Showing posts with label Book Characters. Show all posts

Monday, April 28, 2014

Elephant & Piggie Book Extension Activity

I Am Invited to a Party!

(An Elephant and Piggie Book)

by Mo Willems

Our kids LOVE the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems. The text is easy enough for our youngest reader, but still laughable for our older kids. The character illustrations say so much with very few words and offer plenty of opportunity to practice inferencing.

During our many re-reads of these books our family began to brainstorm ways to bring Elephant and Piggie into our playtime too. In the coming days we hope to share several Mo Willems extension activities for your early childhood kiddos to enjoy.

The Basics:

After reading the book together pull out your dress up collection for some party primping. Print a stack of invites (see below) and brainstorm goofy party possibilities. Begin by handing each child an invite and letting them get creative about their costuming. Once they are getting in to the game let them choose their own cards and have you, or their friends, try to guess what type of party they have been invited to. This simple game brings new life to the costume box and LOTS of giggles!

Tips:

Before filling out the cards you may want to take inventory of your classroom (or home) dress up collection to be sure there are sufficient props to prep for the appropriate parties. Here are a few silly examples of the parties our family was invited to: Kitchen Owl Party, Construction Monkey Party, Clown Doctor Party, Star Wars Dog Party, Pirate Tea Party, Princess Pool Party, Ghost Baseball Party. If is also fun to leave some cards blank. As the kids get into the silliness of inventing wardrobes they will come up with great combinations of their own to add to the blank cards.

Examples:

For more extension activities check out our Mo Willems board on Pinterest!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Wild Things {for Halloween and Beyond}

There is something about October, or maybe the full moon over our house and the way my kids have been behaving, that has me thinking about Where the Wild Things Are.

Making Learning Fun has downloads for toilet paper characters of many of the Wild Thing favorites.

Hostess With the Mostess shared the most fantastic wild rumpus!

Deep Space Sparkle put together a watercolor lesson for first graders inspired by the book.

Anna the Red assembled an amazing Where the Wild Things Are bento meal.

Instructables posted pictures and a brief explanation of how to put together some wild Halloween costumes.

Matsutake explained a simple and cute Halloween craft that they modified to make Max and a monster.

WilliamsMe1 uses the book to model a text talk book lesson.

EdGalaxy compiled links of many different language arts activities for an entire unit of study surrounding Where the Wild Things Are.

se7en put together some great Wild Things shadow puppets.

Watch a video tutorial from WhiMSy to help you create this cute Wild Thing puppet.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Lessons for Life with the Berenstain Bears

Today we would like to introduce you to Jill, from The Enchanted Homeschooling Mom. She has just put the finishing touches on a 32 week curriculum using the books about The Berenstain Bears. She is offering her ideas and activities for free to friends and readers across the web. The curriculum, Year of Lessons with the Berenstain Bears, is appropriate for children ages PreK - 3. The majority of lessons deal with Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts.

Objective:

In putting together the lessons Jill has chosen topics from the text and expanded on them with age appropriate worksheets, projects, and discussions. The entire curriculum is something children can relate to in the real world using the favorite furry family as a guide. Each lesson ranges from 20 minutes – 1 hour in length, depending on the preferences of you and your children.

Materials:

You will need 16 Berenstain Bears Books to complete this curriculum. Each book will be used for a lesson plan intended to span 10 days, or a 2-week period. Worksheets are included. Each individual lesson plan will explain suggested materials in more detail.

If you are in the process of planning your lessons for the 2011-2012 school year, check it out! This might be the series for you. Thanks Jill!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Storybook Character Halloween Costume Ideas

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October 31st is going to sneak up on us quickly here! Although we recognize that not all children get dressed up to trick or treat, in recent years it seems that many schools encourage the kids to dress up as their favorite storybook character for a day. So, here are a few fun suggestions from our readers to get your creative costuming juices flowing!

Fancy Nancy from Peppers and Pollywogs

Fancy Nancy from Inspiration Surrounds...Creativity Abounds