Books of the Week – March 13, 2010

Alistair’s Elephant by Marilyn Sadler was our favorite book this week. Sorry the picture above is blurry. I couldn’t find a picture on Amazon or pretty much anywhere else. It’s a cute book about a serious little boy who has an elephant follow him home from the zoo. All he is worried about is getting rid of this silly elephant so he can get back to his normal, neat and hard-working life. :) M’s favorite part, which he has talked about non-stop, is when Alistair thinks it’s raining and it’s just the elephant showering him with his trunk. Really, how can you not know an elephant is following you home? :) Apparently there are more Alistair books and we are definitely going to look for them.

A good, non-fiction book this week was Close, Closer, Closest by Shelley Rotner. Each page of this book has 3 pictures of an object (strawberries, comic book, peacock feathers and lots more). The first picture is what you normally see, the second picture is a close up and the 3rd picture is a magnification of a small area of the object. It’s really a neat book and M has asked for it several times.
For more good kids’ books, click on the button at the top of the page and check out the blog carnival at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns!
Have a beautiful day! :)

Craft Time! Cardboard Tube Crocodile

Crafts are back (somewhat)… yay!  I’ve really missed doing these things with M, we just did SO much when he was younger.  I had something artsy or crafty planned every day after naptime.  Hm.  Come to think of it, I miss naptime too…
We started with a paper towel tube, a toilet paper tube, some zig-zag scissors, green paint, googley eyes, glue, and 4 feet outlined on the back of a cereal box:

Cut a slit down the side of the t.p. tube, going about halfway down.  Then wrap it around to form a point at the end and tape:

Put the long tube inside the end of the short tube and tape together:

I drew a triangle on each side of the other end of the long tube:And then helped M cut along the lines with the zig-zag scissors.  Apparently there is no after picture of this.  The zig zags make it look like crocodile teeth.
Paint it all green:

Cut out the feet, paint them green too.  Then glue on the googley eyes and let it dry for the rest of the day:(That’s an old flexible plastic cutting board that we use for messy projects.)      
Then  glue on the feet:
Look, a crocodile!  Paint the inside of his mouth red and the tiny little teeth white IF you feel up to it.  If not, leave it like ours. ;)
We actually read a book about a crocodile around the same time we did this craft – Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, by Bernard Waber.So, I think this means I can link up to the awesome stART carnival (story + art = stART) at Michelle’s wonderful blog!  Yippee!
Have a beautiful day! :)