reading activities

No Bake Dog Treats Book and Cook Activity

2013

This month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids author, David Shannon, was completely new to us so we went to the library to check out of bunch of his books. Good Boy, Fergus! was the house favorite and we had a lot of fun doing a dog themed kids activity to go along with it.

Homemade Dog Treats: Good Boy Fergus! Book and Cook Activity

The kids really enjoyed Fergus, the canine main character, because he reminded them of our dogs and how they sometimes act…especially out in public!

We love book and cook activities and decided to make our dogs some homemade dog treats for when they are “good girls”!

Homemade No Bake Dog Treats Book and Cook Activity

No Bake Dog Treats Recipe:

1/2 cup of dry dog food

1 c of oats

1/2 c of creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 tablespoon of honey

Mix the first three ingredients together and then stir in the cinnamon and honey. Once everything is blended roll into small balls and place in the refrigerator for an hour to chill. Makes about 14.

The treats smelled so good that my three year old kept wanting to try one and the dogs loved them! We’ll have to make some again soon!

What is your favorite David Shannon book? Do you have a post about it? Make sure to link up to the blog hop!

There are a few rules for this blog hop so make sure to read them:

Link up only posts inspired by David Shannon that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.

Here’s the button you can grab if you are participating!

Linking to:

Filed Under: Food, Reading Tagged With: cooking, dog treats, kids recipes, preschool, reading activities, school age, Virtual Book Club for Kids

Gruffalo Puppet Kids Book Activity

2013

13 Comments

We are quite excited to learn more about Julia Donaldson, March’s Virtual Book Club for Kids author. We own and love her book The Gruffalo and came up with a fun kids activity to go with it…homemade Gruffalo puppets!

Make Your Own Gruffalo Puppets from Coffee Cups and Crayons

In The Gruffalo, a little mouse uses his wit to outsmart the many animals in the forest who are trying to eat him. My kids love rooting for the underdog while listening to the lyrical writing. Even my oldest, who can easily read it herself, enjoys hearing it read by her father or me. Donaldson has also written wonderfully descriptive text that the mouse uses to describe the Gruffalo. These vivid descriptions became the instructions for our book project.

The Gruffalo Book Activity

The kids raided the craft closet for puppet making supplies and came up with brown paper bags, scrap paper, glue, scissors, markers and googly eyes. They reread parts of the description they couldn’t remember and used the illustrations to guide them.

The Gruffalo Book Puppets

Here are their Gruffalos! They were perfect to use to retell the story.

Gruffalo Book Activity for Kids

After they used the story descriptions to make Gruffalo puppets they decided to make friends for their Gruffalos. They used their puppets to create sequels to the story and acted out what they thought would happen if the Gruffalo had friends, or in my daughter’s case what would happen if the Gruffalo had a girlfriend.

While making their puppets the big kids were busy learning about:

Story structure
Reading comprehension strategies
Characterization
Descriptive writing
Adjectives
Authors and illustrators

…and more!

All while creating with some of their favorite art supplies and using their imaginations. Book extension activities are a great way to develop reading and pre-reading skills. I can’t wait to check out the rest of the Julia Donaldson book posts that are linked up to the Virtual Book Club for Kids this month, there are going to be so many fun new books to discover!

What fun activities have you done with Julia Donaldson books? Please add your posts to the blog hop linky below. There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow, so make sure to read them:

Link up only posts inspired by Julia Donaldson that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.

Here’s the button you can grab if you are participating!

Here are several of the bloggers that will be participating in this year’s Virtual Book Club for Kids:

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators’ Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Growing Book By Book - This Reading Mama - Smile Play Learn – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Coffee Cups and Crayons – Having Fun at Chelle’s House- Love, Play, Learn – Juggling With Kids – Motherhood on a Dime

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: Julia Donaldson, kids crafts, picture story books, preschool, puppets, reading activities, reading aloud, school age, The Gruffalo, Virtual Book Club for Kids

Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss Activities

2013

16 Comments

We are still counting down the days until Dr. Seuss’ birthday with lots of fun Dr. Seuss books and activities! The last couple of days we have been reading and playing with Green Eggs and Ham and have all been walking around the house quoting Sam-I-am!

My kids love book extension activities that are simple and can be done again and again so the Green Eggs and Ham games I came up with were a big hit! We played a Green Egg Relay game and made some Green Egg Word Chunk Spinners.

My preschoolers worked on developing their motor skills during the Green Egg Relay game. I filled a plastic Easter egg with rice and the kids practiced carrying it across the room on a soup spoon. When they got to the person on the other side they had to transfer it from their spoon to the other spoon.

