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? 

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: Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

 Disclosure: I was sent the seahorse craft kit to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation. 

Raising Ladybugs from Larvae

Today Hazel brought her ladybugs to school to share with her friends. We raised them from larvae and she was so excited to share them. The teachers were excited too since they just started a unit on bugs. Talk about perfect timing. I thought I would share them with you as well.

Last year Hazel and I raised butterflies. I thought it would be neat for her to see the cycle of life of a butterfly. I asked Hazel this year if she wanted to do butterflies again or try ladybugs. She decided on ladybugs, so we bought the ladybug house from Lakeshore Learning with our 20% off coupon and sent away for the larvae. Now ladybugs are even easier than the butterflies. The only important thing to do is to keep the sponge in the home moist. Besides that you sit back and watch. Hazel loves using the dropper to keep the moisture up, however as the larvae and ladybugs rose to the top, I took over the job to make sure we didn't have any escape.

After adding the moisture, we poured the tube into the cage and checked out the larvae. The tube had this white paper in it, and we just kept it in with the ladybugs since the larvae were climbing all over it. The small brown powdering stuff is their food. The tube arrived on March 27th.

We sat back and watched as they grew. The little spots of things became much bigger. These pictures are from April 14th. The larvae molt at least three times before going into the pupa stage.

We kept watching for the pupa stage. It was hard to see since they did not change much and really just stuck to the sides of the home. I also did not get any clear pictures because they were stuck to the sides of the plastic home. The clearest pictures of the larvae and ladybugs came from the magnifying glass on top and the sides cannot be seen well with it. Sorry!

Then this past weekend, we discovered we had ladybugs!! Of course we have also been reading books about ladybugs while watching them. We learned a few things like ladybugs have yellow blood. Some ladybugs have spots and some do not. They come in different colors. Red is the common color we all think of but they can be orange, yellow and even pink. 

Different Species Source

The resource books we have read are pictured below. They are Ladybugs by Ann Heinrichs, Ladybug by Emery Bernhard, Grub to Ladybug by Melvin and Gilda Berger, and Lucky Ladybugs by Mary Elizabeth Salzmann. The information about ladybugs mentioned in this post I read and learned from one of these books.

All of these books include a ladybug's life cycle. There are also many free resources on line to teach the life cycle. One I sent to Hazel's teacher is on Montessori Printshop. Everything Ladybug! has a good one as well.

Ladybug Life Cycle Source: By Pudding4brains (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The life cycle is of course the ladybugs mate and the female lays yellow eggs on a leaf. The eggs hatch and larva comes out of each egg. The larvae change and molt at least three times. Then they go into pupa stage growing a hard shell on the outside. In a few weeks the adult ladybug breaks through the hard shell. 

Ladybugs also have a few defenses to deter predators. One is their taste. They also can release a bad smelling and tasting chemical. They also can play dead so the predator will leave them alone. 

Ladybugs are also called ladybirds or lady beetles in Europe. And although they have lady in their name there are male ladybugs and female ladybugs. Since ladybugs eat aphids (bugs that harm crops and orchards), many people consider the ladybug lucky and have throughout history. They have been used and are still used by farmers to save their crops. Many farmers found using chemical pesticides also killed ladybugs (and other helpful insects and some birds) and this did more harm than good, so they now order ladybugs to come eat the pests to their crops. In fact when orange groves in California were dying due to scale insects that showed up after the ladybugs had been killed by the insecticides, millions of ladybugs were sent from Australia to eat the scale insects and saved the oranges and trees. In the Middle Ages people were so thankful for ladybugs as well as the Virgin Mary, they were called Beetles of Our Blessed Lady. Once they were believed to have magical powers including finding a single girl a boyfriend. In early America it was considered good luck to find a ladybug in a house in the winter. Ladybugs or rather ladybirds even made it into Mother Goose Rhymes. 

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children are gone.

 This was a rhyme farmers used when they burnt  the vines after the harvest. They wanted to send the beetles away from the fire so they could return the next year. It was first published around 1760.

