Archive for December 2009
Book Reviews by Carrie Anne
December is here and at our house that means Christmas. As soon as the Santa Clause parade makes it’s way through town we start getting festive: the Christmas music starts, the decorations begin to go up, the dining room table is covered in Christmas crafts. December also means we can start reading those delightful Christmas stories on the bookshelf. If you’re looking to bring some Christmas into your reading routine, here are a few of my kids favourites:
Written and illustrated by Chris Raschka
Poem by E.E. Cummings
Published by Hyperion
Board Book
2006 Caldecott Medal winner
Based on E.E. Cummings poem ‘Little Tree’, Chris Raschka recreates a beautiful tale about a little tree’s journey from little tree in the country to a wonderful Christmas tree in his own home in the city with his own family to love him. Rashka’s use of repetitive text gives the story a light, song-like read. The watercolour images with their dark black lines give the impression of stained glass windows and Santa appears here and there, showing how he’s played a part in fulfilling the little tree’s deepest Christmas wish. Even as a board book, my kids and I never tire of reading this wonderful story that’s both beautiful to read and to look at.
Written and illustrated by Eric Carle
Published by Philomel Books
Picture Book (2-6)
A farmer lives on a farm with his animals aptly named One, Two, Three, Four and Five. Christmas is almost here but no snow has come. As the farmer naps he dreams of being covered in a blanket of snow and that one-by-one his farm animals also get covered. When he wakes he is greeted by not dream snow, but real snow. This prompts him to prepare a wonderful Christmas surprise for his farm animals. Eric Carle’s colourful collage images you’ve come to expect in his books, fill the pages in Dream Snow. Kids will delight in revealing the farmer and his animals as they are hidden behind snow overlays. But the best part is the musical surprise the farmer prepares for the animals. My kids enjoy hearing the lovely chime at the end of the story.
Christmas
Written and illustrated by Dick Bruna
Published by Methuen Children’s Books
Picture Book (4-6)
A simple telling of the Christmas story. The rectangle shape of the book allows for nice wide scenes. The illustrations are simple and child like and focus on the main elements of the story; the pages aren’t cluttered by background images. While the illustrations fill the right hand pages, a few sentences on plane white paper grace the left hand pages. The sentences and story details are simple for young children to understand; the vocabulary too is keep simple. The original book comes with a punch out Christmas Crib scene. We have since lost the scene but the story is still one of our favourites.
Peter Claus and the Naughty List
Written by Lawrence David, illustrated by Delphine Durand
Published by Random House
Picture Book (4-8)
Peter Claus hopes to follow in his dad’s footsteps someday. But then he ended up on the naughty list. Peter doesn’t think the naughty list is fair. He takes his dad’s sleigh and gathers all the kids on the list and bring them to the North Pole to explain to Santa why they did some of the not so nice things. One-by-one Santa takes the kids home while listening to their tales. He agrees if the kids do one nice thing to make up for a naughty thing they still might find a gift under the Christmas tree. This is a great story that realizes it’s hard to be good all the time, but that doesn’t make them bad. ‘All people do naughty things once in a while. It can’t be helped,” Santa explained. “Saying you’re sorry is what matters most.”
Santa’s Gift
Written by Charise Neugebauer, illustrated by Barbara Nascimbeni
Published by NorthSouth
Picture Book (4-8)
Timothy loves new toys but he never shares them with his friends. Christmas morning Santa didn’t leave Timothy a new toy, instead he left him the task of distributing all the presents to the other animals. At first Timothy was very upset, but with the help of his friend Humphry, Timothy realized Santa had given him the best gift ever: the gift of giving. I love Timothy’s need to have a new toy, any toy, thinking that’s what Christmas is all about. But when he gets to experience the joy he creates by giving gifts he realizes how unimportant things are compared to having friends. I like the letter correspondance in the book between Santa and Timothy too, as well as the bright pastal illustrations used throughout.
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Carrie Anne is a regular contributor to No Time For Flash Cards, she is a mom of 3 and writer. You can find her every day at her blog Another day. Another thought…or two.
