Search Results for: Read.Explore.Learn.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Veterans Day

November 11, 2011 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.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

It has been really hard to find books on Veteran’s Day to share with you this week. I have already shared the two books that are in my library system and on Amazon.com. I made the decision to teach JDaniel about the American flag instead of focusing on Veteran’s Day.

We found The American Flag by Elaine Landau at the library. It is chockfull of facts about the flag and its history. What held JDaniel’s attention in the book was the pictures. We picture walked our way through the book.

When JDaniel asked questions about the flag, we searched for answers in the book. He has just started to say the Pledge of Allegiance in preschool and had a lot of questions about it. It was fun to hunt for the answers.

What did we do?

Visited a Memorial

Our local veterans’ memorial is across the street from JDaniel’s school. I decide to take him for a picnic after school to the memorial. We had a great lunch and talked about the flags that are flying there.

Flag Lunch

JDaniel had a Veteran’s Day muffin tin over the weekend. He loved building his own sandwich with the stripes.

Create a Frame

JDaniel and I went to our first Home Depot workshop on Saturday and put together this Veteran’s Day picture frame. He had the best time hammering and painting. I think we will go back next month.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Call Me Gorgeous!

November 4, 2011 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 ways you have learned with and explored books.
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 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:

Call Me Gorgeous by Giles and Alexandra Milton was shared during storytime by the amazing Miss Amber. The story is really a description of a very unique animal. Each page spread shares a beautiful illustration and new attribute of the mystery animal.

This animal has antlers, pig’s ears, spines on the outside, teeth a beak, and frog’s eyes to name a few. As you read about its unique makeup, it is hard to imagine what it will finally look like. The final illustration is priceless.

What did we do?

Online Creature Creation

We went to Switcheroo Zoo and created an amazing new animal. I love this online free program that allows you to morph animals by body section. We didn’t write a story on the site, but you can create a story right on the site.

Craft

JDaniel created this monster with many eyes and a brain on top.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Moonlight: The Halloween Cat

October 21, 2011 By Deirdre

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My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

The book Moonlight the Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant follow a black cat on her evening walk. Along the way she sees all kinds of things that cause her to love Halloween.

Moonlight loves smiles on pumpkins, scarecrows straw laps, children in costumes, and big yellow moons. She loves watch owls and raccoons during there evening travels. She loves houses lit by pumpkin’s inner light when people have gone to bed. She loves the stars that shine and the candy dropped at the door of her house.

Cynthia Rylant’s words and Melissa Sweet’s pictures paint a wonderful picture of the joys of Halloween and none of its freights.

What did we do?

I Spy Through a Cat’s Eyes

I glued a cat’s head to a file folder and cut out its eyes. Then I placed a variety of pictures inside the folder. JDaniel had to guess what each picture was based on the glimpses of the picture he saw through the cat’s eyes.

Paper Plate Cat

We used an old black paper plate to create Moonlight the cat.

This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday, Link and Learn, We Play and It’s Playtime .

Read.Explore.Learn.-Bugtown Boogie

October 14, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

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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:

Links below may be affiliate links.

Bugtown Boogie by Warren Hanson is one of my new favorite books. There is filled with rhythm and rhymes. There are bugs dancing! There is a little who finds bug heading into a tree trunk to boogie.

The tree trunk is filled is bugs of all kinds. They are jumping and jiving to a band made of a humbug drumming, a termite trumpeting, a ladybug on a flute, a mosquito strumming a guitar, a grasshopper fiddling, and a cricket singing solos.

Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher’s paintings of caterpillars twisting and a dozen of bugs tapping their feet are such fun. The picture of Queen Bee’s entrance gives you a full picture of the band and all the bugs along with the queen.

Everyone waits until she shouts, “Boogie Down!” Then everyone starts dancing until sunrise.

After the bugs head home so, does the boy with a hop in his step.

The book is such fun to read. I love how the words dance off my lips.

Bugtown Boogie Activities

Weaving with Pipe Cleaners and a Cooling Rack

JDaniel had fun weaving with pipe cleaners through this cookie cooling rack like a spider weaves a web.

I had modeled some for him that went straight across. He wove some straight across and then he started weaving them diagonally.

This activity was inspired by a lacing card activity I saw on Quirky Momma Kids Activity Blog and a weaving activity from To the Lesson.

Counting Bugs on a Cooling Rack

We used these clip art bugs on clothes pins to count by ones and by threes. We also used them like an abacus to count by sliding them back and forth. We tipped for the clips as we counted.

They were fun to stand up on the ends of the clothespins too.

If you like these Bugtown Boogie activities, you will just love these fine motor activities:

Fine Motor Craft- Building an Octopus

Space Man and Rocket Fine Motor Activity

Fine Motor Learning Webs

This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday, Link and Learn and We Play.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Baby Brains and Robomom

September 30, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

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- 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:

This week we looked at Baby Brains and RoboMom by Simon James. This book is just wonderful. Baby Brains is a super-intelligent baby that can spell “Good Morning Mommy” with blocks as a newborn. He loves to work on the computer, do experiments with his chemistry set, and design new inventions.

