Archive for November 2011
by Carrie Anne
As the cold weather creeps in, nothing beats snuggling with your little one under a warm blanket and enjoying a fun book together. Here are a few new books you might enjoy.
Candy 1 to 20
By Laurie Wolf and Pam Abrams, photographed by Bruce Wolf
20 pages
Board Book
Chronicle Books/Raincoast Books
On the heels of Halloween, kids might have their minds on candy. Candy 1 to 20 is an early concept counting book full of bright, colourful candy photographs. Each page displays just the numeric number using actual candy photos taking on the shape of that number. The actual numbers are big, taking up the whole page, and are uncluttered by other elements or words on the solid white background. Each number consists of that same number in candy pieces. One liquorice strip represents the number one; thirteen gummy bears are laid out to represent the number thirteen. Kids can see and trace the number shape, plus they can count the individual candy elements to reinforce the number on the page. It’s a sweet book to enjoy together.
Julius: I Love Color: A Paul Frank Book (Paul Frank Books)
10 pages
Board Book
Chronicle Books/Raincoast Books
Paul Frank is always a lot of fun for kids. I had the chance to review Paul Frank’s Only In Dreams board book on EverythingMom . Kids will jump right in to a world of colour in I Love Color, especially with Julius the monkey as a finger puppet to take them through the pages. I actually love that the puppet is just his head with arms illustrated on the page; it’s easy and fun to move his head around to look at the image on the page. Along with matching the band of the rainbow, kids can pick out images on the page that are red and it opens it up to a discussion on other things they see in the world around them in that colour.
Amazing Baby! A Sing-Along Board Book
12 pages
Board Book, oversized
Silver Dolphin/Raincoast Books
This isn’t a new book by it’s a great book for parents and baby. The oversized board book is filled with colourful shapes and objects familiar with the Amazing Baby! books. The pages contains the words to some much loved and perhaps a few new lullaby songs. There are big chunky tabs on the side making it easier for little hands to turn the pages. The CD included contains beautiful versions of the lullabies within the book, acoustically sounding. I even found myself enjoying them. The book and CD can be used together or separately. Even my 7-year old son asked to hear the music before bedtime.
Clare Beaton’s Nursery Rhymes
Clare Beaton
14 pages
Board book
Barefoot Books
I love the illustrations and wordily tales told in many of the books from Barefoot Books. Clare Beaton’s Nursery Rhymes is another example of the publishers great illustrative work. The book contains words for 7 popular nursery rhymes but it’s the illustrations that add a wonderful warm feel to the book. Each image is a collage of fabric, like a story sewn in a family quilt. Even the rhyme titles themselves look hand-stiched on the page. What a wonderful way to share a classic nursery rhyme together.
Shadow
Suzy Lee
44 pages
Chronicle Books/Raincoast Books
I understand the benefit of wordless storybooks; they’re a great way to let a child use their imagination and tell a tale based on pictures. Most kids learning to read take a picture walk through a book prior to looking at the words. That being said, I’m not a fan of this type of book. But sometimes I do come across a wordless picture book that does interest me. Shadow is one such book. What starts off as a girl discovering her shadow while in the garage, turns into an adventure in the jungle. The girl’s world and her shadow world meld together, until mom calls her for dinner. I love seeing how shadows can transform and stir up a child’s creative thinking. After reading, why not try your own shadow adventure.
I want to thank Crystal from Raincoast Books and Leah from Barefoot Books for my review copies.
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Carrie Anne is a contributing writer on No Time For Flash Cards , she is a mom of 3 , and is the Managing Partner and Editor-in-Chief at EverythingMom.com.
This is not a new craft, hand print turkey crafts in their many varriations are everywhere and they should be , they are classic and simply a part of childhood! This one is adapted for toddlers to make them active participants in the creation of the craft. You can often adapt craft projects meant for older children to a toddler’s ability by using different tools, fewer steps ( less detail) and removing small pieces that may be dangerous. Also I find with messy crafts like this using a booster that allows you to belt your child in is useful, not to force them in any way to do the craft ( which should not happen) but rather to keep them in one safe place after they have messy hands. No one is calm if their child is making a beeline for the couch with hands covered in paint. This way we can focus on the activity not the mess.
- Gather your materials. You will need a toilet paper ( or paper towel roll), a paper grocery bag or craft paper, paint, a plastic basting brush and plastic plate, glue , scissors and googly eyes* I used googly eyes because my daughter doesn’t mouth them. If you read my posts from 2008 you will see I never used them when my son was this age, because they would go in his mouth immediately. I still watched her like a hawk and only brought them out when it was time to glue. If your child is like my son , just draw the eyes on like I did with the nose.
- Cut open the bag and tape it to the table. I love doing this for toddler art , it’s a drop cloth and project all at once.
- Start by tracing their hands 3-5 times on the bag. We did 4 and as you may be able to tell that was not easy. If your child is really resistant trace one hand on a cereal box or other scrap paper then cut it out and use that for a template. Don’t upset them before they even get to make a mess !
- Time to paint, add multiple colors on the plate.
- See why I used a plastic plate?