Ladybugs are also popular characters in picture books. Some we have found and read or hope to read are:

• The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle (June's author for Virtual Book Club for Kids)
• Ladybug on the Move by Richard Fowler
• Ladybug Girl by David Soman and Jacky Davis (There is a whole series)
• What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson
• Yoo-Hoo, Lady Bug! by Mem Fox (May's author for Virtual Book Club for Kids) (a fun search for the ladybug on each page)
• Ladybug at Orchard Avenue by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• Lara Ladybug by Christine Florie
• The Very Lazy Ladybug by Isabel Finn and Jack Tickle

So that is what we have been exploring with bugs this year. Hazel has informed me that next year she wants to go back to the butterflies and then alternate each year. She loves "hatching" bugs as she calls it.

More posts and crafts on ladybugs and bugs:

• Virtual Book Club for Kids: What the Ladybug Heard 
• Virtual Book Club for Kids: The Little Squeegy Bug
• Poetry, Trees and Bees
• Growing Butterflies & Butterfly Life Cycle
•  Cereal Caterpillars & Butterflies 
•  Tissue Paper Butterflies 
• Beaded Butterflies 
• Origami Butterflies 
• Toilet Paper Tube Butterflies 
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Time & Food Drive 
• Butterfly Party (Games & Crafts)
• Bugs are Insects
• Baby Dragonflies & Damselflies
• Fireflies Part 2
• Fireflies Part 1
• Bugs and Crawly Things Pinterest Board

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

Wild and Free: Dolphins, Whales and Manatees

Have you ever just loved a CD and have the music inspire you to be creative? This happens to me and Hazel all the time. The CD is from Daria and it is called I Have a Dream. Daria had been kind enough to send me this wonderful CD last year so I could review it here, and we followed her instructions to make a quilted rainstick. Now this CD lives in my car for the most part, and it is what Hazel and I tend to listen to while driving. Even when Hazel is not in the car I tend to listen to it. We both know the words to almost every song on it. As I have been listening to Hazel sing along I have had all sorts of creative ideas flowing through my head. Today I am going to share one of them with you. I am thinking we will do something with almost every song on the CD, so stay tuned for more music inspired songs.

 The song I am sharing today is Wild and Free. With Daria's permission I am sharing her YouTube video of this song with you.

Now I will admit this song is the first since we just got back from Florida. Every time we heard this song, Hazel would ask me what a manatee is, so we did some research and came home with many library books plus I realized SeaWorld Orlando has manatees (as well as dolphins and whales), so I knew this was the perfect time to talk about this song and the animals in it. Now the manatees are endangered and need the help of humans as we are their only enemy--if you can call us that. They do not have natural predators due to their size. They have been hunted as well as hurt by boats and nets and of course their food supply is dwindling due to development. For more information on how you can help, check out Save The Manatees website.

The dolphins they play in the ocean...

Blue Horizons Show at Sea World Orlando

The whales (beluga and killer/orca), they swim in the ocean...

Beluga Whales on top in Wild Arctic Exhibit and Orca Whales in One Ocean Show

The manatees play by the bayside...

Manatees outside Turtle Trek Exhibit

While at SeaWorld, I bought Hazel small plastic versions of each of the animals. We also bought a Sea World Rescue Barbie that came with dolphins as well. Plus we pulled out the whales I made when we read The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson for the Virtual Book Club for Kids.

Then I set up the entire zoo for Hazel, but more about that later.

We also made an ocean interactive box. We took a shoe box and lined it with sky blue paper and then cut a strip of dark blue paper to be the ocean and glued to the front. We cut a slit on the bottom of the box. Then I printed out pictures I found on line of each animal and we cut them out and glued them to popsicle sticks. 

Then we acted out  the song while we listened to it. (I think we probably should have lined the bottom of the box with the dark blue as well.) I had all sorts of other craft ideas, but they did not happen. I am also working on sewing some felt creatures for her. I have started the manatee. I'll share it when we finish. I have found patterns on line for a dolphin and killer whale as well. I think I may try to make my own beluga pattern. 

Some final pictures to show you. Above is a picture of Hazel at SeaWorld looking for beluga whales. Below is the zoo I set up for her. As she was looking at it, she was mentioning that we had an Australia section with kangaroos and a wombat and an African section with the lions, giraffes, zebras and elephants. I mentioned the panda bear being from China and she started asking where the other animals were from. I guess I'm bringing her up to notice the animals of the world at least.

Finally here is a collage of the books we have collected on manatees, dolphins and whales. We have not read them all and many of the manatee books are more picture story/fiction ones, but I always find those fun to include. Manatee on Location is non-fiction though. Also you can purchase Daria's CD at her store for $10 with free shipping!

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!