Books - Always Learning

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Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina is such a wonderful and timeless tale which I can recall reading when I was a young child. I have passed on this fun tale to my daughter however we have purchased the updated book and CD version which also includes some fun tunes to go along with the story.

To get into a monkey mood we are going to bake some banana bread cookies and read some other monkey stories including Five Little Monkeys Sitting On A Bed and Curious George.

And as my daughter loves hat we are going to decorate a paper bag to turn it into a gorgeous paper hat creation.

If you are after some more ideas, check out these links:

Hubbards Cupboard
Teaching Heart
Teachers.Net

For those with very young children, I must confess that my favourite Monkey book has to be the gorgeous Usborne title - That's Not My Monkey.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Craft, Reading

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Play With Me

January 25th 2010 18:34

Following on from our animal theme we have been reading the charming book, Play With Me written by Marie Hall Ets. It features a little girl who ventures outside to play with the wild animals only to discover that at first they are too frightened to go near her. The text and pictures are charming in this book and is one of my daughter's favourites.

Homeschool Share provided us with some book related suggestions, the favourite one of my daughter being the Guess Who Animal game.

We stumbled upon a fun birdcage craft and my partner and daughter even built a birdhouse and feeder from a $5 craft pack we discovered in a supermarket.

For the younger children we found a dot painting frog as well as an alphabet dot to dot.

For those that like fingerpainting here were a couple of animal fingerpainting ideas which gave us some inspiration.

For turtle lovers, here is a fun turtle craft as well as an easy turtle to colour.

And let's not forget the paper chain snake.

A book like this provides lots of opportunities for animal spotting, although as it is winter at the moment, our animal spotting is diminished slighly with only some squirrels and a few birds - however better than nothing.

Springtime is a great time of year to visit this story however any time of the year is great to read inspirational stories to your children.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Craft, Reading, Social Studies

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Animal Classification Cards

January 5th 2010 03:27

My daughter and I had an enjoyable afternoon reading some animal classification cards - some which I discovered on the internet (see previous post) and others which I created along the same vein. She enjoyed animal spotting in her books and then locating the cards with a random fact that was placed on the bottom.

Fun yes - educational - double yes. Win win for sure!

We also continued on with the Australian theme and looked at Australia on the map, sang Waltzing Matilda and read one of my favourite books from my childhood, The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Computer Based, Reading, Social Studies

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Katy No Pocket

December 26th 2009 19:37

We are going to have some fun with Katy No Pocket over the next week or so. Katy is a kangaroo, born without a pocket and is struggling to carry her baby like all the other animals in the countryside. Katy, desperate for a pocket, goes to the city in search of one and meets up with a kindly construction worker who helps her out.

We are going to make an easy pocket apron for my daughter to wear as featured in the story and based on the Fold and Learn ideas provided by Five In A Row. As my daughter and I are originally from Australia, we are going to enjoy this one in particular. We have seen many kangaroos in real life so while we are not going in search of any (a bit difficult in Canada), we are going to attempt painting them in aboriginal dot art style. To carry on the aboriginal theme, we are also going to make our own didgeridoo craft.

A kangaroo can jump at least 9-10 metres so we are also going to attempt to measure our own kangaroo jumps. And we are going to discuss the other animals featured in the book and the habitats in which they live.

We are also going to improve our tool knowledge with the help of these cards as well as this easy but fun pocket sorting activity.

For extra assistance, here is a link which shows some animal classification cards for Katy No Pocket as well as other Five In A Row stories.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Computer Based, Craft, Reading, Social Studies

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Coraline

November 20th 2009 01:26

My daughter loves the animated movie Coraline so loudly announced that it is Coraline week in our house giving me about five minutes notice to organise some activities for us to do.

Thankfully Coraline.com came to our aid and we were able to button eye images of both myself and my daughter as well as create online button flowers. There was also a fun print image in which the circus mice could also spell out my daughter's name.

We sat down to watch Coraline the movie for about the tenth time and if she was a little older I am sure she would enjoy the original novel from which the film was adapted from.

