Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Poppins Book Nook

Showing posts with label Poppins Book Nook. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Creating Our Own "Starry Night" Pictures with the Poppins Book Nook

Welcome to the October edition of Poppins Book Nook!

I am so excited to be a part of this great book club again this year. Won't you join me for a year of book related fun.

This month's theme was: Artists

I found some great children's books about artists. The problem was, narrowing them down to see what we were going to use for this month. I decided to focus on Vincent Van Gogh which worked out really well with the unit we are on in our My Father's World Adventures curriculum. We have been learning about Jesus being the light of the world, so our science lessons have been about stars. I did not plan this, and I didn't even realize the connection until after I decided we were going to make Starry Night pictures.

Our main focus was on 3 books:

Van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt

Van Gogh from the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia

Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga (a hands-on art instruction book)

I also took out these two books:

The Usborne Art Treasury by Rosie Dickins

Make Van Gogh's Bed by Julie Appel and Amy Guglielmo

We started out by reading Van Gogh and the Sunflowers. I had also taken out the book Camille and the Sunflowers: A Story About Vincent Van Gogh by Laurence Anholt. Turns out, this is the same book, just published under a different name. This is a true story from Van Gogh's life. He had gone to the south of France in search of "sunshine and bright colors." He painted Camille and his family along with many other paintings at this point in his life. However, he was unable to sell his paintings and he was ridiculed. Camille was upset at the way people treated his friend Vincent, but his father comforted him and told him one day people would love Van Gogh's paintings. The book ends by declaring that Camille's father was right and people have learned to love Van Gogh's paintings.

I have to admit, I had forgotten about Van Gogh cutting off his ear and killing himself. This information isn't in the story, but it is in the information at the side of the last page. I was going to skip it, but it turns out my daughter had already read it, so it drew more attention to what I wanted to avoid because I then had to read it.

After we were done reading, the girls wanted to get out the paints and make some pictures. Then, we used the book Discovering Great Artists to make our own "Starry Night" pictures. Even daddy and mommy wanted to make one.

We started out by cutting purple and blue paper into little buildings.

Then we glued them onto the bottom of our paper.

I then demonstrated how to paint the stars and the moon in the sky. We started with the darker colors.

As we radiated outward, we used lighter yellow.

Here are our finished paintings.

Don't forget to check out what the other Poppins Book Nook co-hosts have been up to this month. Then, don't forget to link up your own posts!

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

An InLinkz Link-up

Come and find out more information about Poppins Book Nook at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, on Facebook and on Pinterest.

Clip Art by Melon Headz

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Leafy Ogres with the Poppins Book Nook

Welcome to the August edition of Poppins Book Nook!

I am so excited to be a part of this great book club again this year. Won't you join me for a year of book related fun.

This month's theme was: Books That Were Turned Into Movies

I have to tell you, I didn't realize how many of the movies we enjoy started out as books. However, as I as reading through the list, I realized I was having a hard time narrowing it down to a book I could use for this month's Poppins Book Nook post. That was mainly because I was hoping to find a book that had something to do with one of the themes we were working on in school. For the previous two weeks we have been working on Christopher Columbus and Leif Ericsson. Plus we were learning about creation. This week we started the letter S and are going to be focusing on the Sun. Obviously that wasn't going to work real well. The other problem was, I was hoping to find a picture book as opposed to a chapter book. I ended up taking out several chapter books, though our project ended up focusing on the following picture book.

I have to say, Shrek by William Steig was a LOT different than the movie. Definitely a movie "inspired by" a book instead of a movie about the book. Not saying we didn't like it, the huge differences just took me by surprise. In this story Shrek himself has literally been kicked goodbye by his parents and is off to create his own mayhem in the world. He loves that he is repulsive. He can spray flames from his mouth and smoke from his ears. After talking to a witch, he is actually on the way to find the princess for himself with the help of a donkey that he is prophesied to find. You'll have to read the book for yourself to see what happens when he comes across said princess.

Warning, the word "jackass" is used in the book, but it is used in the appropriate context when Shrek is talking to the donkey.

