and share.

Since fairies sometimes use wands. JDaniel and I tried using a bubble wand to blow bubble fluid I colored with food coloring onto paper. JDaniel has recently regressed in his bubble blowing abilities. So he wanted me to do most of the blowing. He enjoyed popping the bubbles and rubbing the wand on paper.

Mice on Main Street And In My House

July 30, 2010 By Deirdre

Here in Greenville, S.C. we have a great mouse hunt on Main Street. Bronze mice are scattered up and down the street. Some are easy to find and others are quite difficult. I took my nephews down to search for them. We had a print out of clues that I found on the Mouse on Main website.

The mice are very popular and have even had a children’s book written about them called MICE ON MAIN: HOW NINE BRONZE MICE CAME TO LIVE ON MAIN STREET.

The link below is an affiliate link.

JDaniel is a little young to find most of the mice. I pointed one out to him when we were downtown for a Touch-a-Truck event. He thought mice statues were in his words silly.

I decided to have him decorate some mice with glitter glue and crayons. I would hide them around the house. He was given clues as to where I hid the mice. He had a blast.

Birthday Books and a Birthday Box

July 23, 2010 By Deirdre

This week we are celebrating not only the blog’s birthday but my mom’s 70th birthday. JDaniel and I read two books about birthdays and decorated a box to hold the gift cards we are giving my mom for her birthday.

Links below are affiliate links.

Bella- Birthday Party by Mandy Stanley is about a little bunny named Bella that comes upon a birthday party picnic not far from her home. She is welcomed into the party and given a costume to wear so will be like the other party guests. ( They are all in costumes of one type or another) When the rain threatens to end the party, Bella guides the others to a natural shelter of trees and grass to have cake. My favorite part comes at the end of the party when Bella is given a treat bag that she takes home and shares with her whole family.

This is a wonderful book. The illustrations and story are so well done. Bella and all the other party-goers treat each other so well. They share and enjoy just having fun.

Who Made This Cake by Chihiro Nakagawa is one of JDaniel’s favorite books. A whole crew of little construction workers arrives at the boy’s house to make his birthday cake. The book walks you step by step through the process the crew goes through to make the cake.

Craft

We are giving my mom several gift cards for her birthday. JDaniel helped me decorate this lovely gold container with glitter glue from Dollar Tree. I wrote the G for Grandmere on the lid. He made most of the squiggles. JDaniel really seemed to like it.

Disclaimer: I am a blog book reviewer for the publisher of these books Tiger Tales. I was sent Bella: The Birthday Party to review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Construction Books and A Crane

July 16, 2010 By Deirdre

We have read about twenty books on construction equipment. I am only going to highlight three today.

The links below are affiliate links.

Dig by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha is a wonderful book with rhymes about the five jobs Mr. Rally and his dog Lightning do in one day. They did up rock! They did up clay! They dig up dirt! They dig all day.

Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo has a great repetition of words. I loved reading the book to JDaniel.

Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia is another book full of repetitive words. I love that the machines come to do something with the mess they find in a lot. What do they make? They create a nature playground.

We printed out a picture of a crane. JDaniel aggressively colored it with markers. I cut out the outline of the crane so that you could see that it is indeed a crane.

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A Garbage Truck Can Be A Parade Float

July 2, 2010 By Deirdre

We read a number of books about the Fourth of July this week. Grandma Drove the Garbage Truck by Katie Clark was our favorite by far. Grandma usually runs the office and her sons drive the truck and collect the garbage. On July 4th all three of her sons are sick and it is up to Grandma and her grandson Billy to collect the garbage before the parade. There is a problem. Grandma can barely see over the steering wheel of the truck and she doesn’t drive well. She gets her mailbox, one neighbor’s roses, and another neighbor’s clothesline wrapped around her truck in her attempt to collect garbage. She also ends up at the front of the parade with a ribbon for Most Creative Float. JDaniel thought this book was really funny.