Hello!

I haven't sold Usborne books for sometime now, but wanted to keep this little area on the web if anyone needed ideas! You can find me at Creative and Curious Kids or God's Shining Stars!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Fairies, Fairies, and More Fairies!

My four year old just LOVES fairies! Pretending that she's a fairy. Playing with fairies. And reading books about fairies. Therefore, it didn't take her very long to notice that there is one whole page in my Usborne catalog dedicated just to fairies. Here are a few of her favorite things that she has acquired since I started selling Usborne.



50 Fairy Things to Make and Do
She packs this in her Preschool book bag and takes it out in the car to discuss all of the ideas she likes with me.






Fairy Jigsaw Puzzle (50 pcs)
My husband even helped us build this one! It comes in a very cute gift box and is sparkly to boot. Just perfect!



Sticker Dolly Dressing Fairies
Usborne has quite the variety of sticker books. Both of my daughters love to dress the fairies in this book. The pictures and stickers are very detailed and colorful.






Literature Links

1. Build a fairy house. I think that I first came across this idea in Family Fun magazine. One day when were were taking a walk. I stopped by some sticks and stones and started building. "What are you doing?" my girls asked.

"Oh, just building a house for the wood fairies."

My six year old looked at me like she was thinking "Mom's really lost it, now." But I got a different reaction from my four year old- pure joy. She started using her own imagination and building the fairies' house with me.

2. Have your child pretend or dress up like a fairy and act out a short scene.

3. Ask a few creative thinking questions.

-Do you believe in fairies? Why or Why not?

-If you had a fairy Godmother, what would you wish for?

-What do you think the tooth fairy does with all of the teeth that she gathers?

Happy Reading,

Jen

Telling the Time!

Telling the Time by Heather Amery is a great book to teach your child the concept of time in a fun and motivating way! This book is illustrated by Steven Cartwright and includes the adorable characters Poppy and Sam. The Setting takes place on Apple Tree Farm. This book actively engages children in learning as they interact with the story and turn the clock on every page. They also can search for the little yellow duck throughout the story. During my daughter's time unit in math, I'm going to surprise her with this fun book.

Literature Links!

1.Share nursery rhymes that include time in them. Have your child find the time on the clock.

Example:
Hickory, dickory, dock!
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock!

To find other nursery rhymes that involve time, click the link below!
Telling Time with Nursery Rhymes

2.Creative Story Time- Have your child make up a short story that involves time! Using their clock, have them show you the different times in their story. For example, "There once was a little bear who didn't like to sleep. Every night at 12:00, he would sneak out of his bed to eat porridge."

Clock Template

Paper Plate Clock Activity

Happy Reading!
Jen

Tadpoles and Frogs!

My daughter is studying Life Cycles for 1st grade science. We've had a lot of fun exploring the life cycles of different animals and plants. I was so excited that I purchased Tadpoles and Frogs for my Usborne collection, because it tied in with the unit perfectly! The illustrations and diagrams are wonderful and it was filled with neat facts that she wouldn't have learned from her science book. For example, did you know that there is a type of tadpole that grows up on its mother's back? Pretty cool, huh? Also, it was more detailed than her science book, but not too advanced for her age. Tadpoles and Frogs also contains Internet sites to visit that relate to the book.
I actually purchased this book with a set of books to show at my home shows. We are really enjoying the set for our own personal use as well.



Literature Links

Fun Websites with ideas and activities relating to Tadpoles and Frogs:

http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/frogs/index.htm

http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/frogs.htm

If your child really digs frogs or toads, you could raise one! For more info. on purchasing a science kit, click below!
http://sciencekit.com/sk-reading-buddies%3A-frogs-kit/p/IG0031292/
We actually have two water frogs that are huge! A teacher friend of mine raised them in her classroom and my girls adopted them a few years ago. My husband and I would prefer different pets, but they adore their froggies!!

