A to Z challenge 2012: Z is for Zoo

The final post in the April A to Z blogging challenge. I've really enjoyed it this year and my theme of "sharing books with children" has turned out to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience.

Z is for Zoo. 

"What kind of pet would you like from the zoo? An elephant, a lion, a snake, or something smaller? Lift the flaps and see what has been sent - it's bound to be a surprise!" 

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell is the first lift-the-flap book I have included in this April challenge. Lift-the-flap books are great for encouraging children to look after books. On the first sharing, children love to try and guess what animals are hiding behind the flaps. For repeated readings, they enjoy calling out the animals before they are revealed. A great test of memory! One way I have really enjoyed sharing books such as this one is to help with taking turns. With a small group, children need to wait patiently for their turn, which can be a challenge at times! 

I found a great, simple activity based on this book. Children can make their own lift-the-flap surprise postcard. Instructions here. Or if you have more time, why not make a lift-the-flap book of your own. Children can draw their own pictures or for outlines based on the book go here.  

Shadow Shot Sunday - April 29th, 2012

Waiting, waiting, waiting for shadows today. 

While hanging out the washing this morning I was thinking that Shadow Shot Sunday was going to be easy today. There were so many great shadows. I went inside to grab the camera. By the time I got back they were all gone. After quite a wait the sun reappeared and I was pleased to capture these two. 

Other people's contributions to Shadow Shot Sunday can be found at  www.shadowshotsunday2.blogspot.com. Definitely worth a visit!  

A to Z challenge 2012: Y is for Yertle

It's getting close to the end of the challenge! I've really enjoyed it this year and my theme of "sharing books with children" has turned out to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I have been reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have  learnt a lot along the way, remembered many of my favourite books and explored new ideas for sharing books. I have enjoyed all of the comments and sharing an enjoyment of picture books. I have 'met' lots of great bloggers and visited many interesting blogs. I'm really glad I decided to participate in the challenge again this year. 

Y is for Yertle. 

Yet another Dr. Suess book as the feature of one of my A to Z post. I'm starting to think that next year I may just concentrate on Dr. Suess books and characters. Yertle was one of my favourite characters as a child and I enjoyed sharing this story with my eldest daughter when she was little. In this book, Yertle the Turtle and other stories by Dr. Suess, the story of Yertle who lets power go to his head until he is toppled by Mack, a plain little turtle who has had enough can be enjoyed along with the stories of Gertrude McFuzz and The Big Brag. 

A to Z challenge 2012: X is in Axel

It's getting close to the end of the challenge! I've really enjoyed it this year and my theme of "sharing books with children" has turned out to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I have been reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have  learnt a lot along the way, remembered many of my favourite books and explored new ideas for sharing books. I have enjoyed all of the comments and sharing an enjoyment of picture books. I have 'met' lots of great bloggers and visited many interesting blogs. I'm really glad I decided to participate in the challenge again this year. 

X is in Axel. 

A little bit of cheating for the x post. There is a book I love which I haven't included yet in the A to Z challenge. Truth be known, there are many books I love which haven't been included. The one I am writing about in this post though is illustrated by Axel Scheffler. 

The book is Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. This one will get them giggling. Monkey has lost his mum and butterfly helps him to find her. The text rhymes making it a lot of fun to read aloud. Each clue monkey gives about his mum leads butterfly to different animals. 

"She coils round trees? Then she's very near. Quick, little monkey! She's over here." And then butterfly leads monkey to snake to which monkey replies "No, no, no! That's a snake. Mum doesn't slither about and hiss. She doesn't slither about and hiss. She doesn't curl round a nest of eggs. And anyway, my mum's got more legs." 

Finally, monkey tells butterfly his mum looks like him (which butterfly hadn't considered - her babies don't look like her!) and after a slight twist they find monkey's mum and there is a happy reunion. 

A very cute story by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. This one was first published in 2000. 

A to Z challenge 2012: W is for Wonky

It's getting close to the end of the challenge! I've really enjoyed it this year and my theme of "sharing books with children" has turned out to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I have been reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have  learnt a lot along the way, remembered many of my favourite books and explored new ideas for sharing books. I have enjoyed all of the comments and sharing an enjoyment of picture books. I have 'met' lots of great bloggers and visited many interesting blogs. I'm really glad I decided to participate in the challenge again this year. 

W is for Wonky.

This is a newer book than many I have featured this month. The Wonky Donkey was first published in 2009. It is written by Craig Smith and illustrated by Katz Cowley. Be warned that this one is very difficult to read aloud. Luckily it comes with a CD with the words as a song. I have played this while showing the pages of the book. Children who usually found it quite difficult to sit still were absolutely captivated. 

The funny illustrations by Katz Cowley are a great accompaniment to the words and sound effects on the CD. Overall - a very amusing, fun read! 

Some of the words: 

"I was walking down the road

and I saw a donkey,

Hee Haw!