Then we turned some of the rhyming words in the story into a word chunk game! I wrote some of the word chunks that my 4 year old is practicing on the bottom of the plastic egg and consonants on the top half. He could then spin the egg parts around to form and read new words. These are great for entertaining kids in the car too!

I have really enjoyed looking through all of the Dr. Seuss Virtual Book Club for Kids posts that have been linked up so far and found some really cool Green Eggs and Ham ones.

Check them out:

Linking to:

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: Dr. Seuss, Dr. Seuss activities, Dr. Seuss games, Green Eggs and Ham, preschool, reading activities, reading games, reading practice, Virtual Book Club for Kids

Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss Games

2013

11 Comments

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is coming up at the end of the month and we have gone Seuss-crazy! He is this month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids featured author and I cannot wait to see all of the Dr. Seuss games and activities that everyone comes up with. We have a bunch of our favorite Dr. Seuss ideas to share over the next couple of weeks and have chosen Hop on Pop (Bright & Early Board Books(TM))as our book for today!

Hop on Pop is one of my kids’ favorites, they love the rhyming text. So we used some of the rhyming words to play Hop on Pop Hopscotch!

How to Play Hop on Pop Hopscotch:

Instead of numbers I wrote some of the rhyming words in the squares for the kids to read as they played.
Then I used a permanent marker to draw Pop from the story on a rock.
The kids tossed the rock on one of the squares and then read the words as they hopped, making sure not to hop on Pop!

My 4 year old loves that he can sound out CVC words so we played a couple times with different sets of short vowel words. My 3 year old is learning her letters so she pointed out the letters she knew as she jumped instead.

Then we practiced identifying numbers and counting with a homemade Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss game. We have been playing with an alphabet sticky wall after seeing it on Toddler Approved and the foam board with contact paper on it is perfect for creating your own board games.

How to Make a Hop on Pop Math Game:

Tape contact paper onto a large piece of foam board. Make sure the sticky side it facing out.
Cut out 25 paper circles and number them with a marker. I used a 2 inch hole punch.
Draw Pop from the story on three white circles.
Place the circles in order on the sticky board. Insert the 3 Pop circles into the line up wherever you choose.
Have each player grab a small toy or different colored Lego to use as a marker.
The kids roll the dice and take turns moving around the board.
If they land on Pop they have to go back and start at the beginning. We had lots of fun yelling out, “Stop! You must not hop on Pop!” whenever this happened.

This Dr. Seuss math game was fun and full of learning. The preschoolers got to practice taking turns, identifying numbers, counting, and adding. And because we made it on the sticky board we can take everything off and switch it around as often as we would like.

What fun activities have you done with Dr. Seuss books?

If you’re a blogger, make sure to link them up to the Dr. Seuss blog hop!

There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow:

Link up only posts inspired by Dr. Seuss that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.

Check out the great Dr. Seuss ideas from the other hostesses!

Toddler Approved – Rainy Day Mum – Adventures in Reading with Kids – 3 Dinosaurs – Royal Baloo – The Educators’ Spin On It – Inspiration Laboratories – Pleasantest Thing – Edventures with Kids – Two Big Two Little – Playing With Words 365 – Kitchen Counter Chronicles – Outlaw Mom – Mommy and Me Book Club – Crafty Moms Share – No Twiddle Twaddle – The Good Long Road – Ready. Set. Read 2 Me – Reading Confetti – Mama Smiles – Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas – Creekside Learning – Creative Family Fun – The Usual Mayhem – Teach Preschool – PlayDrMom – CraftoArt – Here Come the Girls – Being a Conscious Parent – Smiling like Sunshine – Crayon Freckles – Train Up a Child – Smile Play Learn – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Coffee Cups and Crayons – Having Fun at Chelle’s House- Love, Play, Learn – Juggling With Kids – Motherhood on a Dime

Linking to:

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: counting, Dr. Seuss activities, Dr. Seuss games, Hop on Pop, math activities, numbers, preschool, reading activities, reading games, school age, Virtual Book Club for Kids

David McPhail Book Activities for Children

2013

8 Comments

This month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids author, David McPhail, was new to us so I am super excited to see all of the fun book activities for children featuring his work that everyone is linking up. We checked out many of his books from the library, but the one we had the most fun with was Piggy’s Pancake Parlor (Action Packs).

Piggy’s Pancake Parlor is the story of a little pig who is taken in by a farmer family. Mrs. Farmer teaches him how to make a pancake recipe with a special secret ingredient. Piggy befriends Fox and they open a successful pancake parlor together in town.