- Also this brush she is using is a plastic basting brush. I chose it because the bristles are sturdy silicone and have never ripped off despite effort to tear it. It’s also big enough for clumbsy toddler fists to paint with.
- Expect them to use their hands , although I should mention some kids at this age start showing a real aversion to getting things on their hands , don’t force them to “relax” , instead offer a wet wash cloth to wipe anything off, and support their play even if it’s not what you expected. Many kids don’t like messy play.
- Cut the roll in half. Draw a nose or rather beak for the turkey.
- Roll the roll in the paint.
- Let dry ( I cleaned up the mess while singing to her and giving the roll a minute to dry ). Add glue to the roll. Help your child place the eyes on the glue.
- Let the handprints dry and cut out.
- Add glue to the roll and place the cut out hands on the back as turkey feathers. Tip: Use a clothes pin to hold them in place until the glue dries.
- Add this to your holiday mantle.
Stores may already have winter holiday decorations out, but fall is not over with. There is so much more time to enjoy it. Here is a fun way to incorporate learning, crafting, and turkeys. Yep, turkeys.
You will need some construction paper, glue, scissors, and markers. For a reusable (and glue-free) version of this activity use felt instead of construction paper.
Trace circles onto brown construction paper. I used a drinking glass to trace. Make a circle for each number you would like to use in this activity.
Cut out the circles and glue them onto smaller sheets of colored paper. At this point you could have your child cut and glue. I prepared all of mine ahead of time because this activity was done simultaneously with 9 children and only me. Draw little wings, feet, and turkey heads on. At the top write the number for each sheet.
Now cut out lots of feathers in an array of colors.
Now your child can read the number (or count the dots) and set out how many feathers need to be glued onto the turkey.
Let your child start gluing away. With so many small children and just me, I used glue sticks.
Have them count out the feathers to make sure they have the correct amount. Then they can be a silly turkey themselves.
This is a fun activity that helps number recognition, counting, colors, sorting, you can even do the feathers in a pattern, motor skills, and is just plain fun.
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It
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I love advent calendars and there are so many great ones out there. I have been dreaming of making this advent calendar since about February- and it took me about that long to get all the lids from baby wipe containers I needed. What I love about it is that I control what’s in it. As Halloween reminded me my kids and artificial flavors/ colors are just not a good mix. I love treats and enjoy sharing them with my kids but a calendar like this where you control the treat is the best way to go for us. Be sure not to miss my screw ups so you can learn from them!
- Gather your materials. You will need 24 or 25 ( depending on if you include 25 in your calendar – I do) flip top wipes lids. Lots of things have these lids all mine came from baby wipes. You will also need spray paint for the lids- Make sure it is for PLASTIC. I grabbed mine in a rush and the red was good for plastic the white…not so much. I had some flaking already. The paint made for plastic should be a ok. Also a drop cloth, canvas or a poster paper, ribbon, christmas themed card stock, glitter number stickers, white card stock, hot glue , fine tiped pen, pinking sheers, plain paper.
- Start by spray painting your lids, I did the inside then the outside. Let dry.
- Spray paint your poster if it’s not the color you want it to be or like me just want it to be extra pretty.
- Now make the numbers. I cut one piece of christmas themed card stock per flip top and one smaller piece of white card stock, and put the number stickers on. I used an extra lid to make sure it would cover the brand on the top.
- I laid the paper numbers out before gluing them on. You may notice I ran out of the number 2. I was so careful to make sure I had enough number 1s … so I ran back to the store. I wanted this to look whimsical and home made so I didn’t use a ruler, I just eyeballed everything.
- Some of the lids still had the sticky residue from where they were attached to their plastic container which was great for spacing them out. Many still needed to be hot glued on.
- I glued the paper on with hot glue, regular white glue just didn’t work.
- Make a bow by tying two loops together ( think tying your shoes with bunny ears) hot glue the ends to the back. Sorry about the dark photos I have a 16 month old who thinks we are 2 parts of one person and needs to be attached at all times, I had to maximize the happy seperation time to the fullest.
- Now time to write out all the activities I balanced them out with lots of activities like an indoor snowball fight, cutting our own Christmas Tree and setting out our nativity scene as well as a few candy canes, small toys and baking cookies. I also put some giving back like choosing a toy for toys for tots, and canned food for our local food bank.
- I cut each sentance out with pinking sheers and popped them in the doors.
- Hang Up. As you can see I have a 25 door on ours, many people do not add actual Christmas Day. I did because last year my son opened his 24th door and proclaimed it to be Christmas and while it didn’t take too long to explain the confusion he was genuinely disapointed. So I added one to open on Christmas Day too.
I hope you like this, even if you don’t please lie to me. I have been bursting at the seams to make this and share it with you all, and finally I had enough time to manage! Back to stuff for the kids to make and learn tomorrow !
I know I say it every week but this linky is simply the very best place to find great preschool activities, homeschool lessons and kids crafts of all kinds. Last week I oooh-ed and ahh-ed at so many great activities from old favorites done for the first time by little hands to things I can only wish I would have thought up! Thank you for all who link and inspire me and all the other parents and teachers reading. If you are new please join in, link the best post of the week from your blog and teach us all something new or share something you learned a long the way.
Have a wonderful week !
