Luke's Beach Day--Book Review

 

 Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to a wonderful book that will be available to purchase on June 1st. Luke's Beach Day by Giselle Shardlow is a wonderful story about a class visiting the ocean in Australia. You can check out Giselle's blog at http://www.kidsyogastories.com/. The story follows a group of three students as they explore the sea and with each thing they see and do there is a yoga stretch to try. This was Hazel's first exposure to yoga. She has done stretches in both dance and gymnastic classes, but never had to hold the poses or even get in some of the positions. 

Since we have an advanced copy, we have it on the computer. Hazel was so excited to read a book on the computer again. Then we would try all the positions. I pulled my camera out for the first few, but realized Hazel would need more help than I expected to get her body to hold the positions. Here she is doing the sun salute.

There are several different levels to this book. It is a wonderful introduction to yoga. There are also issues of litter on the beach, teasing friends, treating animals, ocean safety, and of course since it takes place in Australia, the differences between an Australian beach to one in your own country (assuming you do not live in Australia). One of the yoga moves was the kangaroo hop. Hazel enjoyed this one, but the only picture I got is horrible of her. (I know some day she will be angry with me for posting it, but here it is.)

So on June 1st, look for this wonderful book. It will be available in both English and Spanish. Also stay tuned for possible giveaways.

Thank you, Giselle, for letting us preview this amazing book.

Ice Cream Shop--Dramatic Play

While touring a school yesterday (this is part of the stress and such I have been dealing with), Hazel had the best time playing with the ice cream shop that was set up in the PreK classroom. I promised her that if we continued the tour and left the room we would set one up at home. The set up in the classroom was simple--tins with large pom poms as scoops of ice cream labeled with ice cream flavors, two ice cream scoops, bowls, an empty root beer bottle and fancy cups for the root beer floats, spoons, a cash register and a telephone and a blackboard with the prices and such.

Bowl of Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

We of course did it with a bit more creativity. I added black dots to the white pom poms to make chocolate chip ice cream. (Hazel has informed me I need to make some cookie dough ice cream next.) We also thought about some toppings.

Using smaller pom poms for cherries, marshmallows, nuts, chocolate chips and tiny pom poms for candies. Then we put some longer skinny beads in a sprinkle jar for rainbow sprinkles.

Bowl of Chocolate Ice Cream with Sprinkles

Oh, the classroom also had some plastic ice cream cones. It took us awhile to find something to use, but we found these scented bubble ones. Our plan is to dump out the bubble liquids into our supplies for outside and just keep the ice cream cones. We need to do this with our "soda" bottle as well.

I bought her two scoops at the Dollar Tree as well as the plastic bowls. I found chocolate colored pom poms at Michaels and then discovered A.C. Moore had bags that only had the two inch pom poms in them (but no browns). We also found our sign/placemat at the Christmas Tree Shop. I added Hazel's nickname and shop to it.

Then I printed labels for the ice cream containers. I invaded our Tuperware cabinet and also picked up some at the Dollar Tree.

She now has nine flavors: strawberry, vanilla, black raspberry, blue raspberry, blueberry lemonade, chocolate, chocolate chip, orange sherbet, and lemon sherbet. Oh, and apparently she has an assistant.

But be careful when ordering, the assistant likes to attack feet if they get too close.

Hazel has no idea what a root beer float is, but she had to have the glasses like the classroom did. So we bought a few and got the bubble stuff in a "soda" bottle.

Root Beer Float

I tried to explain it to her, but since she has never liked anything to drink that is carbonated she really does not know what soda is.

Black Raspberry with Nuts

Now this is her favorite thing to play. She told me in bed tonight that she could not wait to play ice cream shop in the morning. 

Chocolate Ice Cream with a Cherry on Top

I think my activity tonight will be to find the instructions for felt popsicles I once saw on-line. 

Adding Sprinkles to Strawberry Ice Cream

Oh, and she is packing some of it up so she can take it in a truck and go around town. Her truck is a series of chairs and things all lined up behind her rocking horse (which she is really too big for but will not let us put it away). 

Ok, off to find some popsicle patterns. Have a great night/day! Do you want some ice cream?

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.

Sharing Saturday 13-19

 

I have to apologize as I have not yet visited the 81 wonderful ideas shared last week. I hopefully will find time this weekend, but with Hazel's dance recital and Mother's Day (so lots of time with extended family), I'm not sure when I might. I will get there eventually. However there were many others visiting them (we had over 950 views). There was not one that was most clicked, so I thought I would just share a few of the Mother's Day ideas.

Homemade Mother's Day Gift Ideas

A week ago I began a link party for Homemade Mother's Day Gift Ideas. Have you shared yours yet? Today I thought I would feature a few in case your child still needs to make you one or maybe one for a grandmother.