The kids loved the idea of having a pancake parlor and decided to make their own. They started talking about what they were going to do even before we had finished the book (it’s written in a chapter book style so we didn’t read it all in one sitting.)

They even designed costumes for their characters. They created a pig nose for Piggy like we did during our Letter P Play Date and cut out cardboard ears for Fox and taped them onto a headband. The customer carried a purse/wallet with play money in it to pay for the pancakes.

Not only was their pretend pancake parlor fun, it was also packed full of early literacy practice!

They used writing and prewriting skills while creating the sign, writing (and pretending to write) the orders, and filling out the bill.
They recalled and sequenced story events while planning and acting out the book.
They identified the main characters and were able to describe each the characteristics of each.
They made text to self connections and used their background knowledge of really going out to eat pancakes to help remember and understand what happened in the story.

It’s amazing how much learning takes place while kids are playing!

Now it’s time to check out all of the other David McPhail book activities for children that bloggers have linked up!

We’d love to see what you did this month so please link up your David McPhail inspired posts to the blog hop below.

There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow, so make sure to read them:

Link up only posts inspired by David McPhail that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.

Here are all of the bloggers who are participating in the Virtual Book Club for Kids this year! Be sure to visit to see all of the fun they have had!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: David McPhail, pig activities, preschool, pretend play, reading activities, school age, toddler, Virtual Book Club for Kids

Fun Kids Craft: Upcycled Gingerbread House

2012

10 Comments

This month’s author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Jan Brett! We checked out a bunch of her books from our library and have had lots of fun reading them. My littlest one turns 3 on Saturday and is having a gingerbread themed party so, of course, the two Jan Brett books that got the most love were Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends!

In Gingerbread Baby, Matti is a little boy who uses a special recipe to make his own Gingerbread Baby who gets up and runs out of the house! Everyone in town tries to catch him, but he eludes them all. Meanwhile back at home Matti makes a beautiful little gingerbread house and leaves it in the forest. Gingerbread Baby is so excited to see the gingerbread house that Matti made for him that he runs right inside and stays there. All he needed was a loving home.

The kids loved that the Gingerbread Baby lived in the house Matti made so we decided to make our own. We will be making lots of real, edible gingerbread houses at the party this weekend so we switched it up and made an upcycled gingerbread house!

Christmas Kids Craft: Upcycled Gingerbread House

This upcycled gingerbread house is super easy to make!

Here’s what we used:

empty, clean milk carton

brown paper bag

bottle caps

glue (with a little water)

markers

paper tape

pipe cleaners

The kids ripped the bag (that had been used to wrap a package that came in the mail) into small pieces and stuck them onto the milk carton with watered down glue. Once it was all covered they painted over the whole thing with the rest of the glue to make sure they would stay put. Then the kids used markers to turn the bottle caps into candy and which I hot glued to the house for them. Then they made little pipe cleaner candy canes and the house with colorful paper tape.

Once we had the house it was time to play! In the story Gingerbread Friends, the Gingerbread Baby got lonely and went looking for someone to play with. Eventually, he came home to find out Matti had made him lots of friends to play with.

So yesterday after rest time the kids woke up to an invitation to play with play dough to do the same thing!

I haven’t made the gingerbread play dough for the party yet so I set out some pumpkin pie play dough we had, googly eyes, and faceted beads from Craft Project Ideas. The kids were super excited and rushed right over to start creating. They played for well over an hour and asked if they can do it again today after school. Needless to say the gingerbread play dough friends were a HUGE hit!

Be sure to check out the other Jan Brett book and activity ideas from this month!

Disclosures: CraftProjectIdeas.com sent me the faceted beads free of charge and we have had a lot of fun playing with them. This post was not sponsored by them and all ideas and opinions are my own! This post also contains Amazon Affiliate links.

Filed Under: Crafts Tagged With: Christmas books, Christmas crafts, crafts, gingerbread activities, gingerbread crafts, gingerbread house, Jan Brett, kids crafts, kindergarten, play dough, preschool, reading activities, school age, Virtual Book Club for Kids

Christmas Kids Craft: Angel Ornament and Picture Book

2012

13 Comments

The Tomie dePaola book we chose for this month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids, Country Angel Christmas, got us into the Christmas spirit a little early this year!

The kids loved the story and asked me read it to them multiple times this weekend. It is a beautifully illustrated tale of the year the country angels planned the Christmas celebration. The older angels were busy making preparations, but there seemed to be nothing left for the three littlest angels to do. That is until their secret project with St. Nicholas saves the entire celebration!

