Virtual Book Club for Kids Bobo Books by Jez Alborough

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This month the author chosen for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Jez Alborough. We had not read any of his books but quickly fell in love with the Bobo series as well as the Duck series. Today we are featuring the Bobo series. I thought it would be fun for us to learn more about chimpanzees since they are an animal we do not know much about. But first let me tell you about the Virtual Book Club for Kids.

The Virtual Book Club for Kids is a group of amazing bloggers that have one author chosen for each month and each blogger chooses a book by that author and comes up with an activity or craft to go with the book. Then we host a blog hop which starts the third Monday of the month. We each link up our posts and invite others to link up posts about books by this month's author. The amazing bloggers hosting this book club 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

Ok, now onto our books. Bobo is a wonderful little chimpanzee. He is friends with many animals in the jungle but in particular an elephant and a lizard (at least I think it is a lizard, but it could be a frog). Each of these books have very few words. In fact most of the words are just the title repeated over and over. For example in Hug, on every page Bobo sees an animal friend getting a hug from its mommy and he says, "hug" repeatedly. Then he yells it and begins to cry until his Mommy yells, "Bobo" and comes and hugs him. The only words in the book are hug, Bobo and Mommy.



In Yes, Mommy tells Bobo it is time for different parts of the bedtime routine like a bath. Bobo says, "Yes" repeatedly during the bath, but when it is time for bed and Bobo says, "No" repeatedly. Then Mommy says "Bye-bye, Bobo," and Bobo's friends come and to play with him in the water. The lizard splashes Bobo and he says, "No." The lizard says, "Yes." Then they both say no when the elephant runs to the water. Then the three friends enjoy the water together saying yes. Soon Bobo becomes tired and falls asleep. The elephant carries him sleeping with his trunk to his bed in the trees where Mommy is waiting for them.



In Tall, Bobo is feeling small and climbs on a rock to be tall. Then his lizard friend comes and stands up on his hind legs and is taller than Bobo on the rock, so Bobo feels small again. The lizard has Bobo climb onto his shoulders so he can be tall. Then they find a lion cub who is taller so Bobo feels small. The lion cub gives Bobo a ride so he is tall. This continues throughout the book with different animals being taller until he gets on top of the giraffe. He begins to dance on the giraffe's horns and loses his balance. He yells, "Fall" and his Mommy comes running yelling his name and catching him. She carries him home hugging him and he is happy to feel small.

For these books we did a craft by making masks for Bobo and Mommy. For the pattern I went to the Jez Alborough website and went to his How to Draw section. How to draw Bobo is in the club members only section, but to join the club is free, so I joined. I used his steps to draw a pattern.

Dark Brown Pattern Pieces

We cut the pattern pieces out of cardstock scrapbook paper and cut the eyes out to make the masks. Then we colored the mouth, nose and eye brows. We glued them together and left them to dry. After they dried we punched holes and tied on stretchy string.

Light Pattern Pieces

Hazel then modeled both of them for me.

Bobo or Hazel's Mask

Mommy

Hazel loved wearing the masks, but I need to tighten the string on the Mommy mask. I also wanted to teach her more about chimpanzees, so we took some books out of the library.

I discovered that chimpanzees are endangered. I found this very sad especially since they have so many similarities to humans. I also found on Disneynature an educator's guide to go with their Chimpanzee Movie. I have requested the movie from the library, but have not gotten it yet. We had some fun exploring chimpanzees. I printed the lessons intended for the youngest grades in the educator's guide. It started with comparing chimpanzees to human beings. We looked at feet, hands and then took measurements and compared which was longer our legs or our arms. There was also a sheet to identify the emotions the chimpanzee in a picture was displaying on his face. 

They also gave us a map to color in where chimpanzees are found in the wild. Hazel mistakenly colored in an extra country, but we also noticed they are in Kenya which is our country this month for Around the World in 12 Dishes (post will be tomorrow), so it was a nice connection. We also read a short story and chose what animals and plants were in the chimpanzees habitat and finally we looked a food chain with the chimpanzee in it.

So that is our study of chimpanzees which was all inspired by the Bobo series of books. Every time I read one Hazel gets so excited and comments how she loves Bobo. Have you read a Jez Alborough book and done some activity or craft with it? Now is your turn to share. If you don't have one to share you can always check out all the great ideas others share here too.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Egyptian Cinderella

Today I am going to share with you a version of Cinderella from Egypt. Now the most fascinating thing to me about this story is there is some historical truth to it. According to the Author's Note at the end of the book: the fact that there was a Greek slave girl named Rhodopis and she married the Pharaoh Amasis and became his queen. This is one of the oldest Cinderella tales and it was first recorded by the Roman historian Strabo in the first century B.C.

