Chapter Books

Tweet

I picked up a stack of Junie B. Jones books (by Barbara Park) at a thrift store the other day, and Esmé has been devouring them (as read-alouds, of course – she would never push herself to read them on her own…)

I have mixed feelings about them:

Pros:

• Esmé loves them.  They are right at her level, with things she is interested in.
• They are fun to read, even for me.
• We can read just a chapter when short on time; but they are also short enough to read through in one sitting.
• It gives me insight into some of the seemingly-bizarre ways Esmé acts sometimes; a peek into her brain of sorts.  Rather educational for me.

Cons: 

• I sometimes worry that Esmé will pick up on some of the rude/thoughtless things Miss Junie B. says/does and try them out for herself.  Granted, Junie B. does reap consequences for them.  Do I want a true-to-life heroine like Junie B., or one with (perhaps unachievable) high standards?  Not sure if this is a pro or con.
• The grammar/vocabulary!  Written at a 5-6yo level, it’s fun to read, but Esmé has a better vocab than that.  I hate reinforcing bad grammar – I kind of prefer the classics where the babes speak better than I do!

Anyway, we are enjoying the book candy.  Here are a few other chapter book series we’ve enjoyed:

• Tumtum and Nutmeg (by Emily Bearn)
• Flat Stanley (by Jeff Brown)
• Raggedy Ann and Andy (by Johnny Gruelle)
• Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (by Betty MacDonald)
• In Grandma’s Attic (by Arleta Richardson)

And I was wondering – are there any other chapter book series you might recommend for a kindergarten-aged kiddo?

Flat Stanley Adventures

Tweet

Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley?  Me neither, until a couple of weeks ago, and now he seems to be popping up everywhere.

There are a bunch of chapter books by Jeff Brown about Flat Stanley’s worldwide adventures – they look like a great geography resource – and they seem to have inspired Flat Stanley real-life adventures, where kids make their own Flat Stanley, ship him in the mail to another kid living in another location, and then take the Flat Stanley they’ve received on all kinds of adventures right where they live.  They prepare a photo journal of their adventures and send it to the original Flat Stanley creator.

It’s not coming out very sensibly, is it?  Let’s rephrase it…

Book Loving Boys is hosting a Flat Stanley Adventure Exchange.  Except Flat Stanley will be miniscule during travel - covering the distance via email.  Head over there before Sunday, February 20, 2011 if you want to be a part of it.  You’ll find all the sensible words you need over there...

As for Miss Esmé, I have been looking for some new chapter books to try out with her, and while these aren’t very girly/princessy, I do think they’ll be fun, so we are signing up.  I have already put the first Flat Stanley book on hold at the library.  (By the way, there is even a picture book edition geared towards ages 4-8.)

And I have no doubt Esmé will create a most beautiful Flat Stanley to exchange – so if you’d like to own an Esmé creation, sign up too and you might get lucky!  :)

Note to self:  Get some sleep before writing any more blog posts…

Tot School: Humpty Dumpty

Tweet

This week we wrapped up our Humpty Dumpty theme – ideas thanks to Itty-Bitty Bookworm…

Our books (I loved them all):

• The True Story of Humpty Dumpty by Sarah Hayes
• Little Lumpty by Miko Imai
• Humpty Dumpty by Kin Eagle
• Tillie Lays an Egg by Terry Golson
• An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Aston

The video clip I watched over and over:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDyayfFnH90

My very favorite thing to do this week:  act out The True Story of Humpty Dumpty while Mom read!  First we used a stuffed Humpty I made out of paper (two ovals stapled together), stuffing, and brads to connect the arms and legs.  Then I acted it out with ME being Humpty – on a wall of pillows!


I made a lot of Humptys.  Here’s one I made out of shapes that Mom cut out of construction paper.


Here’s another one – Mom drew an egg on the easel paper, and then I drew in the face and a crack.  I bandaged up the crack with band-aids!


I drew a Humpty face on a real egg, too.


And I tried to put Humpty together again with glue.  First we put egg shells in a ziploc bag with a few drops of food coloring, and I crushed and smushed them up.  Then we laid them on a paper towel to dry.  Then I painted an oval shape with glue, put the eggshell pieces on the glue, and painted some more glue on top of it all!  Not quite like the original…


I made a pet rock Humpty with egg and chick stickers.


I did some upper/lowercase matching with plastic egg halves in my sensory bin.


I practiced cutting a zig zag shape on a paper egg.


I made a crown with glitter glue so I could be king of all the horses and men…


I practiced “reading” my very own Humpty book.  (Excuse the name – I’ve been practicing my trademark signature of both Es facing inwards, so some of the other letters get rushed…)


I did story sequencing with these sentence strips.


I put puzzles together, kinda like putting a Humpty together.


And I worked on my writing skills with some Humpty words, like “wall.”


I practiced carrying an egg around in a spoon.  This is harder than it looks!


And I cracked and fried myself an egg to eat!  (I put green food coloring in it, too – cuz I LOVE green eggs and ham…)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Tweet

Did you know tomorrow is The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day?  Officially?  Mommy just printed out some Very Hungry Caterpillar activity pages from the publisher's site to celebrate.

You can find more very cool Hungry Caterpillar stuff (a tot pack) at 1+1+1=1, too.  I've already done all that...

This is one of my favorite books - we had checked it out of the library, and I liked it so much Mommy bought me my own copy!  I have most of it memorized...

Read It Again!

Tweet

Esmé's Mommy again:

I may not be an artist, but I am definitely a reader. And I’ve been doing my best to instill my love of books into Esmé.

When I was pregnant, she got to hear whatever I wanted to read. And for her first few months, I still had free latitude, though our selection was limited after moving to Mozambique and waiting for our shipment to arrive.

As she reached the “book in mouth” stage, board books, plastic books, and cloth books gained popularity, at least with her mother!

She finally started to respect books a little more – only tearing them when she wanted attention. Trying to expose her to all types of books, we’ve been working through the bookshelf over and over, reading the next four or five books in line every day. While she has clearly had her preferences (ones with animals and not too many words), she often patiently listens to them all.

So now is the moment this mother has been waiting for – when Esmé KNOWS what she wants to read and DEFINITELY wants to read it. She brings the same book to me over and over, and I drop everything to read it every time.

Last night I picked out four books to read before bed, and every time I started to read a different book, she pushed HER book back into my face again – “This one, Mommy!”

I think we’re about up to 142 reads by now, or close . . .

It's called Colors of Creation, by Thomas Paul Thigpen. As far as choices go, I can’t complain. It teaches colors using the story of creation, chronologically following the Biblical account for the most part. It rhymes, so I can memorize it easily and therefore read it upside down.

And the last page epitomizes some of what I want Esmé to learn as she grows up in Mozambique:

“God liked each color, fresh and new
the pale, the bright,
the dark, the light,
so people came in every hue,
and God said: This is good."

What more can you ask of from a book?