More Monsters!

When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor and Nick Sharratt is a silly circular tale that had us in stitches this week.

"When a Monster is born, there are two possibilities - either it's a FARAWAY-IN-THE-FORESTS monster, or...it's an UNDER-YOUR-BED monster. If it's a FARAWAY-IN-THE-FORESTS monster, that's that. But if it's an UNDER-YOUR-BED monster there are two possibilities -" The book then explores all of the possibilities of a monster's life in a hilarious manner.

A note from the author gives credit to a traditional Brazilian poem called "When a Baby is Born". This story is based on that poem. I quickly tried to find the poem but I did not have any luck.

We just happened to see this book on display at our public library. Don't you love it when you find a great book without even trying?

Open ended art - mixed media + yellow

Teaching My Little Bookworm is a blog that hosts Open Ended Art every Wednesday. If you are interested in participating, head on over there and read more about it by clicking here.

R just happened to be coloring with a yellow crayon when I remembered that we had not completed our open ended art project for this week so I jumped on the opportunity and put out some paint.

Whenever C and R see yellow, red, and blue they yell out, "primary colors". That makes me feel good so I tend to give them plenty of opportunities to make me proud.

I also provided cotton swabs and sponges and let the painting begin. They happily painted right over their crayon marks to see the result.

This is as open ended as it gets. A few supplies and no direction = art.

Be Free

Our puppy finally noticed the butterflies. They were very active and she was not happy about all of that chaos. I knew then that it was time to set the butterflies free.

Here are a few photos of our butterflies right before we released them.

C enjoyed looking at them through his magnifying glass.

They really seemed to enjoy the orange slices we provided for them.

I am so happy we did this and plan on doing it once a year.

We have a winner!

For some reason, I have trouble getting the random.org widget to post on my blog, but I promise you that I did use random.org to find a winner, and the winner of the case of Vita Coco coconut water is..................#9 Teaching My Little Bookworm!

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway. I would love to know if you try Vita Coco and what you think of it. I have bought it from Stop & Shop and Whole Foods and in both stores it can be found in the water/beverage aisle. You may have to search though; I have never seen it prominently placed.

Beautiful Butterfly

Last week, while we were patiently waiting for our butterflies to emerge, we made some butterflies to decorate the house. I had to share this craft because it is so pretty, and easy too. The final product has a stained glass appearance.

I got the directions for this craft from Enchanted Learning.

Directions:

• Fold one sheet of wax paper in half and draw half of a butterfly right up against the fold
• Flip the wax paper over and trace the other half of the butterfly and unfold
  
• Have your child use a pencil sharpener to make crayon shavings of different colors (I helped because this part was moving painstakingly slow)
• Sprinkle the shavings all over the butterfly
• Cover with another sheet of wax paper
• Place your creation between two thin towels on your ironing board and gently iron your design (I did not put a towel underneath because the directions I followed did not mention that, and now I need a new ironing board cover - oops!)
• Cut out your butterfly design
• Have your child punch a hole near the top of the butterfly and hang it with string in a window

We did this on a rainy day so the photo does not show how pretty this will look when the sun shines through. Also, we used red, blue, green, and purple crayon shavings but the red and blue became purple so this is also a neat color mixing lesson!

Sing Along with Us

Lately, we have been enjoying a few books that are written to be sung. Here are some of our favorites:

Goin' to Boston by H.Ellen Margolin

What a Wonderful World by George David Weiss and Bob Thiele

This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow

This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie, and

America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Batesand Wendell Minor

Do you have a favorite book that is meant to be sung? I would love to know!

Muffin Tin Monday

I am showing off our very first muffin tin meal today. We had a mermaid theme day, and the muffin cups were perfect for our lunch. The four muffin cups on the side of the pan hold shells and cheese, of course. The top row of the pan is filled with goldfish crackers, and the bottom row has ocean blue jello!

After lunch, C and R painted seashells. I'm thinking of a project that will feature those seashells another day.

Our music of the day was the soundtrack from The Little Mermaid. C and R love the music, but I often find myself explaining why they both talk about "body language" on occasion. If you recall, Ursula the evil octopus tells Ariel that she does not need her voice to get the attention of Prince Eric. This is the line: "You'll have your looks, your pretty face. And don't underestimate the importance of body language, ha!" My children love that line and recite it with great regularity.


Finally, we snuggled on the couch and read The Tiniest Mermaid by Laura Garnham.Another successful theme day topped off with our very first muffin tin Monday! To learn more about Muffin Tin Monday and see more Muffin Tin Meals, visit Her Cup Overfloweth.