Virtual Book Club for Kids-- What the Ladybug Heard

Congratulations to Trisha over at Inspiration Laboratories for winning The Gruffalo books by this month's author, Julia Donaldson! Over the last two weeks we have shared activities to go with Julia Donaldson's books: Room on the Broom and The Snail and the Whale. This week we are going to share What the Ladybug Heard. Now this book is written in rhyme like so many of Julia Donaldson's books. And of course we love it, but I will admit we are drawn to ladybugs right now since that is Hazel's symbol at school.

This story goes through the animals on a farm.

The ladybug did not say a word, but she saw and heard. She heard two crooks plan to steal the prize cow. She talks to tell the other animals about it and her plan to stop them.

The ladybug's plan involved tricking the crooks into where they were on the farm by having other animals make different sounds. The duck mooed so they ended up in the pond. We gathered the animals so she could act out the story. I also made a sort of match game. You can match the animals or the animals sounds or you can use them to sequence the story.

Source: Everything Ladybug!

 Since the hero of this story is the ladybug, we looked a bit up about ladybugs. To start we found the life cycle of the ladybug at Everything Ladybug! We also discovered why farmers like ladybugs. They eat the aphids which eat and damage crops. The ladybugs coloring is meant to be unattractive to its predators. They can secrete a foul tasting fluid from their legs. (Source)

We also did some ladybug crafts. We made some using construction paper, glue, a brad, googly eyes and a piece of pipe cleaner. Hazel likes these since the wings move. We were inspired by For the Children.

We did a similar one with paper plates as well. We painted one red and one black and used a brad again. We were inspired by Learning Ideas - Grades K - 8.

Then we made egg carton ladybugs which were inspired by Crafts by Amanda and by Scribbled.com.

I have pinned some other ideas for ladybug crafts including a cute snack. If you are interested in seeing more of them, check out my Bugs Board.It includes a song for this book, dominoes from the publisher, and more!

Now it is your turn to share an activity for a Julia Donaldson book! Just link up to this blog hop. Also since April has begun, I will let you know the next author is David Shannon! Join us on the 15th for his books!

Virtual Book Club for Kids--The Snail and the Whale

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids Author is Julia Donaldson. Last week I shared Hazel's favorite Julia Donaldson book, Room on the Broom. This week I thought I would share my favorite, The Snail and the Whale. 

Before we get to the book, however, just a reminder you have until Monday to enter to win two great Julia Donaldson books--The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child--both have been made into movies as well. There are many wonderful activities to go with these books in the blog hop below!

This rhyming story tells about a snail who wants to see the world. A whale offers him a ride on his tail. They tour the world and see wonderful sights, and then the whale gets beached. The little snail thinks quickly and goes to get help by writing a message on a chalkboard in a classroom. The people in the town save the whale and the snail and whale continue their trip. When they return back to the snail's rock, they tell the other snails about the amazing sights and they all hop on the whale's tail.

This book is an amazing tale filled with so many wonderful messages on friendship, helping one another, helping nature, not making fun of others for their dreams and more. I absolutely love reading it. It also gave us a chance to learn more about whales and snails. We found some great information on whales at The Ocean Adventure. The snail information we read was from Snail World and Wikipedia (on Sea Snails).

For crafts, I needle felted a whale and a snail for Hazel to reenact the story. Then I found a great whale pincushion pattern in Stash Happy Felt by Amanda Carestia. I changed the pattern a bit and made a snail pin instead of fish ones.

Then our final craft was to make snails from shells and clay. These are very easy. You shape the clay to look the body of the snail and stick them into the shell.

Now it is your turn to share an activity to go with a Julia Donaldson book!

Virtual Book Club for Kids Author and a Easter Craft

This month's author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Julia Donaldson. Before she was chosen for the book club, I had never heard of her. However shortly after the list of authors came out I checked each one out with a couple of books. We discovered Room on a Broom by Julia Donaldson. We will definitely be doing something with this book, but we are also loving so many of her books. Her picture books are all written in rhyme and so many of them have sweet messages to go with them. Julia Donaldson is a British author and you can learn more about her at her website. We will begin this month's blog hop on March 18th. I hope you will join us in discovering this wonderful author and find some great activities to go with her books.

Now for a quick craft to share. Last year, Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts shared some Easter candy wrapper art. Now I saved some wrappers from last year, but I don't know that we ever tried making any art. This year when I was pulling out the Easter decorations I found a basket full of wrappers and some plastic eggs. I got to thinking, I could buy a wooden cross for $1 at a craft store and wrap the wrappers (with the help of some glue to make sure they stay on) and make a very colorful and shiny cross decoration.

