September Mom and Me Book Club: Chicka Chicka 123!

We are participating in the monthly book club series hosted by The Educators' Spin On It

This month's author is Bill Martin Jr.  I chose the book, Chicka Chicka 123.   It is one of A's current favorites!

I printed off a drawing of an apple tree, added number stickers (0-9) and laminated the pages.  The kids took turns digging for numbers and matching them to their sheet.

I found this cute little bumblebee craft on Pinterest. (original source here) It is made with a tiny pine cone, yarn and a small piece of grocery bag.  Super easy and cute! 

They loved making (but  mostly eating) their Honey-Comb cereal necklaces.

Everyone had a chance to sample a red, yellow and green apple, fill out a sheet (also found on Pinterest..original source here) and cast their vote.

I also had a few other Bill Martin Jr. books out for everyone to look through.  I forgot to take a photo of the take-home activity, but here is a photo of one we did after everyone went home.  Each child got a baggie with a sheet of apple stickers and four trees with numbers on them.  They needed to count and stick the correct number of stickers on each tree.

This was fun!  We are excited for next month's book club!

2013 Summer Book Exchange!

We recently participated in the "Love Books" Summer Book Exchange.  It was so much fun!  Check out our last year's exchange here.  This year we were paired up with Lauren from Tutus & Tea Parties.  We received one of our favorite books, Mouse Paint!

We began by reading the book, then we used the puppets she sent us to retell the story.  There were mice puppets, paint jar puppets, paint puddle puppets and then there were mouse bottom puppets to show what color each mouse turned.  These were the highlight of the package.  My girls still play with these!

Next we had some fun with color mixing in baggies. 

I added a little printable I found on Pinterest. :)

Here A is getting ready to do some paint mixing on a cute little handmade painter's palette.

Finally, the girls went on a color hunt.  They found toys and put them on the correct color paint puddle.

This was so much fun!  Check out all of the other book projects over at The Educators' Spin on it!  Thanks again, Lauren and "Bug!"

Love Books Exchange

We recently participated in a book/activity exchange through The Educator's Spin On It.  It was so much fun!  We got our package from Michelle and her kiddos over at Having Fun at Chelle's House!  It was amazing!!

We got the book  Harold and the Purple Crayon along with all of these fun activities:

Purple/Not Purple sort

A really liked the purple ring from this.  You can see her wearing it in the other pictures!  :)

1-10 numbered moons 
We lined them up in order (because she will not stand for anything out of order!) and she hopped from one number to the next as we counted.

1-10 numbered moons and crayons
She put the correct number of crayons on each numbered moon

Purple Star Crayon (how cool is this?)

Pom Pom transfer with tongs

Sandpaper and string
We practiced making shapes with the string.  There was a little card with suggestions, "can you make a square?" etc. 

Lacing Moon
I let her do this any way she wanted at first, then we practiced again and I showed her how to lace from hole to hole in order. 

Baby Sister even got an activity!  She really loved pulling the fabric squares out of the wipes container.  I'd been meaning to make this for her and now I don't have to!  

Jell-O
A actually wanted to make this with me.  I was surprised since she has never shown an interest in eating Jell-O.  She was very excited and then I gave her a little bowl.  She had fun stirring it, but then told me, "Mama can eat it."   Ha!  We tried!  At least I enjoyed eating it.  

Blank Books and doodle cards
We haven't gotten to these yet.  The idea is to write stories/pictures in the books and the doodle cards are for us to pick a card and then draw a picture that includes the doodle. 

We also got purple play dough that I didn't get a photo of, but A was very excited to play with it!

This was so much fun and Michelle provided us with so many activities we threw half of them in our tot school drawers and A played with them for days.  I still have the other half to switch them out with.  We'd love to be a part of this again!

Christmas book bin

I'd thought about doing the "wrap a book for every day leading up until Christmas, open it, read it and do a craft to go along with it" Advent thing, but really didn't want to focus on opening gifts. I also didn't have the energy to throw myself into making a craft to go with each one.  I decided instead to just put all of the books into a special book basket and let A look through them whenever she wanted.  I also thought we could read a new one each day.  We actually end up reading several together each day and she looks at several on her own.  I'm quite pleased with my decision and will probably do this again next year.

She loves to read...(book rotation)

This girl loves books, and I love that about her.  This picture was taken about a year ago and she will still sit and read every book on her shelf.  Love it!

*Prepare for photo overload!*

These are the areas we always have books out for A:

There are two bins on the bottom of the bookcase in her room.  The bin on the left has mostly hardcover books and the bin on the right has board books.  Both of these bins of books get switched out from time to time.

There is also a smaller bin on the top of the bookshelf (forgot to take a photo) that is full of songs in book form (Five Little Ducks, Skip to my Lou, etc.)  These books always stay the same and don't get switched out.

Beside the glider, there is a side table with a cd player and two shelves of books.

On the top shelf, there is a bin of easy readers (we don't use these as often since we have been checking these types of books from the library now.)  There is also a pile of Bibles, books of prayers and bedtime song books.  The easy readers get swapped out, the Bibles are always there.

The bottom of the shelf has a bin of bedtime stories that always stay there and don't get switched out.

In the living room, A has a shelf with six spots where we put her toys.  One of the spots is always designated for books.  The books on that shelf are mainly library books, but it is also the spot where we put seasonal/holiday books when appropriate.  The books are switched out after each trip to the library. 

Under one of our side tables, I keep a bin of art supplies that are used regularly.  In front of the bin is a scrapbook of A's first year, along with a binder of books she's made (not shown) and an oversized "I Spy" type book.  The oversized book will get switched out, but I always leave the scrapbook and other photo albums for her to look through.

I keep a few books in both bathrooms for potty time.  I switch them out every month or so. (unless we are using them more, then we'll swap them out)

I store two baskets of books in A's closet.

I also store books on a big bookshelf in our garage.  They are sorted by season/holiday, nonfiction, classics, chapter books, poetry, etc.

Just like my toy organization, this was NOT done all in a day or a week or a month.  I've been working on the process for a year (or more) and finally have fallen into a routine.  It may sound overwhelming, or like it's a lot of work, but it really isn't. What are the ways you display your books?