Baby Brains tries to invent things that will help his mom. He invents a self-rocking cradle and motorized stroller, but his mom is still tired.

Baby Brains decides to invent a robot to help mom and dad.

Mom and Dad are thrilled when RoboMom makes breakfast and does the dishes. RoboMom tries to give Baby Brains a bath and change his diaper, but Baby Brains prefers mom or dad to do it.

By the end of the first day, RoboMom starts to have smoke coming out of her head. This system malfunction leads to nuts and bolt being served at breakfast and Baby Brains being washed with the dishes. Later Baby Brains hung out with the wash. Baby Brains calls out for his mom and she comes running.

RoboMom explodes just are Baby Brains in unhung from the laundry line. Being a mom is just to much for her.

That night the family does their chores together.

Baby Brains ends the book by inventing a RoboMom 2 that just vacuums.

I guess you can’t replace a mom with a robot.

What did we do?

Cardboard Robot

We decorated a cardboard robot. JDaniel decided to place some things on him rather than glue them so he could decorate him all over again.

The robot spent the day playing with JDaniel and exploring the world.

Robot Math and More

Homeschool Creations has an amazing robot unit. I printed out several things for JDaniel and I to do together.

We did the robot puzzle.

We rolled a robot die and marked every time we rolled a particular robot on a graph with Cheerios.

There was a fun sorting activity we did.

Read.Explore.Learn.-How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?

September 23, 2011 By Deirdre

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My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

If you have children that want to know where food comes from, How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? The Story of Food by Chris Butterworth is the book for you.

It highlights were all the food comes from in a child’s lunch. Foods like apple juice, chocolate chip cookies, bread, and tomotoes are covered.

JDaniel is very big into asking why and where right now. He loves to know all the steps it takes to make something and where exactly it comes from.

What did we do?

Field Trip to an Apple Orchard

We drove out to Nivens Farm about twenty minutes from our house. It was a cloudy day and the weather was cool and comfortable.

The trees were bursting with apples that hung low enough for JDaniel to pick them.

He loved twisting the apples off and putting them in his bucket.

My husband would be so proud of us. We washed of the apple JDaniel sampled from the bucket before he ate it. This handwashing station was the perfect height for him.

While JDaniel snacked, we wandered through the pumpkins.

When he finished his apple, we wandered around in the corn maze. We both loved the purple flowers that were growing right beside the corn.

After the maze walk, JDaniel needed to rest for a moment. This tube was the perfect spot to sit down and hang out for awhile.

Read.Explore.Learn.- 1,2,3 Count with Me

September 16, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

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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.

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My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

123 Count with Me is a companion book to the alphabet book I shared with the last week. It has the same wonderful channels for tracing the featured number and the fun flaps. In this book the flaps reveal the object need to complete each page’s number set.

I like that you can work on adding one with this book. JDaniel loves the channels and the flaps.

What did we do?

Counting

We did three games with leaves.

The first game is one JDaniel came up with himself while my husband and I were trimming bushes on Saturday. He lined up “big” leaves and counted them.

The second game required a number line of chalk numbers in the driveway and some of JDaniel’s “big” leaves. I would call out a number and he would put a leaf on it.

The third game used the number line and “big” leaves. JDaniel arranged the correct number of leaves on each number. It was a little windy on Saturday and the leaves kept blowing away. Sometimes counting is hard work.

Read.Explore.Learn.- A is for Apple and Rocket Learns to Read

September 9, 2011 By Deirdre

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My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

I was so excited when a box of the Tiger Tales Books fall release books arrived a few weeks ago. I will be sharing each of them during the next few months.

The first book from the box is called A is for Apple and JDaniel loves it.

Why?

A is for Apple is more than just a alphabet book with a picture of an object that starts with that letter of the alphabet. It is also a flap book that includes another object that starts with that letter. Wait there is more! It also has the letter channeled out so that JDaniel can run his finger through the shape of the alphabet with arrows guiding him as to the direction his finger needs to travel.

My friend Bridget was just asking about ways for her three year old to start to work on letters. This book would be a perfect way for her to do just that.

JDaniel loves the interactive elements in the book. He lifts the flaps with one hand and traces with the other.

How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills is the second letter book we looked at this week. Rocket is a fluffy and playful dog that just wanted to play with sticks and take naps.

Those were his favorite things until he met a little yellow bird that offered to teach him how to read. Rocket wasn’t interested at first, but after hearing the little bird share a wonderful storybook to him he decides he wants to read too.

Rocket first learns the letters of the alphabet and their sounds. Then he learned to spell words that involved what was going on in his world. He learned f-a-l-l and r-e-d as the fall changed the season and the leaves.

When the bird has to migrate for the winter, she leaves Rocket to work on building words one letter at a time.

