Books of the Week {#2}

My favorite this week:

Clifford’s Manners by Norman Birdwell.  I usually do not like character books, but this is a huge exception.  M loves all things Clifford lately and this book about manners is exactly right for the “learning to be polite” stage we are in.  Clifford is helpful, polite, kind, and thoughtful in this book.  The only problem, and I’m not even sure M picked up on it, is that it states “Clifford has great manners, and that’s why everyone loves Clifford!”  Obviously, I love M even when his manners are lacking, so I’m not crazy about that phrase.  However, it’s easy to edit as you are reading it, and it is overall a great and very helpful book!
M’s favorite this week:

Tool Book by Gail Gibbons.  There’s not really a story here, but it is full to overflowing with tools, tools, tools.  Every tool a little boy could possibly want to know about.  And I have a little boy that wants to know about every single one.  From files, to planers, to hand drills, to hammers… it has a lot of tools!  It’s illustrated so well, and does a great job satisfying the hunger for knowledge that kids (not to be gender-specific, but especially boys!) have about this kind of thing.  A great, great book.  M wants to read this one several times a day, and that makes it a winner!
For more Books of the Week, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns!
Have a beautiful day! :)

Open Ended Art – Paper Mosaics

The open ended art theme at Teaching My Little Bookworm this week is Mosaics with Paper.
M’s cousin S was over the day we did this. She is an artsy little 4 year old and I knew she would definitely want in on the action.
I set up a tray of colored paper cut into squares, as well as some templates cut from cardstock. Knowing that our summer days are numbered, I was trying for a summer theme so I cut out a butterfly, a sun, a star, and a beach ball:

I gave them each some glue and they got busy! (That would be a puddle of glue that you see forming on M’s beach ball. He’s crazy when it comes to glue.)
(The necklaces they are wearing were from their previous project – they spent the entire day creating stuff. It was great!)
Here’s the finished pieces:
We are planning to create a mobile from these, but it just hasn’t happened yet!
Check here for more great mosaic ideas!
Have a beautiful day!