Tabitha actually came up with the idea for this month's craft. Though she wanted to make the Leafy Ogres on paper plates which we didn't have. It actually worked out better though, as the ogres were a lot more unique than they could have been if they all used a paper plate. Here, let me show you what I mean.

They used what they felt were ogre colors of construction paper and cut out some heads.

Then they used leaves for ears, noses and hair. To finish the ogres off, they used crayons to add additional facial features.

Here are their finished Leafy Ogres:

In addition to Shrek, we have been reading The Wizard of Oz as our bedtime read aloud. We had watched the movie a while back as our W movie on Movie and Popcorn night. Once again, the children are able to see the huge differences between book and movie.

Some other books I took out from the library with the hopes of Tabitha or I reading them (but I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish them for this month's post): Stuart Little, The Sword in the Stone, and The Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda (the books the Nanny McPhee movies were based off of).

Don't forget to check out what the other Poppins Book Nook co-hosts have been up to this month. Then, don't forget to link up your own posts! Lastly, enter the Books That Were Turned Into Movies Bundle Giveaway.

An InLinkz Link-up

Books That Were Turned Into Movies Bundle Giveaway! Hollywood glitz and glamour means nothing without a good story. Some of the places that these block buster movies come from is straight from the pages of our favorite books. This month one lucky entrant will win the Books That Were Turned Into Movies Bundle Giveaway. The winner will receive one copy of each of these storybooks that were turned into movies: The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,Charlotte's Web, and The Gruffalo. So pop some popcorn, jump in your comfy chair, and get ready to enjoy books that were turned into movies this month with the Poppins Book Nook!

Entrants must be 18 years or older and reside in a country that receives U.S. Postal mail. This giveaway is brought to you by the company Enchanted Homeschooling Mom who is owner and founder of the Poppins Book Nook. By entering this giveaway you are also acknowledging that you have read and agree to all of the PromoSimple terms & conditions as well as Enchanted Homeschooling Mom's disclosures found here. Just enter the PromoSimple below to win:

Come and find out more information about Poppins Book Nook at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, on Facebook and on Pinterest.

Clip Art by Melon Headz

Monday, July 6, 2015

A Forest/Woods Booklist with Poppins Book Nook

Welcome to the June edition of Poppins Book Nook!

I am so excited to be a part of this great book club again this year. Won't you join me for a year of book related fun.

This month's theme was: Forests/Woods

I had fun ideas that I meant to do with the children and share with you, however, we didn't get to do what I had planned as I had surgery and have been recuperating ever since. We did get to read some lovely books revolving around the forest and the animals that live in it. So today, I would like to share a book list with you.

Books about forests:

Forest Explorer: A Life-Size Field Guide by Nic Bishop

Into the Woods: A Woodland Scrapbook by Loretta Krupinski

A Walk in the Deciduous Forest by Rebecca L. Johnson

Books about a tree in the forest:

One Small Place in a Tree by Barbara Brenner

The Dead Tree by Alvin Tresselt

A Forest Tree House by Sheryl A. Reda

Books on animals of the forests and how to identify them:

Creatures of the Woods by Toni Eugene

Animal Trackers: In Woods & Forests by Tessa Paul

Animals That Live in Trees by Jane R. McCauley

Lost in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II & Jean Stoick

Over in the Forest: Come and Take a Peek by Marianne Berkes

A book filled with poems about forest animals:

A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk: A Forest of Poems by Deborah Ruddell

Don't forget to check out what the other Poppins Book Nook co-hosts have been up to this month. Then, don't forget to link up your own posts! Lastly, enter the Bring a Caldecott Honor Book to Life Giveaway.

Enter the Woods with The Gruffalo Bundle Giveaway! Get ready for some fun in the woods with this month’s Gruffalo Bundle Giveaway! The Gruffalo is a fun children’s book set in the woods and has a very funny, yet easy to follow story. This month the Poppins Book Nook group has partnered with NCircle Entertainment to offer readers a chance to win a brand new copy of The Gruffalo storybook, The Gruffalo DVD, and the Gruffalo’s Child DVD. This month’s lucky winner will enjoy all this woods themed family storybook and DVD fun with their family compliments of NCircle Entertainment and the Poppins Book Nook cohosts.