Hazel also loved making it with me. What a great use for those wrappers! Plus I love the colors. I cannot wait for spring to start!

Books for Younger Kids (Birth-Kindergarten)

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. 

Although Multicultural Children's Book Day is quickly approaching I thought I would share some books that are not part of the event. These picture books are great for younger kids, but we still enjoyed them!! The first book is the perfect book to bring to a baby shower. You know the ones that ask you to bring a book for the baby's library. It is Hand in Hand by Rosemary Wells.  

Virtual Book Club for Kids & Giveaway--Room on the Broom

As I mentioned in my introduction post, the March Author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Julia Donaldson. Now before she was picked, I had not heard of Julia Donaldson. Now I am so glad I have. We love so many of her books. I will be posting multiple books throughout the three weeks. This week I am sharing one of Hazel's favorites, Room on the Broom.

For those that do not know what the Virtual Book Club for Kids is, I have joined a group of amazing bloggers who pick an author each month and each blog picks a book (or more) by this author and posts a craft or activity to go with the book. Then we all host a blog hop so you can share a craft or activity to go with a book by this author. The wonderful bloggers are:

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 - Growing Book By Book

- This Reading Mama - Fantastic Fun and Learning

This month is extra special because The Gruffalo Brand has offered two of her most loved books,  The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. Both of these books have been adapted into two award winning animated films. You can purchase the films at this link. And you can see the trailers for both here. To enter the giveaway for the books, you must be a resident of the United States and over 18. Then you can simply enter by following the Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more Gruffalo Giveaways make sure you visit the following blogs:

• Royal Baloo is giving away a copy of The Gruffalo Book and Movie! 
• Toddler Approved! is giving away 2 Gruffalo Prize packs! 
• Playing with Words 365 is giving away a copy of The Gruffalo Book and Movie!

Now onto our book. First I will say Hazel often goes around with her little broom between her legs telling me she is flying. Needless to say why we love this book! This story is about a witch and her cat going out for a ride on the witch's broom. However she keeps losing things in the wind: her hat, her hair bow, her wand. Each time she loses something, they land and look for it and each time a new animal comes out with it and asks if there is room on the broom for them. Then she ends up with herself, her cat, a dog, a green bird and a frog.

Our first broom is a piece of pine tree branch we found in our yard. It got rather full with just the witch and cat but you can only imagine with all four animals.

Well the weight of all the creatures on the broom split the broom in half and the witch's half flies off into the clouds while the other half falls. The witch ends up meeting a dragon who loves to eat witches with fries.

I borrowed our dragon from our Irish Cinderella we posted the other day.

The dragon says this once he will have witch with no fries and is about to eat her when out of the lagoon comes a black covered creature with four heads. The dragon has never seen such a scary creature before and the creature claims the witch as its. The dragon apologizes and leaves as fast as he can. Then the bird flies off the creature and the frog jumps down and the cat finally gets off the dog. The witch is so happy to have been saved by her friends. She needs to make a new broom and tells them all to find something to add to the brew. They end up with a designer broom with a proper space for each of them.

We did not make the designer broom, but we did make a sample broom with a stick and some yarn. I made her some peg dolls for the animals and the witch.

Now the exciting news is there is a film coming out soon for Room on the Broom. You can check out the Facebook page for this film and the Pinterest Board. Plus The Gruffalo Brand has a Room on the Broom page with a trailer to the film, all the different versions of the book, and an activities section including finger puppets to make out of paper and word activities!

Now it is your turn to share a Julia Donaldson book or if you do not know her books, check out some of these other posts so you can decide which one to read first!

Room on the Broom Movie and Book Review

Book

Today I get to review one of our favorite books and the DVD made based on the book. Now NCircle Entertainment sent me a copy of the book and DVD for me to review. All opinions are my own. The book is Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. Now Room on the Broom was one of Julia Donaldson's books we shared in March. We really loved her books and learning about her through the Virtual Book Club for Kids. Now one of the things we love about Donaldson's books is they usually rhyme. Rhyming makes books fun to read and hear.

In this wonderful story, the witch and cat go for a ride on the broomstick. The wind picks up and carries off the witch's black hat. They go to the ground and look for it, but cannot find it. Then a dog comes out carrying it. He asks if there is room on the broomstick for him. The witch says yes, and the three are off again. This time the witch holds onto her hat, but she loses the bow in her hair.

The witch keeps losing things until she has gained two more animals who want to ride the broomstick.