Rocket works on wind, cold, dig, sun, melt and mud along with other words that decribe his world in the winter.

Winter turns to spring and school starts again. This time Rocket and the little bird read together.

You will love the pictures of Rocket and the little bird in this book. I love that Rocket is so excited about reading.

What did we do?

Letter Work

I had JDaniel put noodles in the letter channels and rub his finger over the letter formation to see how each letter feels. I really should have tried it with smaller noodles.

The second thing we did was use empty cardboard food boxes to make the letters. It was hard to make the curves in some of the letters.

Disclaimer: I received the book A is for Apple from Tiger Tales to review. All thoughts on the book are my own.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Maisy Goes to Preschool

September 1, 2011 By Deirdre

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Link your activity below.

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My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

JDaniel officially started school this week. He loves it. In fact he told me he doesn’t need his worry rock. He doesn’t seem to have a worry about school. He couldn’t wait to go back today.

In the story Maisy Goes to Preschool by Lucy Cousins Maisy loves preschool too. She walks the reader through her day.

She hangs up her coat, paints a beautiful picture, has a wonderful snack, uses the restroom (and washes her hands), has story time, takes a nap, has music class, and recess.

Maisy has a really busy day. She must be in full day preschool due to the fact she takes a nap.

JDaniel had a busy first day. He had Spanish and music classes along with his regular routine. On Thursday he went to the science room. He is only in school for three hours. I am not sure how they fit it all in.

What did we do?

Review of Letters of the Month

I made a flip chute for a guest post on making flip chutes called Strategies for Learning: Creating a Flip Chute Learning Tool I did earlier this week on Simply Stacie. I put together flip chute cards to review the letters of the month in JDaniel’s class. They are L, E, and F. Jdaniel looks at the picture and tells me the initial sound of the word. Then he puts the card in the flip chute and the initial letter appears of the card.

He really like using the flip chute. We will be using it again for other skills.

Teacher Portraits

JDaniel drew his teachers’ heads with all kinds of spirals around them. I am not sure why.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Back to School Worries

August 26, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to week four of the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge- August! 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 ways you have learned with and explored books.

Remember each post you link up counts as an entry in the the August edition of the Summer Reading Challenge. One post linked up to Read.Explore.Learn during the month of August will selected to win a reusable bag and books.

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 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:

JDaniel starts preschool next Tuesday. He walked right into his new Sunday school class last week without a tear. All summer he has had to be peeled off of me. We don’t know what will happen next week when he starts preschool. He could walk in and be ready to learn, play and explore or it could be traumatic.

This week I selected two books about characters that weren’t so sure about going to preschool to share with you.

The first book is called Llama Llama Misses Mama by Ann Dewdney. Llama Llama seems ready to start the school in the book. He gets all his morning things done. He doesn’t seem to worry until his mama gets ready to drop him off. Llama Llama feels shy when Mama goes away.

The newness of everything and the unknown make him hold back from joining the other children in play. His teacher tries to engage him in activities and he doesn’t want to read, play or eat snack.

What he really wants is Mama, but he decides to try to play and get to know the other kids when the teacher promises Mama is coming back.

By the time Mama comes to school to get him, Llama Llama has lots to show and tell her.

This story reaches into little ones fears and probably some Mamas. I love how it is honest about feelings that really plague children about starting school.

The second book is called Billy and the Big New School by Catherin and Laurence Anholt. Billy his mother decides is like a bird that doesn’t want to leave the nest, but wants to fly. He wants to go to school, but something in his belly makes him feel he wants to stay home.

Billy’s loves birds. He draws them, plays outside with them, and even talks to them about his feeling about school and his new shoes that are hard to tie.

One day while out in his yard Billy finds a bird that is hurt and being picked on by the other birds. Billy’s mother helps him bring in the bird and take care of it.

While Billy looked after the bird in a special box bed they made, Billy’s mother gets ready for the first day of school.

The night before school Billy dreams in his the injured bird being picked on. His mother has to come and give him a hug and tells him it is okay.

The next morning the little bird is ready to fly back into the outside world and Billy has to go to school.

Billy has a wonderful teacher that tours him around the room. Billy starts to feel better. He feels even better when he finds a book on birds in the classroom library. He reaaly feels better when he finds a friend.

That night Billy has a dream about flying freely with the bird towards his school and the dream isn’t scary.

Billy’s new found confidence and new friend really help him feel better about school.

I love this book. Billy learns that his feeling are real and have merit. He also learns that over time his feeling change and the way he views his world changes too.

What did we do?

Painting a Worry Stone

When I was visiting the Grand Canyon, they had worry stones in the gift shop. I thought they were the greatest thing. The directions that came with the rock suggested that you carry it in your pocket when you were going into a stressful situation. When you started to worry, you were to rub your thumb on the rock.

I thought it would be great for us to make one together and then put it into JDaniel’s backpack for school. He says he will rub it and send the worries to me.