Fairy Tales from Different Cultures--Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters

In honor of Black History Month, I thought I would focus on some stories with black Cinderellas or from countries with a majority of black citizens. With one exception being next week, where we will honor the Chinese New Year with Cinderella from China. This week we are looking at a different version of the story taking place in Africa. This story was inspired by a folktale collected by G.M. Theal and published in 1895 in his book Kaffir Folktales. The illustrations in the book were inspired by the ruins of ancient city found in Zimbabwe. The book is dedicated to the children of South Africa. The book is Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe.

Source

First a little bit about Africa. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent. It covers six percent of the earth's surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. Eastern Africa is widely accepted as where human beings began life.  The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on the top of its highest peaks).  It's northern part is arid and desert. Central and Southern Africa has both jungles and savanna plains. 

Africa's population has increased greatly in the last 40 years. The population has a large proportion of its members under 25-years-old as a result. It is estimated that over 1,000 languages are spoken in Africa. Traditional African cultures have become less practiced in recent years due to neglect and suppression during colonialism and post-colonialism regimes.  (Source)

Now onto our book.  Mufaro's Beautiful Daugthers: An African Tale by John Steptoe is not your traditional Cinderella. In fact there is not very much of the traditional story in this one. There is a father and not a stepmother. There is a sister and not a stepsister and there is no talk about shoes lost or found. There is a bit of magic and of course the good and kind win over the cruel.  To begin let me tell you mufaro means happy man, nyasha means mercy, manyara means ashamed and nyoka means snake. This is in the author's introductory notes.  

Nyasha Doll

This story is about the two beautiful daughters of a man named Mufaro. His daughters are Nyasha who is kind and caring and Manyara who is selfish and mean. Manyara only mistreats her sister when their father is not around. She is often heard saying some day she will be queen and Nyasha will be her servant.  Nyasha does not understand why her sister is so unhappy and miserable. She wishes Manyara could enjoy her life more. 

Nyasha is always kind to everyone and has no problem helping with the household chores and even has her own vegetable garden. She loves singing while she tends her vegetables and it is said that her plants grow bigger and more bountiful than anyone else's because of her singing. One day she finds a green garden snake in her garden. She welcomes the little Nyoka since he will scare away the animals that may eat things from her garden. Each day she sees him there and sings to him.

One day a messenger comes to their village saying the king would like all the beautiful and worthy daughters to come to the palace so he may choose a wife. The palace is on the other side of the river is a half a day away. Mufaro tells his two daughters that they both will go with a wedding party the next morning. Manyara tries to convince her father that only she should go since Nyasha will grieve to death to be separated from their father and home. Mufaro says that the king must choose between two such worthy daughters so they both will go.

Manyara leaves during the night by herself since she wants to be the first to see the king. She has not traveled through the forest during the night before and is a bit scared, but wants to be there first. She sees a young boy who begs her for food, but she says no. Then an old woman calls her by name and gives her advice and Manyara yells at her. She also does the opposite of the advice.

At daybreak Nyasha gets dressed for the journey and meeting the king and hears commotion outside. It is discovered that Manyara is missing. They find footprints on the path to the city, so they assume she went on her own, but Nyasha is worried about her sister. 

When Nyasha sees the young boy she gives him the yam she had packed for her own lunch before he even asks for food. The old woman points the way and Nyasha gives her a small bag of sunflower seeds. Finally the reach the peak and see the river and the city and Nyasha says she has never seen anything so beautiful.

When they enter the gate of the palace they hear screaming and Manyara runs out. She begs Nyasha not to see the king saying that there is a snake with five heads in there. Mufaro comforts Manyara while Nyasha goes in to the king. On the throne she sees her friend, Nyoka. She smiles and asks why he is here. Nyoka then changes to the king and he tells Nyasha he knows her to be the most worthy since he has visited her as Nyoka and was the young boy and old woman in the forest. He asks her to marry him. Mufaro is proud that one of his daughters is the queen and the other is one of her servants. Quite the opposite of how Manyara always planned it.

Here is my summary sheet for our different Cinderella stories for this book. 

Our craft this time was to make a green snake to represent Nyoka. We used the tutorial at Ziggity Zoom which was a craft for the Chinese New Year since this is the year of the snake. We used Q-tips and masking tape (well we used blue painters tape because we had it) and then painted them and added some eyes and a tongue.

Next week we will be discussing some Chinese versions. I hope you will join us!

Christmas Around the World - Christmas in Kenya

I joined an amazing group of bloggers put together by Beth at Living Life Intentionally to present Christmas Around the World. Each blogger is presenting how Christmas or a winter holiday is celebrated in different countries around the world. Some will be writing from their own experiences and some, like me, will be writing based on research. Today I present Christmas in Kenya.

Source

Popcorn & Meerkats!

Well this week I am going to share two Multicultural topics with you. As you may remember I skipped Multicultural Monday last week, but then shared two Multicultural posts to go with the MeMe Tales Readathon. If you missed them they are Global Culture and Hazel Cooks Pancit.

