Story Time & Crafts: The Very Busy Spider

Little one loves it when I take him to the library. It's one of our favorite things to do together. He goes crazy going through the books, looking at each one, and picking out the one he wants to take home. He normally ends up checking out up to 10 books at a time. :) One of his picks during our past visit was The Very Busy Spider (Board Book).

Eric Carle's book are colorful, lively, with simple text, and this book has a lesson in it, and it's to complete a task. The busy spider doesn't allow itself to get distracted until it finishes the beautiful web.  We both really like this book because little one could feel the embossed spider's web, and he can make the noises the animals make.  

After I read the book to little one. He wanted to make the sun, and the spider. So I gave him a paper plate, and some yellow paint. He cut the plate himself, and painted with homemade paint. He then colored with markers a smaller paper plate, and made the spider. I have a jar with cut-out letters from cereal boxes, crackers, etc. that I save. We used those letters to make the title of the book. He had fun looking through the letters, and matching them to the book title. Then he glued them. 

He wanted to make the fence post from the book. I used large popsicle sticks, and hot glued them to make a larger frame. I had some red string that I had him tangle up in the frame to make the spider's web, and I hot glued the strings for him.  

Luckily for him, he had a spider, a fly, and all of the animals from the farm. Except for the owl. I had to improvise with a small rock, googly eyes, a cap (from a fruit pouch), and some chenille stems for the the wings; and voila he has an owl! :) He was so excited about his spider's frame that he wanted to play out the story to Daddy as I read the book. 

I love children's book that can come alive with crafts. What fun books have you brought to life with crafts? Would love to hear your thoughts, or comments. Please like, share or pin!

This post has been linked up at Sharing Saturday at Crafty Moms, and Rainy Day Mums Tuesday Tots.

Disclaimer: An Amazon affiliate link is used in this post.

"Learn and Play" Through Culture Packages

A wonderful way of showing our son how to appreciate other cultures is by participating in a Worldwide Culture Swap. This past summer we participated in two culture swaps, and have received swap packages from other families across the globe! Our packages came from families from England,  Norway and South Africa!

Participating is a fun and tangible way of  learning to appreciate other cultures through the items we have received.   The packages vary by country and the ones that we have received have included items such as,  stamps, coins, sweets, pictures, flags, stickers, coins, a home-made DVD, pressed flowers, pencils and even sand with shells!  The letters that the families include in their packages gives us a better understanding of their culture, and we learn so much from them.

Story Time & Craft: "Mouse Count"

Every week at little one's preschool  they go to the library and pick out a book.  He checks out the book, and takes it home for a week (we return it on the following Monday).    This week's book is Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh.    This is a short, simple "suspense" story that teaches counting forward, and backwards of ten mice; and the hungry snake that wanted to eat them. 

To make story time an interactive hands-on experience we made the mice, and the snake out of craft foam. I had tons of craft foam at home, with no clue on what to do with them. Thankfully I was enlightened by a fellow blogger's posts using craft foam. 

I cut the shapes of the mouse, and the snake. Little one helped by putting on the eyes, and he also helped by drawing the ears, and whiskers. For the tails, and the snake's stripes we used the Bendaroo's wax super string. Finally, I found a plastic jar that was perfect for the story. 

When we were finished with our mice, and snake craft we sat down to read the story. We started off with the mice facing up. Little one had them standing up and pretending they were playing with each other. I had two more standing up, and playing, too. Then when the mice got sleepy little one decided to face them down to sleep (makes sense since they were asleep).

Then came along the very hungry snake and started counting them one by one, and placing them in the jar.   Little one grabs the snake and grabs each mouse counting them until he has all ten.  The snake wraps the jar, and just before he eats them, one of the mouse tells him that there's another one. So off goes the snake to look for the other snake. Little one slithers the snake away from the jar. :) 

 

Once the snake was gone the ten mice shake back and forth the jar (little one shakes the jar back and forth), and then he starts counting backwards 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 ... 1 until they were all out of the jar!   The snake had been tricked because there was no other mouse! When he returns he finds the jar empty.  