After reading we discussed who the characters were and how they felt throughout the story. It is easy for kids to identify with the angels who feel left out and they were able to make a lot of text to self connections. We also looked at the situation from the point of view of the older angels and discussed how they weren’t intending to be mean to the little angels.

Then we made our own angel characters!

We began by mixing glue, water, and silver glitter together to make a “paint” for the angel wings.

The kids painted the sparkly glue mixture all over white coffee filters.

While the coffee filters were drying (and drying and drying) they used markers to draw the angel’s bodies on wooden clothespins. The girls also added twine hair.

Once the coffee filters were dry we stuck them in tothe clothespins. We twisted pipe cleaner halos and stuck them inside as well. The kids had lots of fun playing with their angels and decided they wanted to turn them into ornaments for their bedroom Christmas trees.

I taped, but plan to hot glue, wire ornament hooks to the back of the clothespins and they hung them on their trees.

(Don’t worry nothing else is decorated for Christmas yet! We bought the youngest her tree the other day and everyone wanted me to set theirs up too. We’ll wait on the rest until after Thanksgiving.)

Since all of the supplies were out we kept going! We made many more angel ornaments to give away at Christmas!

We had tons of fun with this month’s author! Go check out the blog hop for all the cool activities bloggers have done with Tomie dePaola books!

Disclosure: When we went to make our craft this morning I realized we were out of clothespins! Luckily, I remembered that CraftProjectIdeas.com had sent me a bunch of fun craft supplies in the mail including clothespins and they worked perfectly! CraftProjectIdeas.com gave me the clothespins for free (thank you!), but did not in any other way sponsor this post and all opinions are my own.

Linking to :

Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: angel crafts, books for kids, Christmas books, Christmas crafts, Christmas ornaments, coffee filter crafts, crafts, holiday decorations, kids crafts, reading, reading activities, Tomie dePaola, Virtual Book Club for Kids

Review: Reading the Easy Way! 2 Sight Word Program

2012

10 Comments

Beth from Living Life Intentionally has created a follow up to her popular preschool reading program Reading the Easy Way–Reading the Easy Way! 2

…and I was lucky enough to receive a free copy to review!

Reading the Easy Way! 2 is a supplemental program for new readers in preschool and kindergarten. It is a hands on way to teach kids the words on the Kindergarten Dolch Word List in five, fun 15 minute lessons a week. Dolch words are the most commonly occurring words in English language children’s literature (at the time they were compiled) and after completing the program kids will know the first 100 Dolch Words.

Who would benefit from Easy the Way! 2?

Kids who have successfully completed Reading the Easy Way!
Preschoolers who have a grasp of letter-sound relationships and are beginning to” sound out” words
Kindergarteners who have begun to master sight words and are excited to be able to read more
Any early reader who is struggling with sight words

What’s included in the Program?

12 weeks of easy lesson plans and materials.
6 interactive games including Fishing for Sight Words, Home Run!, 2 version of Bingo, Detective Match Up, and Flip the Pancake.
Fun practice activities like Roll & Read, Trace! Read! Stamp!, Sight Word Coloring, and Word Searches.
10 easy readers
Progress charts
Certificate of completion

My 4 1/2 year old is super excited to start reading like his big sister. He has been loving being able to sound out words and is so proud that he is able to read simple readers such as BOB books. He is also enamored with the idea of homework and loves to have something to work on while his sister is doing her daily reading and homework. Reading the Easy Way! 2 is perfect for him!

What I like about Reading the Easy Way! 2:

Super easy to use and prepare
Quick, short, interactive lessons
Fun, active games that appeal to kids
Review and practice of the 40 Preschool Dolch Words

Reading the Easy Way! 2 is not meant to be a complete language arts program (although Beth is working on one of those!) it is a way to teach kids who are ready, interested, (or required by school) to master sight words. It is also a great way to boost the confidence of struggling readers who may need extra practice.

Now for the good news…one lucky Coffee Cups and Crayons readers will have the chance to win a copy of Reading the Easy Way! 2! The contest will run from November 17, 2012 until November 24, 2012. See the rafflecopter countdown below.

And, the rest of you will be able to save 10% on Reading the Easy Way!, Reading the Easy Way! 2, or the combo package!!! All you have to do is enter special promo code COFFEE10 at check out.

Ready to buy? Click here to visit Living Life Intentionally.

