Archive for June 2009
- Gather your materials. You will need some fun scrap booking card stock, some white paper, markers, some yellow paper, double stick tape ( not pictured) and scissors.
- Start by making a template for your bird. I did a few versions before I settled on this. I cut it out and used it to trace the others.
- Trace out a bunch of birds. Add eyes.
- For your wee ones have them color the bird before cutting it out.
- Cut out
- Cut out some beaks, I used yellow paper that I folded so it was the same on each side.
- Using double stick tape attach the beaks to the birds.
- Make a slit in the birds back.
- Hand your child some plain paper and have them draw on it.
- Fan fold it. I was surprised that this was hard for my Sunday schoolers, I so often work with such young kids that I overestimate school age kids abilities. Help your child fan fold it , it needs to be a tight fold.
- Thread it through and bend in half.
- Tweet Tweet you are all done !
Books!
“Bird Talk” by Ann Jonas was enjoyable but I didn’t get it at first. I thought that the book was what the author imagined the birds would be saying while observing humans daily lives. In actuality what the birds are saying are the “memory phrases” that bird watchers use to remember the bird calls. The author has matched these up with scenes where they fit. My son laughed at the Common Night Hawk who’s saying was “Pork and Beans” and kept repeating that after we read the book. There is a full guide in the back of the book of all the birds included.
“A Poet’s Bird Garden” by Laura Nyman Montenegro is an enjoyable book about a little bird who escaped his cage and the poets and little girl who try and try to catch him. The poets come to help bring Chirpie back and each have lovely but unsuccessful ideas to bring him out of the tree. Finally Claude the cat comes out of the tree and then Chirpie and many other birds enjoy all the poet’s efforts ( seeds, yarn for nests , etc… ).
My husband and son share a special bond, Home Depot. It started with the race car carts they have, moved to the ride on mowers and now when they go it’s all about forklifts. This craft uses glue and water but if you have modge-podge that will work too.
- Gather your materials. We went for a leisurely walk around Home Depot and grabbed all the free leaflets with their logo on them. We also used an old jar, glue, water , scissors and a paint brush.
- Start by clipping out the logo from the leaflets. We also decided on green as the background color so we clipped out big pieces of green as well.
- Mix 3:1 ( glue to water), mix well.
- Brush a thin layer on and lay down your back ground color.
- Add more glue mix
- Add your logos
- Add more glue mix.
- Let dry.
- Fill with pencils, frequently used screw drivers or even things like screws or nails.
Book!
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I was trying to decide what to do for the letter v and my brainstorming produced 2 things, vulture and vase. There wasn’t really a competition, my son is familiar with vases and I wasn’t sure how to make a vulture in the shape of a V anyway. I think I made the right choice!
- Gather your materials. You will need 4 pieces of construction paper ( the green piece can be a small scrap), some markers or paint, scissors and glue.
- Start by drawing a large uppercase V, ours filled about 2/3 of the page.
- Hand the V to your child to decorate with paint or markers.
- While they paint, draw some flowers. If your child is able to have them draw the flowers.
- Paint the flowers.
- While they are putting their own mark on the flowers, cut out some stems from the green paper.
- Cut out the V when it’s dry.
- Cut out the flowers. I asked my son how many and to pick which flowers he wanted.
- Glue the V on with the stems underneath.
- Glue the flowers on and let dry.
Books
“The Boy Who Grew Flowers” by Jennifer Wojtowicz is one of those books that stays with you. Rink is a little boy who’s family is strange, Rink is no exception, with every full moon he sprouts flowers , from his head. At school he is an outsider and only when a new girl comes to school does he make a friend. He reaches out to her because she too is an outsider, not at school, in her own family. In the end the kindred spirits celebrate their uniqueness. This odd romantic story will warm your heart and serves as a great lesson about how we all feel different and like an outsider sometimes. The illustrations by Steve Adams will stun you, they were so vibrant and paired so perfectly with the story. Wonderful!
There are lots of great blogs that do reviews, and share tidbits of their life, but few make me laugh as much as My Sentiment ExactLee ! Lee tells it like it is, and will have you laughing with her while she does. Between the giveaways and reviews Lee fills her blog with funny stories about everything from embarrassing mommy moments to run ins with Hollywood. Oh and did I mention she was named a Nielsen Online’s Power Mom 50 ! Pop over and say hi!
Don’t let the cover of this book scare you! I read this book to my 5 year old daughter and we LOVED it! Franny K. Stein, mad scientist, just wants to fit in at school. After using her scientific powers of observation, she changes herself into a cute little girl in a frilly dress. But when a monster threatens her classmates and teacher, she must revert back to her mad scientist ways to create a likely opponent to save the day. You’ll never guess out of what! The story offers lots of laughs and lots of important lessons – like being true to yourself! It’s a refreshing change of pace to the usual choice of pink princess girly books out there. The action moves quickly. And with fun illustrations at every turn of the page, this is a great read aloud chapter book for the PreK and Kindergarten set. With the exception of “The Fran That Time Forgot,” we have LOVED every book in this series.
Review by Jean-Marie
“Magic Tree House Series “ by Mary Pope Osborne
I have a remarkable 5 year old who is just starting to read chapter books. He is currently in love with the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. When he starts losing interest in the book I entice him with a reward of listening to the audio book on CD once he reads most of the book. The books are great for beginning chapter readers and they get the kids interested in the topic discussed in the book (i.e. tornadoes, dinosaurs, wild west, knights, etc.).
Review by Rachel
“Nate the Great “ by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
“Nate the Great” is the first book in a series of 25 Nate the Great chapter books for young readers. Although the reading level is 2.0 (Beginning 2nd Grade), these books are perfect for advanced kindergartners as well as older and reluctant readers. Nate the great is a young detective. He loves to solve mysteries for his family, friends and neighbors. Annie is Nate’s neighbor. She painted a picture of her dog, left it on her desk to dry, and later when she returned to her desk the painting had disappeared! She called Nate for help, who wasted no time putting on his detective suit and heading her way! Nate asks questions and gathers all the facts. It’s exciting and even suspenseful to follow along as he works to solve the mystery. The storyline is truly interesting. Even as an adult, I was drawn in immediately. I felt as though I was solving the mystery with Nate! The illustrations are captivating and took me back in time. (1970′s) I just adore illustrations in older books.I hesitate to mention two characteristics of Nate the Great that I don’t particularly care for, but I believe that if I am going to wholeheartedly recommend this book series, I should let you know about two things. First of all, at times Nate the Great is prideful. When he is overwhelmingly prideful and my boys act completely astonished by his pridefulness, I take advantage of that time by discussing the differences between pride and humility. Secondly, Nate does not like girls. This is either clearly stated or implied in each of the books we’ve read so far. I really do not like this part of the storyline. My boys have friends that are boys as well as friends that are girls, and I don’t want them to think it’s o.k. to decide to not like girls.
To see more great reviews like this one check out Marietta’s blog The Bookworm’s Booklist !
