"Froggy Boots" Easter Basket Finds

Trying to get back in the swing of blogging and what better way than to break out some snazzy book-themed Easter baskets. There's still time to order these great items and throw them into a basket for your little ones! Today's idea is frog-themed!

Martin, Jill Zabkar.
Froggy Boots Go With Everything.
2010.
JZM Media.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

Parents (and teachers) tend to easily recognize a child's love of one specific item - whether it be a special blanket, stuffed animal or something else entirely.

One child's love for his "froggy boots" are evident in this cute, simple board book, as everything (and every part of the day) involve his froggy boots - visiting a friend, making lemonade, building with blocks, planting plants and more.

Not only is the story one that will easily appeal to children, it also provides and encourages the child to interact and take notice of the illustrations AFTER reading - as a "Can you find" picture/word activity is provided to enhance reading and the use of picture clues throughout.

If you have a frog-loving toddler, why not put together a themed Easter basket this year, making this book the center of attention???

What to put in the Easter basket?

Frog Apparel and Accessories to Consider

Kidorable Frog Raincoat (with matching hanger)
Kidorable Frog Umbrella
Kidorable Frog Rainboots
Kidorable Frog Backpack

If the kids are needing a little candy in that basket...

• Frog Lollipop Suckers
• Haribo Gummy Frogs
  

Frog Activities

• Flippity Frogs: An Active Counting Game
• Melissa & Doug Sunny Patch Kids Froggy Toss and Grip
• Smart Safari Alphabet Fun Frog
  

And... if you're absolutely needing the perfect basket to pull it all together...

• Felt Frog Basket

Kids are sure to love this themed basket... and will have so much fun with any or all of the different activities that they'll likely not realize how much learning is going on with the fun - a win-win for children and their parents!

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If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!

Ten Black Dots - Now in Board Book Format!

A favorite of mine, now in board book format! Totally adding this to my literacy book bag collection for my preschoolers!

Crews, Donald.
Ten Black Dots.
June 2010.
HarperCollins.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

Author Donald Crews presents an interesting question to children in Ten Black Dots,

What can you do with ten black dots?

As readers gradually practice counting to ten, they see what can be done with the amount of black dots that represent that numeral. For instance,

One dot can make a sun or a moon when day is done.
Five dots can make buttons on a coat or the portholes of a boat.
Nine dots can make toy soldiers standing in rank or the pennies in your piggy bank.

The book is perfect to use with children who are beginning to learn how to count and make a one-to-one correspondence between a number and an object. Add the concept to rhyming text and engaging pictures, and you have the winner of Ten Black Dots! This is seriously, one of my favorite children's counting books and I have every intent of sharing it with my students in their take-home literacy book bags this year!

Learning/Reading Activity:

• Download the worksheet found here. Have your child use his/her crayons/markers and ten black dot stickers and see what they can make with ten black dots! A sample can be found below!

If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!

Zero, Zilch, Nada: Counting to None

Counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and even 10's to 100 proves to be just too confusing for Harry!

Ulmer, Wendy.
Zero, Zilch, Nada: Counting to None.
May 2010.
Sleeping Bear Press.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

Harry has just been hired as the newest employee at 4-Color Balloon Factory. On his first day of work, Harry is given a relatively simple job - count out 100 balloons for Mrs. Doopido's birthday party. Harry quickly gets to work, making up a song as he goes, in order to remember the necessary steps,puff, puff, puff, tie it in a knot, add a nice long string, slip it in a slotSounds like it should be a pretty simple job! However, when Harry thinks he's finished, he decides he better count and be sure he really does have 100 balloons blown up. As he begins to count all those balloons, he quickly loses count. His friends at the factory offer ways for him to easily count and see if he has 100, but each time he tries their methods, he still looses count and ends up popping balloons to make sure he doesn't lose his place. What Harry doesn't realize though, is that each time he pops a balloon, his actual number of balloons ready for the party diminishes - until Harry is left with none. When Mr. Huffy, Harry's boss finds out about Harry's dilemma, he's none to happy, but quick to point out the way in which he set it up so that one will easily be able to count out those 100 balloons.

This is definitely a fun story and children will enjoy seeing the character flaw Harry possesses - difficulty keeping track when counting out a large group of objects, the same flaw many children face and can easily become embarrassed about. The book could also act as a wonderful introduction when beginning to teach children about counting (up or down) to 100! This should be a welcome addition to any pre-K through 3nd grade classroom!

Learning/Reading Activities:

• Collect several groups of 100 objects (buttons, shells, pennies, erasers, pencils, counting bears, pasta, etc.). Work with your child to find the different ways of grouping the objects to quickly count to 100 (counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, 10's and even 25's). Have your child decide which is most efficient - easiest and time-wise.
• You can also check out the Teacher's Guide provided by Sleeping Bear Press to use in collaboration with Zero, Zilch, Nada: Counting to None. My favorite activity in the guide can be found on page 5, in which readers are asked to solve problems to determine if they result in a total group of 100 and then either labeling them as true or false.
• This book would also make for an interesting choice when celebrating the 100th day of school. Use this as an opportunity for children to group their collections of 100 in different ways! Come up with a list of all the different possibilities they come up with!
  

If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!

Lyle Walks the Dogs

A perfect story for counting, one-to-one correspondence and retelling skills!