He only had three legs, 

one eye, 

he liked to listen to country music, 

he was quite tall and slim, 

he smelt really, really bad,

that morning he'd got up early 

and hadn't had any coffee, 

he was always getting up to mischief ...

but he was quite good looking!" 

...and it gets worse. Goodbye lettuce.

Yesterday I posted some photos from the garden. Things got worse for the lettuce overnight. 

I am finding gardening to be such an interesting exercise. I have been gardening for a couple of years now, following many years of declaring myself "NOT a gardener". In those couple of years the one thing that has grown well (until now!) has been lettuce. Even when other plants were getting eaten the lettuce was okay. Not anymore! Seems something has certainly developed a taste for it! 


Now that I am gardening more I am really appreciating the success I had a couple of years ago when I first started. It was certainly motivational and I'm not sure I would have persisted if those early gardening adventures were getting eaten as the current ones are. So it's a good thing I had that early success. I will keep persisting now. Gardening has already brought me a lot of reward. 

A to Z challenge 2012: V is for Very

My theme for this year is "sharing books with children". This involves lots of reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have been learning a lot along the way, remembering lots of my favourite books and exploring new ideas for sharing books. I hope these posts will be interactive ones. Feel free to share your comments and ideas!

V is for Very. 

I have a few favourite children's books with very in the title. As part of the A to Z challenge I have already written about two books by Nick Bland - The Very Cranky Bear and The Very Itchy Bear. Another favourite of mine is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It was one of my favourites when I had just learnt to read. 

Did you know that this book started off being about a worm and was titled A week with Willi Worm? Who better to read and talk about this book than the author himself. You can watch a great short video of Eric Carle reading his book here and talking about The Very Hungry Caterpillar here. As I mentioned in a previous post about another of Eric Carle's book, the Official Eric Carle website is well worth exploring! 

My personal favourite activity based on this book is a simple early graphing activity. Either print out simple pictures of fruit or draw their own on small pieces of paper and then as a group make a simple graph using the pictures. Lots of counting practice and discussions about what type of fruit was eaten the most/least. I have also done this over a week, making a graph for each day and adding a simple story based on the text of the book - e.g. "On Monday we ate through six apples, four bananas, three oranges, two kiwi fruit and one serve of grapes." Of course this fabulous book can form the basis for many other activities - craft, healthy eating, counting etc. A quick google search will reveal a multitude of possibilities! Another great activity is using sequencing cards. You can find some for this book here. 

Oh no! Overnight visitors to the garden.

Oh no! If I want those Kale chips in a few weeks I am going to have to plant some more Kale. 

No signs of them now but some overnight visitors seem to have feasted on Joi Choi and some lettuce as well. 

A to Z challenge 2012: U is for Up

My theme for this year is "sharing books with children". This involves lots of reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have been learning a lot along the way, remembering lots of my favourite books and exploring new ideas for sharing books. I hope these posts will be interactive ones. Feel free to share your comments and ideas!

U is for Up.

Up was one of my eldest daughter's first words. She loved to climb a small step ladder which we labelled 'The Up Machine'. When she wanted to be picked up, her arms would go up and she would repeat, 'Up, up, up'. I don't think I had a copy of Dr. Suess' Great Day for Up when she was little but I'm sure she would of loved it. 

I learnt a fascinating fact while preparing this post. I noticed on the cover that it said 'Pictures by Quentin Blake'. I was a little confused as I thought that Dr. Suess illustrated his own books. Then on the inside back cover there was an explanation. Until he wrote Great Day for Up, Dr. Suess had always drawn the pictures for his books but asked Quentin Blake to illustrate Great Day for Up. And what wonderfully cheerful illustrations they are!

A to Z challenge 2012: T is for Toe

My theme for this year is "sharing books with children". This involves lots of reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have been learning a lot along the way, remembering lots of my favourite books and exploring new ideas for sharing books. I hope these posts will be interactive ones. Feel free to share your comments and ideas!

T is for Toe. 

Get those toes wriggling with the help of Eric Carle's book From Head to Toe. 

"Can you wave your arms like a monkey, 

clap your hands like a seal or stomp like an elephant? 

Yes, you can! 

Are you ready? Here we go! 

Move yourself from head to toe." 

Young children often don't sit still for very long. Reading doesn't have to be about sitting still. Why not combine a love of movement with a love of reading? This is the ideal book to do so. It follows a repetitive pattern which appeals to young children. Each page has an animal doing something with a body part. 


For example, on the first page - I am a penguin and I turn my head. 


That is then followed by the question, Can you do it? and then the answer I can do it? 
Children can literally move through the book and can join in with the 'I can do it". I have done this with a number of groups of children, aged from 2 to 6 and all have enjoyed it immensely. The most fun seems to be the donkey kicking their legs. Don't forget the warning to check that there is no-one too close before they kick!

