Books of the Week – Bunny Theme

 
Early on this week I realized we were reading an unusually large number of books containing rabbits… I’m not sure how this happened, except it started with Peter Rabbit a little before Easter and then the books just… multiplied.  Not altogether unlike rabbits themselves do. Thank goodness these are only books, not real rabbits. ;) 
So, we ran with the theme, and did some fun bunny activities and crafts that I’ll be sharing in an upcoming Preschool Corner post.
However, for now, I want to share an amazing find that we came across at our library: The Golden Sleepy Book, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Garth Williams.  Now, I know that’s a bear on the front, and I’m not sure why since the two main stories in it are about bunnies; but this is the best bedtime book ever.  EVER.  It has poetry and songs and two adorable stories…
The first one is titled, “The Whispering Rabbit”.   It’s full of yawning, so your little one (and you too most likely) will definitely be ready to go to bed.  This sweet little rabbit (the pictures are by Garth Williams and are sweet and colorful and fun to look at) is yawning so much he accidentally swallows a bumblebee who goes to sleep in his throat.  He can only whisper as he tries to make just the right sound to wake up the bumblebee.  It’s such a nice story to read slowly and whisper the whispering parts. :) 
The second story is titled, “The Dreaming Bunny”.  This story also has great pictures, but a couple of the pages are quite long on text and short on pictures, so a smaller child may have a hard time staying interested.  However, it’s a great story about a little rabbit that appears to be lazy, but really just wants to enjoy himself and dream his dreams, make up his little songs, and relax.  As it turns out his slower pace of life allows him to see things that the other bunnies are too busy to see.  He ends up saving all the bunnies and is a hero who is content to just go back to his dreaming.

We also read The Bunnies are Not in Their Beds, by Marasabino Russo.  We’ve read this book before and I’ve enjoyed reading it again, although I do worry that it might give M a few ideas I don’t want him to have!  These naughty little bunnies keep getting out of their beds and getting into mischief.  Mama and Daddy keep going upstairs to send them back to bed, getting a bit more stern each time.  But these bunnies aren’t so easily stopped. :)  This is a super-cute and funny book!
To hear about more kids’ books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns!
Have a beautiful day! :)

Birds – Picture Cards and Songs

We are so blessed to live where we do… with almost a full acre’s worth of yard and an abundance of trees, we have many different little feathered friends. :) The pretty one above is one of my favorites (that’s a public domain photo, not actually one of our goldfinches, but ours are just as sweet-looking).  Additionally, we have a handful of trails near a creek bed in a wooded area to our north, and a small lake to our south.  We see plenty of wildlife, including some amazing birds.  The lake often has bald eagles near it and we even saw one on a tall pine in our backyard a couple of years ago!  This is all despite being pretty near a major highway, the one drawback to our neighborhood.

Now that spring has sprung the birds are out in full force and we’ve been learning a lot about these little guys.  I couldn’t believe when I sat down to make a list of all the different species that I came up with 25!  I’ve learned all their names over the past 10 or so years thanks to my nature-loving husband.  And it’s so neat and fun to share this knowledge with M.

Another post about all our little bird-study activities will be coming soon (I hope!), but for now I wanted to share with you some little cards I’ve made.  These are the 25 species of birds we’ve encountered in our own yard or within a mile of our home.  I’m sure there are others, but really 25 is enough, don’t you think?  These could be used as Montessori 3-part cards if you made two copies of each.  They’d also be great for a matching game or “go fish” type card game.  We are using them simply to learn their names and talk about them.   And as long as I have them made, I might as well share them, right? :)  Click on the picture to go to the download page:

One of our favorite activities has been learning the various bird songs.  I’ve made a list at enature.com of all 25 species… we use the list to learn more about each bird and most have an audio file to listen to the sounds and songs of each bird.  I’ve found it fascinating and M seems to really enjoy it too!  The link is here, and you’ll need to use BirdCards9 as the user name and blogger as the password. Along the top of the page (about an inch down from the top) you'll see a menu bar; under "Local Nature" click on "Personal Wildlife List" to go to the list I created.  Any questions or problems, contact me!  You'll need to click on the birds and then you'll see a yellow button labeled "listen".  Click on this to hear each bird!

If you use these and blog about them, please include a link back here.
Have a beautiful day! :)