April Books 2014

Green Eggs and Ham 

by Dr. Seuss

Why we liked this book:  This book is a classic!  Who doesn't love Green Eggs and Ham?  The kids have so much fun rhyming with this book.  My 4 year old has fun guessing what the next rhyme word is.  My 6 year old is able to read most of the pages to us on his own.  It makes him feel so proud!

Activity:  What else would you do with this book but make your own green eggs and ham?!  I have to admit it's a little unsettling to see green eggs on your plate, but why not give it a try?

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, 
No Good, Very Bad Day 
by Judith Viorst

Why we liked this book: EVERYONE has a bad day once in awhile no matter where or who you are.

Activity: Write your very own "bad day" book.  My kids thought this was so fun!  They drew all the pictures and then I helped them with the writing as they explained to me what they had drawn.

1) First we made the cover.  I just googled images of characters that looked like they were having a bad day.  This one looked the most like my daughter so we picked this one.
Grumpy Girl
Grumpy Boy (you can color this one however you want)
Grumpy Girl 2 (you can also color this one however you want)

2) Next we added the pages.  Have kids pick three things that might mean they are having a bad day.  One thing for the morning, afternoon and night time.  After each "bad day" page I had them come up with how they could have acted to make it a "good day".  Example: instead of doing....I could have done...

3) The last page I had them pick their favorite place they like to go to (my daughter picked Wisconsin) and wrote "some days are like that even in Wisconsin".  They loved making their own books and were so proud of them!

Flat Stanley 
by Jeff Brown

Why we liked this book:  The kids thought it was funny to imagine what it would be like to be flat and all the different things you could do!

Activity:  We went outside and played with side walk chalk.  Who doesn't love that?  They traced themselves and then colored in their faces and clothes.  They thought it was fun to draw themselves "flat".  If the weather is too cold for side walk chalk you could also use butcher paper, markers or crayons.  Then I had them list 3 things they would do if they were really flat!

The Carrot Seed 
by Ruth Krauss

Why we liked this book:  This is a very short, simple book.  It was great for my 4 year old to read because she could memorize it.  Then she would turn the pages and "read" it to us.

Activity:  The kids planted their own carrot seeds!  They filled an old pop bottle full of dirt and then planted their seeds. We chose a pop bottle that was clear so they could watch their carrots grow.  They also decorated their bottles with stickers. Then they were responsible for watering and caring for their carrots.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 
by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Why we liked this book:  Great and fun book to learn the letters of the alphabet!

Activity:  The kids made their own coconut trees and glued them on construction paper.  Then they cut out circles and wrote all the letters of the alphabet on them by themselves.  Next they glued the circles all around their coconut trees.

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type 
by Doreen Cronin

Why we liked this book:  A fun book to read about some silly farm animals and a duck that likes to get into trouble.

Activity:  I had a hard time coming up with an activity for this book so we decided to act it out like a play.  I found some animal masks on line that I printed out and the kids glued them on some Popsicle sticks so they could hold them up to their faces.  Then they took turns being the different characters from the book.

Duck Mask

Cow Mask
Duck Mask

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 
by Judy Barrett

Why we liked this book:  Great use of imagination!  Especially good to read with all the hype about the movies 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' and 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2'.

  

Activity: We had a spaghetti dinner and the kids made french bread to go along with it.  Then we watched the movie.

We used this recipe from the website How Does She? but you can use any recipe you might have!

Delicious and Easy French Bread Recipe

Froggy Goes to School 
by Jonathan London

Why we liked this book:  A fun book for kids who might be nervous on their first day of school.  It was an easy read and my 4 year old was able to "read" it back to me, summarizing what happened on each page.

Activity:  We mad frog puppets out of googly eyes, paper plates, paint, glue and pipe cleaners.

The link for instructions on how to make these can be found here:

Frog Puppets 

Caps for Sale 
by Esphyr Slobodkina

Why we liked this book:  Kind of just a fun book to read.  I had the kids count how many caps there were in each color so it is a good counting/learning your colors book.

Activity:  The kids made their own caps out of a paper plate, string and whatever random things we had to decorate the caps with.  We used markers and pom-poms.  Then they ran around the house yelling, "Caps for sale!  50 cents a cap!"

Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock 

by Eric Kimmel



Anansi the Spider 
by Gerald McDermott

Why we liked these books:  They are just fun books to read and it was fun to read about folk-lore from another country.  Anansi is a West African god that likes to play tricks, who came to earth in the form of a spider.

Activity:  The kids made their own "Anansi spiders" out of construction paper but you could use whatever materials you have!