We also discovered a website which featured numerous Coraline pictures to colour and set out on a counting exercise to find out exactly how many windows and doors we had in our house.

Luckily I had some buttons set aside for just such a crafting exercise and we drew some dolls and created our very own button eyed dolls and button gardens.

It is amazing what you can come up with in five minutes if you put your mind to it!

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Craft, DVDs, Reading

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Arthur on Speakaboos

November 1st 2009 02:42

For those looking to find some fun tales for children to listen to should stop by and visit Speakaboos. They have added a good selection of Arthur tales read by an interesting mix of celebrities including Tom Arnold, Kevin Bacon, Kelly Ripa and Clay Aiken. The stories include Arthur's New Baby, Arthur's New Puppy, Arthur's Chicken Pox and Arthur's Computer Disaster,

You can choose to watch them for free online, buy an individual track for 0.99 or purchase an entire album for 8.99

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Computer Based, Reading

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The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

October 19th 2009 00:30

Once upon a time there was a little old lady who was not afraid of anything until one windy autumn night, while walking in the woods, she hears CLOMP CLOMP.

This is such a fun tale and suitable for scary retellings around Halloween

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Computer Based, Craft, Reading

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Cranberry Thanksgiving Recipe

October 7th 2009 17:08

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For those not able to get your hands on the book Cranberry Thanksgiving as mentioned in a previous post, please find the recipe below

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Books, Cooking

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Cranberry Thanksgiving

October 2nd 2009 18:39

Cranberry Thanksgiving written by Wende and Harry Devlin in 1971 is one of those time honoured books that lends itself to family traditions - in the case of Cranberry Thanksgiving it is Cranberry Bread.

Cranberry Thanksgiving is the story of a young girl named Maggie who lives with her Grandmother near a cranberry bog in New England. The book includes some interesting characters and colourful illustrations and the story takes some interesting twists and turns, demonstrating that looks can be deceiving. It even includes Grandmother’s Famous Cranberry Bread recipe for you to bake at home

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Cooking

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Halloween Lesson Plans

October 1st 2009 13:50

October already and that means only one thing for children (particularly in North America) - Halloween. This is a fun time for children to let their imagination run wild and it is great to incorporate monsters, goblins, ghouls and witches into the curriculum to inspire their creativity and imagination.

For history buffs it is interesting to go over the facts behind the tradition and if you are unfamiliar with the history then drop over to TIme For Kids to give you the lowdown

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Craft, Reading

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Don't Discount Second Hand Stores

September 18th 2009 17:35

Investigating a new area to live, I started checking out all the stores - second hand stores included and noticed what bargains they had to offer particularly in the way of kids educational computer games and books. We managed to make some great savings and many of the books and cds were priced at $2 or less!

The Little Bear Preschool Thinking Adventure normally sells for between $10 and $15 and we picked it up for $1. A definite bargain

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Reading

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Junie B. Jones

September 3rd 2009 00:36

Junie B. Jones has survived the wilds of kindergarten and is now adventuring through--with her ever-endearing curosity and great sense of humor in tow--the endless challenges of life as a first grader!

The Junie B. Jones books are a great introduction to children who are looking to connect to chapter books for the first time regardless of whether they are learning to read or just improving on their listening skills

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Books

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Repetitive Stories

July 27th 2009 21:52

All children are different, as are their learning styles. Repetitive text is often featured in the stories of young children and although it may not be as interesting a story for the parents, the repetition featured in the text is a great way for children to improve their reading skills. It also gives them a strong base for which to give them the confidence to move on to more interesting and complex tales.

Some of the favourite stories featured in the bookcase of my daughter include Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino, The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown and Dance Away by George Shannon

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Reading

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Feline Frenzy

July 5th 2009 04:11

Feline fever has struck our house this week as we are doing lots of cat related crafts and activities. Many of our books feature a cat in some form or another although our favourites are Sam The Firehouse Cat, The Curious Little Kitten Around The House and The Shy Little Kitten.

We found some puppet like characters for the nursery rhyme - Pussycat Pussycat Where Have You Been and will create a little reader entitled A Cat With A Hat
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