It's I Love To Read month in February! Everyday I'm going to try to highlight a book that my kids and/or daycare kids love this month! I'll also do my best, as I'm still figuring out this advertising stuff, to link to the book on Amazon in case you want to read more reviews or possibly buy it.
The first book, which we read today, is called Are You My Mother? and it's by P.D. Eastman. This book is a "Beginner Book" or easy reader. Sweet Pea, who's in first grade, is reading it pretty well on her own. It's about a baby bird that hatches from his shell while his mother is off looking for food to feed him. The baby bird can't fly yet, but he can walk, and he begins his search for his mother. The only problem is that he has no idea what she looks like. He asks all sorts of animals and "creatures" if they are his mother, but she can't be found. Are you getting worried for the poor baby bird? Don't fret, they find eachother in the end, but that baby bird went on quite an adventure to get there!
After we read the book, I had the kids tell me a character they liked from the story, and they then walked to the table as if they were that animal. Babydoll chose the Hen, one of my daycare kids chose to be the Cat, and another daycare kid was a hen as well. Once at the table we talked about the story and I had them draw pictures of their favorite characters.
Babydoll first drew the Momma Bird, but started scribbling it out because she felt it wasn't her best work. I don't care what their art/projects/crafts look like, but I do care that they give it their all, do their best work. I insisted that her momma bird was excellent and that even Mommy can't draw a bird to look exactly like the bird in the book. She was just in a bad mood, still tired from the weekend, and was frustrated easily. While I was talking with the other kids about their pictures she decided to keep going.
This is her drawing of the Hen in the story. Hm, this is feeling a little repetitive with the whole picture-titles-on-the-pictures thing and all. Oh well, I'm going to keep explaining away :o) She was very proud of her hen!
This picture belongs to one of my daycare kids. He drew, yep you guessed it, the baby bird. This was completely on his own! Didn't he do a fantastic job? If you look closely you'll even see the toes on the bird's feet. By the way, that leg on the far left isn't supposed to be there. He wanted to erase it but, alas, it's marker. So we decided we would pretend it's not there. (kind of like I sometimes pretend the laundrey isn't there, the dishes aren't there, the mountains of junk stashed in the basement aren't there.) I digress, and apologize for doing so. Point is, he did great.
This little masterpiece is actually on my kitchen table. One of the littler members of my troop got bored drawing animals on paper pretty quickly and decided that while "Abby is talking to that other kid about the extra leg, I'll see what red crayon looks like on the table!" Haha, no worries, it comes off eventually. This is the precise reason I do not have fancy expensive furniture.... kids are rough on them. The fact that her picture is on the table aside, look at those crayon strokes, look at the complimentary lines! Look at the creative use of kitchen furniture! Maybe I'll sell my table some day for millions when she becomes a world famous artist!
That's it for today! If you feel so inclined, take a peek at the book on Amazon. Time to get going, I have to get tuesday's book picked out. Happy Reading!