Entrants must be 18 years or older and reside in a country that receives U.S. Postal mail. This giveaway is brought to you by the company NCircle Entertainment in connection with Enchanted Homeschooling Mom who is owner and founder of the Poppins Book Nook. By entering this giveaway you are also acknowledging that you have read and agree to all of the PromoSimple terms & conditions as well as Enchanted Homeschooling Mom's disclosures found here {http://enchantedhomeschoolingmom.org/disclosures/}. Just enter the PromoSimple below to win:

Come and find out more information about Poppins Book Nook at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, on Facebook and on Pinterest.

Clip Art by Melon Headz

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Exploring Perspective, Watercolors, and Balancing with the Poppins Book Nook

Welcome to the May edition of Poppins Book Nook!

I am so excited to be a part of this great book club again this year. Won't you join me for a year of book related fun.

This month's theme was: Caldecott Medal Books

I stopped by the library earlier this month and picked up a bunch of Caldecott medal winning books. I really wasn't sure at first how I was going to approach this month's theme. I figured, no matter what we decided to do, we could spend some time looking at these award winning books. In case you are unsure what the Caldecott Medal recognizes, as I was, I thought I would share the terms that I found on the Association for Library Service for Children site. It states, "The Medal shall be awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year."

I decided we could have some fun reading two books that had a similar theme.

Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully is a fictional account that "began as a biography of real-life daredevil Blondin. But the author changed her mind to accommodate the tree-climbing child and risk-taking adult she was and is." Mirette is the daughter of the boardinghouse owner where the Great Bellini has been surreptitiously staying. She discovers that he is a tightrope walker, but does not know that he was famous in his day. He refuses to teach her, so she teaches herself, until one day he discovers her skill and she becomes his protege. Eventually we learn why he no longer wire-walks and didn't want to teach her. She finally teaches him courage once again.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein tells the true account of Philippe Petit who walked between the Twin Towers in Manhattan, NYC on August 7th, 1974. We discover that Philippe was a street performer who had once walked between the steeples of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, his home city. Now living in NYC, he watched the Twin Towers being built and decided he wanted to walk between them. With the help of friends, he placed the wire under the cover of darkness so he could illegally perform his stunt. He eventually is arrested, though the police were not able to do so until he came off the wire. He remained on the wire for almost an hour performing.

Though we read both books together a couple of times, we focused more on Mirette on the High Wire. However, Philippe Petit's actions did fit in well with our lessons on wisdom and foolishness. Plus it was exciting to learn that this event took place when I was a year and a half old and was living in Queens NYC, but had never heard of it. We also loved that two pages unfolded to give the feeling of how big this feat was.

I discovered a book called 450 More Story S-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-r-s for the Primary Grades by Shirley C. Raines which helped me come up with ideas for activities to go with Mirette on the High Wire.

We learned a bit about perspective by looking at the different angles used for the high wire illustrations.

The book was illustrated with lovely watercolor paintings, so we took some time to create our own, starting with figuring out which angle to draw our tightrope. We then painted our own tightrope walker and added in details.

Harold just enjoyed painting.

Here is Amelia's finished painting.

And here is mine. I will have to add Tabitha's picture when I find it. It appears to have grown legs of its own and performed its own feat, one of disappearing.

When we went on our field trip to the PA Grand Canyon, an opportunity presented itself for the children to work on their balancing skills.

Don't worry, it is no longer a working railway, in fact, there is only a small section of track remaining.

Even daddy joined in.

Mommy tried, but with my foot problems, I needed help to walk just a few steps. Plus, my balance has NEVER been good.

Bring a Caldecott Honor Book to Life Giveaway! Why not have some fun crafting your way through some pretty yarn fun crafts while bringing a Caldecott Honor Book to life this month in the Poppins Book Nook! Every month this group will be offering readers a chance to win a brand new storybook or product that ties in with our theme for the month. This month one lucky entrant will win the Bring a Caldecott Honor Book to Life Giveaway. The winner will enjoy two fun Caldecott Honor Book themed learning items. The two items that they will win is the Extra Yarn storybook by author Mac Barnett and a fun Yarn Craft kit by Alex Toys. So let’s all get to reading to Bring a Caldecott Honor Book to Life this month with the Poppins Book Nook!