Family Literacy Day - The Dot

For Family Literacy Day a couple of weeks back, I chose to do The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Can I even tell you how much I love this book? My son's teacher read it to his class last year, and he came home and told me about it. When I found it in a book store a few months later, I flipped through it, and bought it on the spot. It has since become a favourite with my oldest daughter.

The book is about a little girl who is in art class, doesn't feel she has any abilities, and therefore refuses to participate. In a moment of frustration, she slams her marker on her paper, makes a dot, and hands it in to her teacher, who then frames it. Her confidence builds, and she explores her new talent, finding different ways to paint with dots. It is seriously great.

For our activity, we did polka-dot painting.

My girl was very meticulous, and made a beautiful picture all through using dots. It was a fun project for our literacy day.

Family Literacy Day - Little Pea

It was Family Literacy Day a little while back and we had a good time together enjoying books and stories. Like last year, I went over to our bookshelf and chose a few of the kids' favourite books and came up with something fun to do with them that goes along with the story.

For this guy, I went with Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, (a children's author who I am quickly developing a real love for). It is such a cute book. It is about a family of peas, and Little Pea who does not want to eat his dinner. And what is dinner when you are a pea? Candy!

After we read the book, I surprised them all with some sweet treats. Including giant lollipops! (Don't they look like happiness made out of sugar?)

I also handed out fist-fulls of gummy bears, a family favourite.

Who wouldn't love to read when the rewards are so sweet? (Ha-ha)

Christmas Advent Calendars - Part One

I really, really love Christmas. And I love the time leading up to it all December long. One thing I have always enjoyed doing, as a child and as a mom, is having an advent calendar to help me count down the days until Christmas morning finally arrives.

I have done lots of things over the years, and now have a few favourite advent calendar traditions. Yes, I said traditions with an 's.' We have several advent calendars going during the month. So I thought I'd take a post or two (or three or four) to show you our advent calendars and then if you see something you like, there will be time for you to put it together before December starts.

This first one is a storybook advent calendar. Every December evening when I tuck the kids in bed, I like to read them a different Christmas story. Some I have fallen in love with, have purchased, and make sure we do every year. Others are just whatever I have found at our local library. These are usually the ones that are character based, like Fancy Nancy or Franklin. They aren't my favorites, but my kids really enjoy them, and since that is the whole point, I go along with it. When setting out the order, I try to mix up classics with new stuff. A few based on songs they love, a few that teach a nice Christmasy lesson, and some that are just silly and fun. I like to have things jumbled up together.

Here is what our line up looks like this year:

December 1st: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg.

-I have always loved this book. It was the first Christmas story book I ever purchased, and I didn't even have kids yet.

December 2nd: A Porcupine in a Pine Tree; A Canadian Twelve Days of Christmas

-My brother passed this on to me last year, saying he thought I'd like it. He was right. It is delightful.

December 3rd: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert May

-Who doesn't love this holiday classic?

December 4th: Franklin's Christmas Gift by Paulette Bourgeois

-Cute enough. Not something I'm going to order off amazon though.

December 5th: We Three Kings by Gennady Spirin

-The text is the words to the carol, and the illustrations are amazing. Beautiful!

December 6th: Bear Stays Up for Christmas, by Karma Wilson.

- A cute story about Bear. My littler ones love it.

December 7th: The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Fred Marcellino

-Sad story, really. But very beautiful to look at as you read.

December 8th: Room for a Little One, by Martin Waddell.

-Takes place in the stable where Mary and Joseph rest. A nice, gentle story.

December 9th: A Wish to be a Christmas Tree, by Colleen Monroe

-I wish it wasn't done in rhyme, but other than that I really like this one. December 10th: Clifford's Christmas, by Norman Bridwell.

-Not a real fan of it, but my kids were given it several years ago from a friend and they just love it, so what else can I do?

December 11th: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, by Susan Wojciechowski

-Has a positive message about the spirit of the season and its ability to change you.

December 12th: The Twelve Days of Christmas, by Don Daily

-Fun illustrations of animals acting out the action on each day.

December 13th: Frosty the Snowman by Richard Cowdrey

-Original lyrics to the classic song, with sweet illustrations.

December 14th: Fancy Nancy and the Splendiferous Christmas

- Because I love my six-year-old daughter.

December 15th: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

-We read a short, abbreviated version every year, but I think that my big kids might be old enough to read a chapter a night with me. We'll see....