(affiliate link)

…AND THE WINNER IS Sonya H.!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a free copy of Reading the Easy Way! 2 to review. All opinions in this post (and in life!) are mine and were not swayed by receipt of a free copy. If I don’t like something you won’t see it on this blog! See my disclosure and giveaway info for full details.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: dolch word practice, giveaway, kindergarten, preschool, reading activities, reading games, reading program, Reading the Easy Way! 2, reviews, sight word practice

Spoon Feelings Activity for Kids

2012

14 Comments

We have been having so much fun participating in the Virtual Book Club for Kids! This month’s author, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, was new to us and we excited to see her book Spoon in the Scholastic book order last month.

(affiliate link)

Spoon is the story of a little spoon who begins to fret that his friends, Knife, Fork, and Chopsticks, have it so much better than him. His friends think he is the lucky one, but he can only see the things that they can do–until his mom reminds him of all of the things that make him special.

The kids LOVED the story and had no trouble picking up the theme or recalling story details. It was easy to see how much they were able to identify with Spoon’s situation.

After reading the story we took turns looking into a spoon and talked about how you don’t see yourself correctly–you are upside down and misshapen. Then we flipped the spoon around and noticed it was much easier to see youself clearly.

I pointed out how it was the same for Spoon in the story. He couldn’t see all the great things about his life until his mom pointed them out, she was the one who “flipped the spoon over” for him. We talked about times when we have felt the same way as little Spoon and what we could do about it next time it happened. They decided that instead of complaining about what they didn’t have they could think of all the things they did have.

We made a spoon for each kid to help them remember some of the great things about themselves. The kids brainstormed special things about each other and I wrote them on a paper spoon. They decorated their spoons and we hung them on their bedroom doors.

The best part is that the lesson didn’t end there. Later, when we were running errands and one of the kids began to complain, we “spooned” her! I said, “Uh oh! You sound like little Spoon. Let’s flip this around and think about all of the great things you do have instead of worrying about what someone else is getting.” The other two joined in and before you know it everyone was smiling again. (Did I mention how much we loved this book?!?)

This was our first Amy Krouse Rosenthal book and we were definitely impressed. I can’t wait to read more!

Be sure to follow the Virtual Kids Book Club on facebook for all of the fun:

Filed Under: Learning Activities, Reading Tagged With: feelings activities, kindergarten, preschool, reading activities, school age, Virtual Book Club for Kids

Practice Questioning with a Question Ball

2012

6 Comments

Good readers need to be able to recall and make sense of, or comprehend, what they read. One of the best ways to increase comprehension in readers of any age is with the Questioning Strategy. In order to better understand the text kids learn how to create teacher-like questions about what they have read. Sounds simple, right? All it takes is practice!

This is where the Question Ball comes in!

How to use a Question Ball to increase reading comprehension:

Read a story together just as you normally would–make predictions, read with inflection, ask questions, discuss thoughts, etc.
Bring out the Question Ball and let the kids look at it. Talk about the question words written on it.
Play catch! Whoever catches the ball gets to ask the question using the question word that his/her left thumb lands on.
Answer the question and throw it back.

Don’t worry if at first all of the questions the child asks are very low level or ones you may have already said–it takes a lot of practice to be able to create good teacher-like questions. New readers greatly benefit from having good reading models and in this case will be able to improve their questioning skills by watching you develop your teacher-like questions.

Younger readers can use the Question Ball too. Little ones who may not be quite ready to start making up questions can play question ball catch to choose question words for you to use to ask them questions about the story you have read aloud. This is a great way to learn about question words and to to build a sight word vocabulary.

Becoming a good reader and developing comprehension skills is a cumulative process that takes place over many, many years. A Question Ball won’t increase reading comprehension overnight, but it will make learning the questioning strategy more fun!

Ready to make your own Question Ball?

It couldn’t be easier!

Buy a cheap beach ball.
Blow it up and set it on a bowl.
Write a question word in each section.
Let dry and get ready to play!

I made these for a bunch of my friends and I used 3D puffy paint to write the words for an extra sensory effect. They are really cool and my 2 year old loves to trace the letters and the question mark, but it was hard to write the words neatly. If that will bother you you may want to stick to markers.

What fun reading games do you use to help increase comprehension skills?

Linking up to:

Filed Under: Learning Activities, Reading Tagged With: kindergarten, preschool, question words, questioning, reading activities, reading games, reading strategy, school age

No Bake Dog Treats Book and Cook Activity

Gruffalo Puppet Kids Book Activity

Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss Activities

Check them out:

Linking to:

Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss Games

What fun activities have you done with Dr. Seuss books?

David McPhail Book Activities for Children

Fun Kids Craft: Upcycled Gingerbread House

Christmas Kids Craft: Angel Ornament and Picture Book

Review: Reading the Easy Way! 2 Sight Word Program

Spoon Feelings Activity for Kids

Practice Questioning with a Question Ball

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