Also, The Virtual Book Club for Kids July Author is Don and Audrey Wood. You can still link up any activities and/or crafts to do with any of their books! Just visit my two posts on it: The Dragon and The Princess and The Deep Blue Sea. Oh, and while I'm making announcement, Sharing Saturday is still open. Please stop by and share a child-oriented activity or craft and/or check out what has been shared and be inspired!

Ok, now onto my Multicultural Monday Post. Awhile ago I did a post on meerkats. The people of Hullabalu were kind enough to let Hazel pick out an animal from their website for me to review and she chose Meerkat Moe or as we call him, Meerkat. If you do not know what a meerkat is, it is a small desert animal that lives in Africa. Well, a web editor from National Geographic Education asked me to try their meerkat craft with Hazel. They only had adults make it so they were looking for some feedback of how it works with children. That said, Hazel is below their suggested age and I could see why.

My Meerkat

I did paint our forks. Their instructions did not suggest that, but I thought it would look better. We also did not have brown pipe cleaners (due to a little kitty who keeps stealing all my pipe cleaners as toys) so we used gold and we only had color googly eyes or at least that is all I could find. If I were to do this craft again, I would not use the construction paper for the stomach and would use the leftover felt from the head. I let Hazel do as many of the steps as she could on her own. This included drawing the face. I did add the dark shapes for the eyes since I was putting the glue on.

Hazel had trouble twisting the pipe cleaners to form the nose and the tail and she had trouble with the rubber bands. Otherwise she did pretty well. Oh, and I have one more meerkat book to share. I got this after I wrote the other post, but I think it was one of the best out of the books I found for information on them and I loved the pictures. The book is What on Earth Is a Meerkat? by Jenny Tesar. If you want to learn more about these cute little guys, go check it out.

The next thing I want to share with you is about popcorn. We happen to LOVE popcorn in my house. When I was in high school I would eat a huge bowl of air-popped popcorn every day. Now we do not make it as much, however I discovered this book, Popcorn! by Elaine Landau at the library when I was in the children's cooking section and grabbed it. As I read it to Hazel I realized it was perfect for Multicultural Monday.

Popcorn has a long history. Most of its history in the Americas however China and India had popcorn long before Columbus "discovered" America. Native Americans used popcorn as jewelry as well as food. The oldest known popcorn was found in the Bat Cave in New Mexico and was aged to be about 4000 years old. Its size was much smaller than corn is now since they did not use all the genetics we do. (Source: popcorn.org)

There are so many ideas on line for things to do with popcorn. From music and art to science and geography you can find a lesson involving popcorn for just about every subject. However I am more interested in the cultural parts. Native Americans throughout the Americas had popcorn from early on. Each one had its own way to pop the corn as well. There is difference of opinions as to whether popcorn was served at the first Thanksgiving since corn was not grown in the New England area yet though other sites actually name the Indian that brought it, so who knows. Popcorn also became more popular during the depression because it was a cheap luxury and during World War II since the sugar was being sent over to the soldiers there was not the sweets so people enjoyed popcorn as a treat. 

The book goes into the history, the science behind what makes popcorn pop and where it is grown as well as other interesting facts. When popcorn vendors first sold popcorn in China, you had to bring your own corn to be popped.

After reading the book, we, of course, made a bowl of popcorn. Don't you love Hazel's new smiling face when she poses for me. She always closes her eyes now! Oh, well. We also tried an experiment we found on www.agclassroom.org/ok. We filled a small plastic cup with kernels and added water. We covered it and let it sit for an hour. Much of the water was gone after an hour. We recovered it and will check it tomorrow morning! I will update you then. We are also planning on making some colored popcorn to make some popcorn pictures.

Update: On Monday the popcorn was coming out of the top of the cup!!

There are also loads of popcorn songs available on line. We sung one in parent/child swim class last year. It went "I'm a piece of popcorn put me in the pot. (Move child away from you.) Shake me up, shake me up (Move child side to side) until I pop (Lift child in air)." Hazel still loves when we do that swimming.

Oh, and I forgot to mention my friends who own a gourmet popcorn store in Melbourne, Florida. It is a good thing I don't live down there as I would be there all the time. It is called Tin Roof Popcorn. I haven't been there in years, but when I was it was like an old ice cream shop but with flavored popcorn. You could sit at the counter and get a sample so you would know what to order. Talk about dangerous for my diet!! If you are down that way, make sure you check them out (or if you feel like ordering some since they do mail order).

We made some colored popcorn by putting a small amount (I put too much) of water and some food coloring in a plastic bag, then add popcorn. Zip it closed and shake it until it is the color you want. Then give them some paper and glue and let them make popcorn mosaics or pictures.

What do you think of her masterpiece?

What are your favorite toppings for popcorn? Do you have any favorite activities to do with it?

This is where I share...