December 16th: The Wild Christmas Reindeer, by Jan Brett

-I am a sucker for almost anything Jan Brett.

Decmeber 17th: Christmas Cookies: Bite Size Holiday Lessons, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

-Completely wonderful. Charming.

December 18th: Its Christmas David, by David Shannon

-Because I love my eight-year-old son.

December 19th: A Christmas Dress for Ellen, by Thomas S Monson

-A warm your heart and make you tear up story.

December 20th: Good King Wencelas, by J.M Neale

-The text is the classic song, the illustrations are hauntingly beautiful.

December 21st: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss

-A must.

December 22nd: The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry

-Christmas means giving something up to make someone else happy.

December 23rd: Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer

-Kind of the same situation as the Clifford's Christmas book. Nothing really wrong with it, just not my thing.

December 24th: Twas the Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Matt Taveres

-Have to read a version of this on Christmas Eve, right? I like this edition for it's black and white pencil drawings. Amazing.

So that is my plan for the countdown this year. Obviously, there are more stories out there that are great, and we'll read some of them too, I'm sure. But these are the ones that I am specifically saving for the advent calendar.

Can't wait!

Children's Book Club: The Halloween Edition

It was our turn to host Children's Book Club again this month, and with the date landing on Halloween morning, we simply had to go with that for our little theme!

We got two Halloween books from the library, and my guy liked the both so well that 10 minutes before we were due to start, he still didn't know which one he wanted to highlight. We ended up reading both. The first was The Halloween Kid, and it reads like a western. In it, the hero saves Halloween from some candy-eating goblins. The other was Franklin's Halloween. It was fine, but not very original; Franklin books tend to run together. But since my kids always like Franklin, they loved it.

For our craft we made these cute ghosties. Just strip off the socks, brush the bottoms of their feet with white paint, and step down on some black construction paper. We tried adding the googly eyes while the paint was wet, but it didn't stick well, and we ended up using a drop of white glue instead.

We also played a game of Musical Pumpkins. It is just like traditional musical chairs, but instead of the kids having to find a seat, they have to grab a mini pumpkin when the music stops. We used the song, "This is Halloween" from the Nightmare before Christmas, which is my kids' favourite Halloween song this year. Pictured are the two finalists battling it out for first place.

Snack time! I just served water as the drink, (I figured they'd be getting enough sweets that day) but made it festive in these cute pumpkin cups I got a the dollar store a couple years ago. I also have some Frankenstein ones, but they seem to be more popular with boys than girls.

And to eat, I served those yummy pumpkin muffins, but I'll call them cupcakes since I added that delicious frosting. They were gobbled up very quickly. Look, even my two-year-old is eating the healthy part! They really are that good.

It was a fun morning, and got us into the spirit of the day.

Thanksgiving Storybooks

We got a few books from our local library last week to get us in a Thanksgiving mood and I thought I'd pass on the titles in case you were looking for something to read with your littles.

Franklin's grandparents aren't able to travel to his home for Thanksgiving this year. Franklin is disappointed, but in the end their whole community has a wonderful feast with his family, and he has a happy Thanksgiving after all.
This was a good book to get some information (very light, and easy for kids) about the holiday's origins. When we started reading it, my boys asked if we were starting our Letter of the Week project over again, since many titles were 'A is for,' 'B is for,' etc. Ha! I learned a few things myself!

Arthur is directing the school Thanksgiving play, and everyone has an idea of which part they want to play, but no one wants to be the turkey at the end. What is Arthur to do?

Hope you enjoy, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Letter Of The Week - Z

The last Letter of the Week! Wow!

Day One:

Our last letter-of-the-week alphabet book was one that I had been looking forward to: The Z was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg. This is an illustrator that I have long since loved, and to find out that he had an alphabet book was so exciting. And well worth the wait to get to the end of the alphabet, I might add. Each page shows a letter that is somehow being acted upon, and on the back of the page, it has the text. I liked this format because it let us guess what the word might be that is happening to the letter.

For our final page in our own alphabet book, we decorated our Z with zippers.

Day Two: Z is for Zebra

*We made a zebra puzzle

*We did marble painting, where I cut out a white horse and we rolled black paint to create the stripes

*We made a zebra footprint craft. (How did I not photograph this???? Arg!)