Waber, Bernard.
Lyle Walks the Dogs: A Counting Book.
May 2010.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

Well-known Lyle, Lyle Crocodile returns in this new counting book for children, who join him in his adventures at his new job as a dog-walker. Lyle loves walking... and he loves dogs... so the two combine, resulting in the perfect job for Lyle. In fact, he's so good at it, each day, for ten days he receives one new client, until he's walking a total of ten dogs, who all range in activity and behavior level.

Children will love the adventure Lyle and his ten clients face as they set forth on their daily walks. The story is wonderful for counting practice (by encouraging children to count how many dogs appear on each two-page fold. It is also ideal for one-to-one correspondence (showing children a number and then also pointing out how many objects that numeral represents). The way in which the dogs are presented also make this book great to use when testing children's recall skills (you could create a flannel board set or just print the snapshots of each of Lyle's 10 clients and have your child put the dogs in order from first client to tenth). This is definitely a wonderful book and I'm very excited to try it out with my preschoolers this year!

Learning/Reading Activity:

• Scan the snapshot images of Lyle and the dogs he is walking. Practice your child(ren)'s ability to recall the events of the story by having them retell the story with the props. You could also turn this into a felt board activity by gluing the images to felt!
• While reading, have your child(ren) practice counting skills by searching for specific objects on each page of the book, as suggested by the back cover (shown below).

If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!

Anita Lobel's Birthday was Yesterday, June 3

I'm getting really slopping in my posting methods... the nice weather snuck up on me and I'm finding less time for posting... I need a weekend free of activities, but that's not to be the case this weekend... Firemen's Field Days Parade is Friday night, followed by a family cookout and bonfire with two little step-cousins. Saturday evening, I'm heading out to the Syracuse Stage to see one of the seasons last two performances of Crowns - it should be fun... a night on the town usually is... especially at the stage.

Hopefully soon, things will settle down a bit or maybe I'll just take the books and laptop out to the new Adirondack chairs...

Lobel, Anita.
Alison's Zinnia.
1990.
Greenwillow Books.

This is the alphabet book of flowers and girls names, A to Z... and it's really pretty cool!

I don't think boys would find it too interesting, but girls who are interested in flowers or gardening will get a kick out of it! I'm going to share just a brief sample of it with you!

Alison acquired an Amaryllis for Beryl.
Beryl bought a Begonia for Crystal.
Crystal cut a Chrysanthemum for Dawn.
Dawn dug a Daffodil for Emily.
Emily earned an Easter lily for Florence.

The story continues on in such fashion until we finally see the alphabet ending and starting again as

Zena zeroed in on a Zinnia for Alison.

Lobel, Anita.
One Lighthouse, One Moon.
2000.
Greenwillow Books.

Divided into three sections, this book would be perfect for a preschool or kindergarten... possibly even a 1st grade classroom!

The first topic? Days of the week. Meshed in with days of the week are colors - perfect for reinforcing two concepts at the same time while allowing children to see the connections being made! This section of the book is also perfect for beginning readers because of it's predictability and repetition.

Black shoes on MONDAY.
Red shoes on TUESDAY.
Blue shoes on WEDNESDAY.
Yellow shoes on THURSDAY.
Green shoes on FRIDAY.
Pink shoes on SATURDAY.
White shoes on SUNDAY.

As you can see from the text alone, it is very predictable, and even if children aren't able to read color words, the illustrations show the colors on a pair of shoes! The only thing I didn't particularly care for in this first of the three parts, was that Lobel started out the week on Monday... I'm just used to considering Sunday the start of a new week...

Topic two is the months of the year... and tied alongside that are the seasons (if you live in a place where you get to experience all four season)! Again, it's perfect for young children (preschool, Kindergarten, maybe 1st graders), although the reading level is a bit more advanced!

In JANUARY Nini caught snowflakes on her nose.
In FEBRUARY Nini avoided kisses on Valentine's Day.
In MARCH Nini listened to winds howling.
In APRIL Nini watched crocuses poke through the ground.
In MAY Nini chased kites in the sky.
In JUNE Nini smelled roses growing on a bush.
In JULY Nini napped under a flag.
In AUGUST Nini dreamed of crayfish.
In SEPTEMBER Nini played in the autumn leaves.
In OCTOBER Nini posed on a pumpkin.
In NOVEMBER Nini smelled turkey.
In DECEMBER Nini waited for good things.
And they came.

Apparently, somewhere in there, Nini had some fun :) , as her "good things" that come turn out to be a new litter of kittens! However, this is perfect for teaching or even just reinforcing months of the year, seasons and, in some cases, the holidays that go along with those months and seasons! Again, the illustrations provide many context clues for perhaps, early readers who are getting used to different methods for recognizing words in a text!

The third and final topic in this book is counting... 1-10. Of course, the illustrations represent objects to show the one-to-one correspondences!

ONE lighthouse stood on a rock in the sea.
TWO boats sailed by.
THREE sailors waved to
FOUR girls dancing on the shore.
FIVE whales blew spouts of water in the air.
SIX pelicans dozed.
SEVEN seagulls bobbed on the waves.
EIGHT geese flew south to avoid early snow.
NINE fisherfolk walked home with their catch.
TEN trees bent in the wind.
And ONE HUNDRED stars and ONE moon lit up the sky.

This might be perfect to get children started with counting and then prompting them to continue counting on to one-hundred to practice for school! I do believe this book will be finding its way into my classroom library!

If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com.