How about a few froggy songs!! Here is one of my favorites:

Five Little Speckled Frogs

Five little speckled frogs,
Sitting on a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious bugs,
Yum, yum.
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Then there were four little speckled frogs.

(Repeat , working your way down to one.)

One little speckled frog sitting,
Sitting on a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious bugs,
Yum, yum.
He jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Then there were no little speckled frogs.

(Source: http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Themes/frogs/)

Here's another cute one:

Five Little Tadpoles

Five little tadpoles swimming near the shore.
The first one said, “Let’s swim some more.”
The second one said, “Let’s rest awhile.”
The third one said, “Swimming makes me smile.”
The fourth one said, “My legs are growing long.”
The fifth one said, “I’m getting very strong.”
Five little tadpoles will soon be frogs.
They’ll jump from the water and sit on logs.

(Source: http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Themes/frogs/)

Happy Reading!!

Jen

New Year, New Books!

Our new catalog for 2009 has arrived! Check out our new books at Usborne Books!


I will be posting more literature ideas and reviews ASAP!!

Happy Reading!!
Jen

Usborne Book Holiday Sale!

Big Sale over at my Online Store!! Check it out!!

Click below to take a peek at this exciting sale!!




By-pass the traffic, long lines & stress and SAVE with big discounts!! Hurry- this great sale ends on December 1st!)

Happy Shopping and Reading!!

Jen

The Children's Book of Art

The Children's Book of Art by Rosie Dickins is a wonderful introduction to famous paintings! This book features over thirty of the "world's best known, best-loved pictures." I was a little surprised by the reaction of my daughters to this book. They loved the paintings, analyzing what they liked about each, and deciding and discussing their favorite works of art. They were using words such as "realistic" and "This one makes me think about..." Two of their favorite paintings are The Large Blue Horses by Franz Marc and Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Even with a teaching background, I sometimes underestimate the capability and possible interests of little ones. Now, I can't wait to take them to the art museum to explore real paintings!!
The Children's book of Art is also filled with numerous facts about artists and their lives. I didn't read all of the pages to my girls, but pointed out facts that I thought would be interesting. This book is recommended for ages 10 and up, but my girls enjoyed it immensely. I often use books that are recommended for older children if I think I can enrich my girls in some way with them, especially if the illustrations are eye-appealing.
Their are also internet links in the book for students to extend their learning and create their own art online. I will include a few activities that I think would supplement this great book.

Literature Links!!

1. Have your child explore different types of media or techniques, such as pastels, oil paints, watercolors, or tempera. Share works of art that have been created with the type of media you are featuring.

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci: oil paints
The Snail by Henry Matisse: collage
Lavender Mist by Jackson Pollack: action art(splashing and dripping paint in energenic movements)

2. Create an art gallery in your child's room or play room to display framed art work.

3. Visit a local art gallery, showing, or museum.

How Big is a Million?

"A million is a very big number. But exactly how big? Pipkin the penguin wants to know just that. Come with me on a journey of discovery and you can see for yourself."




I fell in love with the book, How Big is a Million by Anna Milbourne and Serena Riglietti, right away. I just love the main character- Pipkin. He asks his mama some of the same questions that we hear as parents from our curious kids! Questions like- How wide is the sea? and Is the moon made of cheese? Besides the fact that I can't resist penguins and enjoy learning about them, this book is just too darn cute! The illustrations are very sweet. My four year old told me that her favorite part of the story is when Pipkin is searching for a million and meets up with a baby seal cub.

Another fun feature is a suprise envelope at the end of the story that reads: OPEN THE ENVELOPE TO SEE WHAT PIPKIN SAW. I had fun reading this story recently to about five children and they enjoyed getting a little surprise at the end! (poster)
I've done projects in the past with my students relating to penguins, so I thought that this would be a fun book to link to websites and other related activities!