Take some time too to enjoy Eric Carle's gorgeous classic illustrations which are made using a paper collage technique. Find some instructions for making tissue paper collages of your own here. These instructions came from the official Eric Carle website which has an abundance of information about his books and ideas for sharing them. I will be going back to visit again! There is a section for teachers to submit ideas for using his books in the classroom. So many different ideas! 

While I was preparing this post I was also pleased to discover Eric Carle has a blog! http://www.ericcarleblog.blogspot.com.au/. I'll be visiting there again too! 

Shadow Shot Sunday - April 22nd, 2012

Vertical blind shadows today. I didn't have to go far for these but I did have to be quick! I am also now aware of some spider webs on the ceiling. 

For more great shadows from a variety of other participants in Shadow Shot Sunday 2 click here or the button above. 

Getting the garden growing once again

Getting the garden growing once again. 

There hasn't been a lot of action in the garden patch of late. The tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries and cucumbers didn't do so well over Summer with some bouts of heat and less water when I was away for a couple of weeks. Today, the unseasonably warm weather of the past week has gone and been replaced by rain. With the rain has come the appearance of a few snails as well. I have planted a few things in the last couple of weeks so this bout of rain should really help, provided the snails don't get too greedy. 

The last remaining zucchini plant. I have had a few zucchinis from this one, the only plant of a few that survived the couple of weeks in January with little water. 

My latest rescue mission from Bunnings - Thai Basil. After a slow start these seedlings are starting to look quite healthy. 

The Silverbeet and Joi Choi have settled into their new surroundings quite well, although the Joi Choi seems to have had some visitors. 

The Kale hasn't settle in quite yet. 

The lettuce is growing very well. 

With the rain, comes the snails! Last year they had quite a feast. I hope to save more from their munching this year. I have removed a few of them today. Keeping on top of the weeding around the garden beds should help a lot too. 

A to Z challenge 2012: S is for Song

My theme for this year is "sharing books with children". This involves lots of reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have been learning a lot along the way, remembering lots of my favourite books and exploring new ideas for sharing books. I hope these posts will be interactive ones. Feel free to share your comments and ideas!

S is for Song. 

There are many great children's books that are based on songs. One of my favourites, of which there are numerous versions, is The Wheels on the Bus. Children just love to 'read' along. Singing along with a book can increase the pleasure in reading and allow children to 'read' the book themselves too. 

The book I am sharing in this post is not based on a song. Rather, it is a gorgeous story about finding your own voice. My favourite line is when a wise Manatee speaks to the little whale, "No one else can teach you your sound - you must listen to your own voice. Why don't you try and make a sound all of your own?" 

The book is Little Whale's Song by Fran Evans. A great book in particular for those children who may be a bit more timid. 

"Little Whale was busy playing with the fish on the ocean floor. So he didn't see his family swimming away without him. 

When Little Whale tries to make a singing-call to his family, no sound comes out. He has forgotten how to sing! Little Whale is frightened and seeks help from the other sea creatures. He asks a dolphin, a lobster, an octopus, a turtle, a seal...but their sounds are different from his and no one can help him call his family. 

But then he comes across a wise old manatee..."

A to Z challenge 2012: R is for Reynolds

My theme for this year is "sharing books with children". This involves lots of reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I have been learning a lot along the way, remembering lots of my favourite books and exploring new ideas for sharing books. I hope these posts will be interactive ones. Feel free to share your comments and ideas!

R is for Reynolds. 

For the I post I wrote about the book, ish by Peter Reynolds. I love his books so much and couldn't only write about one of his books during the a to z challenge so this post is about a couple of other books by Peter H. Reynolds. 

Peter H. Reynolds is the author and illustrator of ish which was first published in 2004. The paperback edition I have was published by Walker Books in 2005. Before Ish was published, Peter H. Reynolds wrote and illustrated another book called the dot, first published in 2003.

" 'Just make a mark

and see where it takes you.' 

Vashti says she can't draw.

Her teacher thinks she can. 

She knows that there's a 

creative spirit in everyone, 

and where there's a dot, 

there's a way... "

Something I strongly believe is that everyone is creative. I love that message in this book. We are all so different. Some children will draw without very much encouragement at all whereas others are reluctant or cannot start just like Vashti. This book is ideal to share with all but particularly with those who might think they can't draw. I have seen a number of times how praise and encouragement at the right time can do wonders and kickstart children taking risks in their learning. All in all, a gorgeous book that celebrates the creative process! Another thing I love about the dot as well as ish is that Peter H. Reynolds handlettered the text and it is quite an artwork in itself. 

One of my favourite pages in the dot

I own another of Peter H. Reynold's books called Rose's garden. This one celebrates the spirit of community and the power of nature, beauty and faith. 

"After travelling the world in her fantastic teapot, Rose is ready to 

put down roots. She sets about planting flowers in a neglected corner 

of a bustling city. And then she waits - through rain, cold and snow - 

never doubting that her garden will one day come to be." 

A great book for talking about patience and persistence as well as community. The gradual addition of colour in the illustrations as the book progresses is great to talk about with children too.