This is such a fun story to read and play out with little one. That we've read and played it a few times before bed time. 

We've really enjoyed this book, and can't wait to see what book he will bring this week. What good children's book have you read lately to your child? Would love to know! Please comment, share and/or like! 

This post has also been linked and shared at Kid Lit Blog Hop #6. 

Mini Chicken Pot Pies {Cooking With My Little Chef}

There is one thing my son loves to eat, and it's chicken pot pie. It's comfort food at it's best.  As I was pinning on Pinterest I came across this recipe on how to make Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes! Wow, I had to check it out. The recipe looked simple enough to have little one make it of course, with my help.  (You can find the recipe here.) 

I gathered all the ingredients, we washed our hands, and we were ready to get started! He did all of the pouring, mixing and stirring. He thoroughly enjoyed this process, and wanted to add some more of everything, but I explained that we had to follow instructions, and make sure we had the correct measurements. 

He was so excited! He was even sporting his own little apron that his Grandma brought from Italy. :)  

After all of the ingredients were mixed together it looked so delicious to little one that he actually grabbed a spoonful of the mixture and ate it! Until he realized the veggies were frozen! {Chuckle!} I told him that we need to bake it first! So the process of spooning the mixture into the biscuits cups began. 

I placed the mini chicken pot pies in the oven, and after 15 mins. Voila! This was the end result. Yummy, delicious mini chicken pot pies! 

This is a great cooking activity to do with your children. It teaches them about measurements (math), the process of following instructions and mixing different ingredients to make a recipe (food process), the different textures from the frozen, hard, cold vegetables, and the sticky uncooked biscuit (sensory), taste from uncooked to cooked, and most importantly the art of being patient (waiting for the mini chicken pot pies to bake, and then cool off to eat).  

He finally sat down to eat his mini chicken pot pie, and he loved it! Though he did mention that chicken pot pies are supposed to be big, and not little. {I chuckled} I told him that these were special just for him.

¡Buen provecho! 

Since we had so much fun in the kitchen, I'm thinking about another recipe to try out with my little chef! Until our next kitchen adventure!  Please, comment, share and/or like! Would love to hear from you. 

Children's Book on Celebrating Diversity

I absolutely love reading to our son. He looks forward to story time with Mommy, and we read 2 or 3 books at a time. We have plenty of books about shapes, colors, animals, in both English and/or Spanish, and our latest addition is about celebrating his diversity. I purchased three books that we are truly enjoying:

A Rainbow of Friends by P.K. Hallinan

A Rainbow of Friends is a wonderful and a colorful illustrated book. With simple and short paragraphs it talks about the differences between friends (some like sports, some like to read, some dress different), and how friends comes in all shapes and sizes.  As they celebrate how unique and special each one of them are the world becomes a better place.

Whoever You Are (Reading Rainbow Books) by Mem Fox

This is also a beautifully illustrated book with short sentences about the children's physical and cultural differences. That where ever they are, and whoever you are all over the world we are all the same.

We're Different, We're the Same (Sesame Street) by Bobbi Kates

Sesame Street characters portrays the physical differences of each one of us: nose, hair, face, etc. That though we're different, we're the same making the world a fun place!

We're having so much fun celebrating his diversity, learning and growing together as a multicultural family. He's a smart, well rounded little boy who is learning where he comes from and despite the differences he sees among his friends, he knows that we are all the same!

What are your thoughts? Please comment below and/or share! Gracias!

Our Beloved Coquí/Nuestro Querido Coquí

Just a month before the school year ended. My son's school celebrated "Week of the Young Child", and his teachers asked me to read a book to his group (of 3 & 4 yr. olds) at school during their story time session. Of course, I said, "Yes!" They asked me to read something in English/Spanish or typical of our Puerto Rican ethnicity, so I chose to read a book about our beloved coquí from Puerto Rico.

The coquí is a very tiny tree frog only about one inch long with a high pitched voice. It is only found in Puerto Rico* and it is the island's mascot. The coquí's skin is translucent. However, some look green, brown, and yellow. The coquí begins to sing "co-quí, co-quí, co-quí" when the sun goes down and it doesn't stop until sunrise.

