Harold and the Purple Crayon

by Crockett Johnson

Why we liked this book:  A simple book about a little boys imagination and love for drawing.

Activity: I have come to learn that my kids love to make up their own stories.  So...we decided to write our own stories using a....you guess it...purple crayon!  I folded a regular piece of paper in to fourths and then cut out the squares.  I made enough squares for each kid to have 8 pages.  Then they drew pictures with a purple crayon and made up a story of whatever they wanted.  My daughters was about a princess playing soccer and my sons was about a ninja finding a treasure.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

by: Laura Joffe Numeroff

Why we liked this book:  The kids thought this book was funny and the mouse reminded them of themselves!  Lol, they said it, not me!

Activity: Bake some cookies and pour yourself a glass of milk!  Here is our favorite cookie recipe but feel free to use your own!

Yummy Cookie Recipe!

Harry the Dirty Dog

by: Gene Zion

Why we liked this book:  A fun, cute book about a dog that does not want a bath.  He decides to run away and get dirty instead.  When he comes back home his family no longer recognizes him!

Activity:  I thought this would be a fun book to teach the kids about opposites.  Clean vs dirty.  Black vs white. Etc.  So, we did an opposite scavenger hunt.  The kids had to each go grab three objects and then we talked about all the opposites that could be found in that object.  For example: My son brought a harmonica.  He played a LOW note vs HIGH note.  LOUD vs SOFT.  My daughter brought a glow worm.  We talked about how you use it at NIGHT vs DAY in the DARK vs NIGHT.  They thought it was really fun to talk about opposites and came up with a lot of them on their own.