Children's Book Week- Farm Day!

Yesterday, we had the privilege of kicking off our family's celebration of Children's Book Week with a bang! We took a family field trip to Kensington Metropark's Farm Center.

Before we went, DH and I shared books about what happens on a farm with Little Man. We talked about:

• The animals that live on the farm and the sounds they make
• The machines that farmers use on the farm
• That farms give us food: fruits and veggies, milk and eggs. (We choose not to go beyond a G rating when it came to the meat process)

Some of the books we read are (in no particular order):

• The Cow Loves Cookies* by Karma Wilson
• Senses on the Farm by Shelly Rotner
• What the Ladybug Heard* by Julia Donaldson
• Farm* by Elisha Cooper
• Farmyard Beat by Lindsey Craig
• The Farm by Gail Saunders-Smith
• Cows to the Rescue by John Himmelman
• Chickens to the Rescue by John Himmelman
• My Day at the Farm by Jory Randall
• Grandpa's Tractor by Michael Garland
• Moo, Moo, Brown Cow, Have You Any Milk? by Phillis Gershator

*Some of my personal favorites. :)

Once at the Farm, it was a trip to remember. Little Man LOVED looking at the animals and hearing all of the different sounds on the farm, but he wasn't too hot on actually touching the animals. I don't blame him, I wouldn't want to get too close to a cow that's almost 5 times as tall as me!

I hope you enjoy some of the photos we took!

Little Lamb

Donkey

These little piggies were only two days old! Born 5-4-12

Goats have really strange eyes

The Grass is Always Greener

An old gear....

Old Farm Equipment

Down by the water

Walking with Daddy

My Little Man

"Mumma! I picked you a flower!"

Through the grill of the wooden tractor

Driving the tractor

What Are You Reading? Thursdays - Shaggy Dogs, Waggy Dogs

Since Tuesday, I was being begged and pleaded with -- "Mumma, Pwetty pwease can we go the library?" And while I love that my child loves to the library, sometimes it doesn't always immediately fit in the schedule. Nevertheless, we went yesterday and picked up a couple new books, giving us our "What Are You Reading? Thursdays" post! Here's this week's read:

Little Man really enjoyed this one (as he does with almost any dog book):

What are you reading? Don't forget to link up, and leave a comment!

Fitch and Chip (Wolf and Pig) Paper Bag Puppets

On a whim, while attempting to select some good "Easy Readers" for my first through third book group, I stumbled across a pretty funny series called Fitch and Chip by Lisa Wheeler. The book I selected is called New Pig in Town, in which Chip (the pig) is the new student in class and realizes that Fitch is the only wolf. The story continues with some pretty good pig and "lone wolf" jokes, and concludes with Fitch and Chip becoming friends. Though this book is outside of what I would call "Early Literacy Parameters", it would still be a fun read to share. Particularly for a toddler entering preschool.

In my book group, we always conclude with a craft. I picked the book first this time, so I ended up beating my head up against a wall for a craft to go with it. And then I came up with the perfect idea!

Pig and Wolf Paper Bag Puppets!

The novelty of this idea is that not only can you use the puppets as Fitch and Chip, but you could also use them as the base for other pig and wolf stories, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, you get my drift. 

Let me be clear. I DID NOT make these templates myself. I lend credit where credit is due, in the caption link. But if you ask my opinion, these are two of the best patterns out there for a wolf and pig puppet. You will notice that I did modify my final product from the templates. More on that later...

This is the pattern I used for Chip the Pig:

Template provided by archjrc.com:

http://archjrc.com/childsplace/images/pigpuppet.gif 

And this is the pattern I used for Fitch the Wolf:

Template and photo provided by easy-child-crafts.com

The file is in PDF format, so click the link below to access it.

http://www.easy-child-crafts.com/support-files/wolf-paperbag-puppet-template.pdf

This is my rendition of Chip the Pig, utilizing the above template as a guide:

I used 2 shades of pink paper and used the template as tracing outline. All of the black is drawn on with permanent marker.

This is my rendition of Fitch the Wolf, utilizing the above template as a guide:

I used 2 shades of brown paper and once again used the template as a tracing outline. Instead of grey and white, and chose not utilize the arms from the template. All of the black is once again drawn on with permanent marker.

I hope you have fun making these puppets, and are able to modify them to suit your needs as well! If you do make them, comment me a link to your post, I'd love to see what you and/or your kids have made!

Early Literacy Activity Cards-Resource

Image borrowed from kwachtman.wordpress.com

I came across a site called Family Literacy Expertise, they are a Canadian non-profit and have an immense resource of early literacy activity cards based on familiar children's books. If you are looking for a kids book with activities pre-pared with it, or have a kids book and are looking for activities to accompany it. This is a great site to check out.

Some of the books they have listed are:

A Big Fat Enormous Lie	My Family's Changing
A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes	My Friends and Me
All Together Now	Nose to Toes
Alligator Baby	Number One, Tickle Your Tum
Amazing Grace	On Your Potty
Andrew's Loose Tooth	Pajama Time
Baby Faces	Peek a Who
Barnyard Dance	Peekaboo Baby
Big or Little	Red Ripe Strawberry, Little Mouse and the Big Hungry Bear
Can't You Sleep Little Bear	Shoes from Grandpa
Clap Your Hands	Sleepy Little Mouse
Finding Kate's Shoes	Stellaluna
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed	Stop Picking On Me
Five Little Monkeys Sitting In a Tree	That's Good That's Bad
Five Little Monkeys With Nothing to Do	The Bear Went over the Mountain
From Head to Toe	The Grouchy Ladybug
Good Night Gorilla	The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Goodnight Moon	The Kissing Hand
Guess How Much I love You	The Mitten
Hands Are Not For Hitting	The Princess and the Potty
Hiding	The Very Busy Spider
I Can Blink	The Way I Feel
I Have to Go	Touch and Feel Animal Kisses
I Love You So Much	Touch and Feel Bedtime
I Miss You	Touch and Feel Mealtime
If You Give A Moose A Muffin	Touch and Feel Pets
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie	Two Eyes A Nose & A Mouth
If You Were My Bunny	Up to the Skies and Down Again
I'm A Little Teapot	Very Busy Spider
I'm As Quick As A Cricket	Very Hungry Caterpillar
Jessica's X-ray	Where the Wild Things Are
Lifetimes	Where's My Teddy
Little Mouse, Red Ripe Strawberry & The Big Hungry Bear
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