Literature Links
Penguins Around the World
I highly recommend this site and can't wait to share it with my daughters! I used this site with my second graders to research penguins from different habitats. They were surprised to see that species of penguins actually lived in Africa or New Zealand. When they think of Penguins, the first thing that comes to mind is a cold habitat! So this was so much fun for them to discover and a great geography lesson, too. I used an interactive map- click here, to teach the kids where the different penguins lived around the world. They researched a penguin of their choice and created a PowerPoint presentation to share with other children.

How can I use this website with younger children??

1. Have your child select their favorite penguin. Create a little penguin booklet that answers simple research questions such as-

What is the name of your penguin?
Where does it live?
What does it eat?
Describe your penguin.

They can draw picutures or you can print out photos for them to glue.

2. Compare and contrast two penguins from two different habitats!!

Skills: Decision making, research, science, geography and more!!!!

Other fun links, activities, and resources for young children:

Itsy Bitsy Penguin Booklet

Penguin Songs and Poems

Lots and Lots of fun Penguin craft ideas- finger print penguins, puppets,and more!

This was so much fun to write. I can't wait to do a little penguin unit with the girls soon!!

Happy Reading!!

Jen

A Squirrel's Tale...

My daughter just had to have this book when she saw it in the Usborne catalog last year!! She actually earned the book for free in Kindergarten when her school had a Read-a-thon. Both of my girls just adored There's a Mouse in the House that was created by the same author, so they were very excited to see that there was another fun book that was similar to the first one we had purchased at an Usborne Home show. Both books come with a little animal that travels through each book on an exciting adventure. There are little slots throughout the book to put the little animal into as you read through the story.


Take a sneak peek at one of the pages in A Squirrel's Tale... by Richard Fowler.


Okay, and now for the literature links!!

Math
Go on a nature walk and collect acorns. Count the numbers of squirrels you may have seen during your walk. Bring your treasures home and have fun counting the number of acorns found- by 1's and then count by 2's. For older kids do hands on acorn addition and subtraction problems. For example, make up a fun story problem such as Squirrel had 5 acorns, but was hungry, so he ate 2. How many acorns does squirrel have left??

Poetry/Language/Movement

The Squirrel
Whisky, frisky,
(move finger puppet side to side)
Hippity hop!
(move puppet up and down as hopping)
Up he goes
(raise puppet high in the air and wiggle)
To the tree top!

Whirly, twirly,
(move puppet in small circles)
Round and round;
Down he scampers
(lower puppet, wiggling back and forth)
To the ground.

Furly, curly,
(move in circles, getting larger)
What a tail!
Tall as a feather
(extend in the air)
Broad as a sail!
(wave arm back and forth)

Where's his supper?
(lower arm and shade eyes)
In a shell-
(Hold palm up and curl fingers into a fist)
Snappity, crackity,
(open hand,palm up)
Out it fell!
(from ChildFun)

Music
Squirrel Song: Lyrics and Tune

A Couple of Squirrely Fun Facts!

1. There are over 200 different species of squirrels.

2. Baby squirrels are born blind and hairless. They are born in nests.
(Source: EnchantedLearning.com)

Happy Reading!
Jen

Bugs

Believe it or not, my two daughters are fascinated by bugs, so they were excited to explore the non-fiction book Bugs by Lucy Bowman. This 32 page book is part of the USBORNE BEGINNERS series which has a total of 40 titles. My youngest really enjoyed the bright and detailed illustrations. Bugs also includes a page of websites to visit with links to fun activities such as designing a caterpillar or watching a video clip.


Here are my ideas to link this book to fun activities!!

1. Go on a bug walk. Be sure to bring a magnifying glass for exploration. How many different bugs can you find?

2. Choose one of the bugs to explore further and create a Bug Fact Book. Here is a great links to help your child research bugs!!
Enchanted Learning: Insect Printouts

3. How about a bug craft?? Sounds like fun!! Visit family fun below for lots of creative ideas!
Family Fun: Fun Bug Crafts for Kids

Have fun reading!

Jen