The frog who is the last addition is so excited he hops and the broomstick breaks in two. At this point the witch is riding in the front of the broomstick and all four animals are in the back. The animals half drops down and the witch continues to fly on her half.

The witch is followed by a dragon who loves to eat witch with french fries. The dragon catches her.

Just as the dragon is about to eat the witch, a four-headed creatures comes out of the lagoon. The creature scares the dragon and tells him that the witch is its.

The dragon leaves the witch alone and escapes the scary creature as fast as he can. Then the four-headed creature becomes the four animals and they clean the mud off themselves. The witch pulls out her cauldron to make a new broom and tells all the animals to find something to put in. Then the new broom comes out with a perfect spot for all of them.

I got all the characters and cut-out props from Making Learning Fun. They were patterns for felt board pieces to tell the story. We cut out the pattern pieces and put them on popsicle sticks, so Hazel can do it as a puppet show. The cauldron with the netting (filled with some candy) was sent by NCircle DVDs. Making Learning Fun also has headbands to have a class act out the rhyming story and play dough mats to learn letters! You can also get other activities at the NCircle Website.  And you can get even more activities at the Room on the Broom Website. (See picture below for samples.)

DVD

Now for the film!! The Room on the Broom film sticks pretty close to the book. It fills in some places so the story flows better on the screen and it shows the dragon hunting the witch. This part scared Hazel a bit even though she knew the story, but she is easily frightened and does not like to see scary things on television (in books she usually covers scary pictures with her hands or asks me to). We however loved the film. We watched it as soon as it came. She was so excited to get it.

The characters in the film look very much like the ones in the book and it is a wonderful way to see the story in action. We really enjoyed it!!

Now the nice part of this story is the witch is nice and cares about the animals. Hazel is not afraid of witches since her exposure to them for the most part has been this book and the book Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman. In both the witch is very nice.

Now NCircle has allowed me to offer a copy of the Room on the Broom DVD to one of you, my fabulous readers!!  The suggested retail price is $9.99 and came out on DVD August 6th.  You can also check out the trailer and more information about the film here. And their Facebook page! To enter the giveaway, just do the Rafflecopter! Good luck!! And if you do not want to wait for the 26th to find out if you are the winner, you can go buy your won copy here (including a downloadable version) or here (as well as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Picture Book Extravaganza

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Are you ready for the holidays? I know there is a saying that says one gift they can wear, one toy gift and one book gift. The next couple of weeks I am focusing on books and trying to clear off my recommendation shelves. Today I am starting with the picture books. There are books in this grouping for the very young to the older lovers of picture books. I am  going to share them by age group as best as I can, so if you are looking for picture books for older kids, scroll down. Are you ready for our picture book extravaganza? 

Sharing Saturday 13-12

Have you entered my current giveaway?

 Since the wonderful Virtual Book Club for Kids author of the month is Julia Donaldson, The Gruffalo Brand is offering a lucky U.S. resident and reader of Crafty Moms Share two of her amazing books--The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. I hope you will come enter to win these great books!!

Thank you to everyone who shared last week. Once again I am so inspired. Now I just need to find enough time to do some of the fun activities and crafts with Hazel. We had a tie for the most clicked so we are not sharing them this week. Please make sure you stop by my co-host, Having Fun at Chelle's House to check out her features!! As for my features, here they are...

A Few of My Favorites

1) From Buggy and Buddy: Art for Kids Inspired by Henri Matisse (What an amazing activity--museum visit and then creative artwork inspired by what you saw!)
2) From Wilamette Valley Wonder Woman: 20 Spring Stay-Cation Ideas (Ok, this list is not just for spring vacation week, but for just about any time including weekends and summer! I cannot wait for the snow to melt and stay away so we can get outside more.)
3) From For the Children: Ladybugs!! (Ok, I admit I have a bit of an obsession right now since my daughter's symbol for her nursery class is the ladybug, but what great ideas!)
4) From Wilderness Wife: 12 Easter Egg Trees to Make (Ok, this one reminded me of the craft I promised Hazel we would do after reading The Story of the Easter Robin--Excellent book and we need to make bird eggs to hang on Easter morning!)
5) From Taming the Goblin: Spring Flower Craft Paper Alium (Oh, I so want to see spring flowers in the ground!!)
6) From We Made That: Water Transfer Experiment (This one is neat--not only watching the water travel but mixing colors too!)


Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

Button Code:

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My Week in Review: This week I shared our St. Patrick's Day food and crafts, The Irish Cinderlad--an Irish male Cinderella, Room on the Broom with giveaway, Holy Week Crafts, DIY Stop/Slow Sign, and Large Chenille Stem Animals

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

Button Code:

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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.