I have fond memories of writing letters to Santa, first dictating it to my mom and after writing it myself. My favorite was in grade one when I wrote to Santa and Santa wrote back ! So in that spirit this acitivy is one where your child writes or dictates a letter and you send it away to Santa . Ours was send via Grandma who has a “contact” at the north pole and will make sure that Santa’s letter to my son gets here! I hope when it does my son’s wonder will be the same mine was so long ago .
- Gather your materials. You will need some paper, a pencil or marker, some fun holiday stickers , an envelope , stamps and an eager child to write or dictate.
- Explain to your child why and what you are doing, if your child is young like my 3 year old they may need some explanation. Encourage them to not only ask for things but to ask Santa questions and tell him about things they have been doing. We chatted while he ate lunch!
- Start writing.
- Have your child sign their name even if you did the writing.
- Add stickers.
- Label your envelope and add stamps.
- Mail!
- Don’t forget to watch the mail for Santa’s return letter!
Books
My Penguin Osbert
Inside, Outside Christmas
Salvation Army Bell Ringer
This is not the first year that we did this, last year a much more rudimentary yogurt container and jingle bells were used to solicit money from my husband and I . I was so pleased when he was just as into it now at 3 and I was able to work in more learning about coins, and why we give money to the Salvation Army. Today when we were out he almost burst with excitement to tell the bell ringer all about the one we made at home! Have fun.
- Gather your materials. You will need a large clean plastic tub, some red paper , double stick tape, scissors and some ribbon. For the pretend play you will also need some coins and a bell ( we use a Christmas tree ornament).
- Start by wrapping the paper around your tub. Use the double stick tape to secure it.
- Cut out a circle of paper for the top, cut a slit in paper and lid, then tape it on.
- Poke holes in the sides of the tub ( not the lid).
- Thread the ribbon through and tie at the top.
- Grab some coins, a bell and play!
- Games you can play: simply follow your child’s lead, ask them to match coins up then deposit them so they have to find 2 pennies then pop them in, make a certain amount of money say 55 cents then pop it in… the sky is the limit. Don’t forget to talk as you play all about why we give money to charities.
Shape Tree
This is a fun way to make a shape lesson festive. This Christmas tree craft is perfect for toddlers and young preschoolers but older kids will enjoy it too, just make sure to provide fun papers and have older children cut out their own shapes! Also I have always found it tricky to work trapezoids into shape activities for young kids, this is a perfect time!
- Gather your materials. You will need a red piece of construction paper, a green piece , some fun contrasting scrap pieces ( I used old card stock) , scissors, glue, some plain white paper , yellow marker and a paper punch if you have it.
- Start by drawing the tree with 1 triangle and 2 trapezoids on the green paper. Cut out.
- Next draw a star on the plain white paper – set aside.
- Invite your child to the table and have them color the star- lately my son has been playing ” Am I done yet?” after making one dot of color my reply is always ” I don’t know are you?” to which is keeps coloring and the game continues.
- While they color cut out the circles and squares for the ornaments.
- Hand your child the red paper and glue. I showed my son how the shapes fit together to make a tree before handing him the glue. The sneak peak was all he needed to understand what we were making.
- Pop the largest trapezoid on , don’t forget to label the shape or ask your child what it is.
- Add glue for the middle.
- Add the shape.
- Add glue for the triangle on top and add it.
- Time to add the shape ornaments. My son was not happy that I pre-cut the shapes, so he had to make some too.
- Add as many or as few as your little Picasso decides. What’s nice about this craft is that kids are able to manipulate the shapes themselves, instead of simply identifying them on a page.
- While they do that cut out the star.
- Add glue for the star
- Pop it on top. Let dry.
Because this is a flat craft this is a great one to send to far away grandparents or other loved ones in the mail !
Books
Christmas in the Barn
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story
The Star Tree
Old Crafts – New Books
These are my Hanukkah kids crafts from last year, mixed with books I have recently found. Hanukkah is fast approaching and I wanted to make it easy for you to find what we have to offer. I am eagerly looking for guest posters for Hanukkah themed posts , if you are interested email me Enjoy!
Books
The Miracle of Hanukkah
Hanukkah Lights 