*We read To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street. (Granted there is only a zebra in there for a second - but he is there!

Day Three: Z is for Zig Zag

Note: I seem to have not taken any pictures at all of this day. That or my memory card is acting up. Either way, sorry to disappoint. It was a pretty low-key day though, so maybe I just didn't find anything 'picture worthy.'

*We sang the Sharon, Lois and Bram song, "Rags" where their pet dog walks 'zig-zag.'

*We cut paper with my scrapbooking scissors to make zig-zags

*We read the poem, 'There Was a Crooked Man'

Day Four: Z is for Zoo

Obviously, this was the best day. And a great way to have a celebration of finishing our Letter of the Week project.

We happened to show up on a day when they were getting a new bear, and there were bear activities and stations all over the zoo celebrating their new animal. So great to just happen upon that!

* We listened to zoo music on the way there

*We read If I ran the Zoo, and Never Ever Shout in a Zoo

And just like that, our Letter of the Week project was over. I'm so glad we did it!

Letter Of The Week - Y

Day One:

(again, sorry about the sideways photo!)

We made our letter Y and decorated it with Yellow Yarn! I thought it was funny how my guy decided to cut little strips of it and glue them on individually, rather than just one long piece. Funny kid.

We read a book called ABC Do You Ever Feel Like Me, (which I can't seem to find a link for on Amazon. Check your local library, since that is where we found ours). It had pictures of children with different expressions. Excited, Scared, Happy, etc. It was a good way to open up a conversation about feelings and what can make us feel one way or another.

Day Two: Y is for Yellow

*I gave him a yellow bath

*We wore yellow clothes

*We made homemade Playdoh and added yellow food colouring

*We ate yellow Jello

*We listened to the Beatles, "Yellow Submarine" which he thought was a hilarious song, by the way

*We read Kitten Red, Yellow, Blue

Day Three: Y is for Yucky

This was a fun day!

* We made slime - ewww!

*Ate Sloppy Joes for supper

*We read Junie B. Jones and the Yucky Blucky Fruitcake

*We made Magic Mud

*We dug in our garden looking for worms

Day Four: Y is for Yo-Yo

This seems to be another inevitable alphabet day...much like 'x is for x-ray.' But we had fun with it.

*We found a Yo-you worksheet and coloured it.

*We listened to a selection of Yo-Yo Ma's music

*We played with a yo-yo

*Watched a sesame street yo-yo clip

*We read Yo Yo Man

Letter Of The Week - X

X is a difficult letter to work with! I kind of felt like a slacker because I could only come up with a three-day, instead of a four-day week for it.

Day One:

We made our X page and decorated it with white Popsicle sticks. Like our Letter-O week, this wasn't something that started with X, but was designed to look like something - and x-ray.

We made our X page and decorated it with white Popsicle sticks. Like our Letter-O week, this wasn't something that started with X, but was designed to look like something - and x-ray. (sorry - don't know why this picture loaded sideways!)

Our alphabet book was called Eating the Alphabet and had foods for every letter from A-Z.

Day Two: X is for X-ray

*We looked at lots of pictures of x-rays on line and did our best to figure out what we were looking at. Was it a hand? A foot? An arm?

*Then we looked at x-rays of animals and figured those out. A dog? A horse? A bird? Very fun, actually.

*We drew pictures of skeletons on black paper with white chalk to create our own 'x-rays.' (I love that his skeleton has a smile!)

*We read The X-ray Picture Book of Big Buildings of the Ancient World, and talked about how x-rays aren't only for our bodies, but can be used to learn other things too.

*We made 'x-ray' jello. (Just regular jello, but you can see the fruit inside, just like an x-ray lets you see the inside of a person)

*We played a version of our Mystery Bag Game, but we pretended that we using our hands like an x-ray machine to figure out what was inside the bag, even though we couldn't see it.

Day Three: X is for Xylophone

*We worked on a xylophone worksheet

*We made a water-glass xylophone and filled each cup with a different level of water. We added food colouring to make it pretty, and then we tested out the sounds and arranged them from lowest to highest.

*We made a paper xylophone craft. We coloured then cut out, then glued the bars from smallest to biggest.

*We listened to xylophones on YouTube.

*One disappointment we had was that we weren't able to find a book about xylophones at our library. So rather than have a true xylophone book, we just read some of our alphabet books we had on hand, which uniformly featured a xylophone at X.