The book that I chose to read is Everywhere Coquis!/¡En dondequiera coquies! by Nancy Hooper. It is divided in two parts, one side the story is in English, and when you flip the book to the other side you can read the story in Spanish. It's a beautifully illustrated book with a simple story line perfect for 3 and 4 year olds.

This story is about the coquies that live in the rain forest, and how annoyed the birds are at the chirping noise at night. They are on a quest to find that bird (which in reality is a coquí) to chase them out of the rain forest. The coquies are in fact everywhere on the island, and they can't seem to find them.  This is a beautiful cultural book with vivid illustrations of "life" in Puerto Rico, and how beloved this tiny tree frog is.

For my story time session, I printed some coloring pages of the coquí, and I even downloaded the coquí's song audio to my android! The kids loved this! Since it wasn't just me reading the book, but they listened to an actual coquí sing. During story telling, instead of reading, "coquí, coquí, coquí" I would simply pause to play the coquí song from my phone. The children were thrilled with there "ooohs" and "aaahhs".

I'm hoping that the pre-schoolers learned a little about the coquí from Puerto Rico and know how much we love our beloved coquí. Now I do have to say one little girl told me she knew about the coquí because of Dora The Explorer. {Smile!}

At the end of the day, I was happy sharing a little about where we come from, and more so that my son was very happy and excited that Mommy read a book during story time at his school. He said, "Momma, you're going to be a teacher now!" How sweet!

*Coquíes can also be found in the Island of Hawaii you could read more about this here.

Justo un mes antes de que terminara el año escolar. En la escuela de mi hijo celebraron "La Semana del Niño Joven" y sus maestras me pidieron que leyera un cuento al grupo de niños y niñas (de 3 y 4 añitos)durante su sesión de lectura de cuentos. Por supuesto, que les dije que sí. Me pidieron que leyera algo en Inglés/Español o de algo típico de nuestra etnicidad Boricua (Puertorriqueña), así que decidí leer sobre nuestro querido coquí de Puerto Rico.

El coquí es una pequeña ranita de árbol que vive solamente en Puerto Rico** y es la mascota de la isla. La piel del coquí es translucente. Sin embargo, a veces se ve verde, marrón o amarillo. El coquí comienza a cantar "co-quí, co-quí, co-quí" durante la puesta del sol y no deja de cantar hasta el amanecer.

El libro que escogí para leer es Everywhere Coquis!/¡En dondequiera coquies! por Nancy Hooper. Está dividido en dos partes, en un lado está el cuento en Inglés, y cuando lo virás al revés ves el cuento está en Español. Es un libro bellamente ilustrado con un cuento sencillo y perfecto para los niños/niñas de 3 y 4 años.

En preparación para la sesión de lectura de cuentos, yo imprimí hojas sueltas para colorear del coquí, y hasta bajé en mi android (celular) el audio de la canción del coquí." ¡A los niños/niñas esto les encantó! No solamente estaba leyendo el cuento del libro, sino que ellos podían escuchar a un coquí de verdad. Mientras leía el cuento, en vez de leer, "coquí, coquí, coquí" yo simplemente pausaba para tocar la canción del coquí de mi celular. Los niños/niñas estaban emocionados con sus "ooohs" y "aaahhs".

Espero que los niños/niñas pre-escolares hayan aprendido un poco sobre el coquí, y que ellos vean cuánto amamos a nuestro querido coquí. Ahora bien, una niña se me acercó y me dijo que ella ya sabía sobre el coquí gracias a Dora La Exploradora. {¡Sonríe!}

Al final del día me queda la satisfacción de haber compartido un poco de dónde venimos y más aún cuando mi hijo estaba feliz y emocionado que su Mami había leído un libro en su escuelita, y me dice, "¡Mamá, ahora tu vas a hacer una maestra!" Que dulce mi niño!

*Los coquíes también viven en la Isla de Hawaii, pueden encontrar más información aquí.