V, W, and wrap up Alphabet theme

We read a few books to finish up our alphabet theme. We still have a few books on hold so you'll see a few more posts coming soon :).

The Magic School Bus Voyage to the Volcano
It's a chapter book and I didn't realize this. We're planning to look for some fun picture books to read another time. This book would be wonderful to teach kids about volcanoes though! I learned a lot. It has a lot of information and it's presented in a fun way. It was more fun for me than Monkey though.

The Worm Family by Tony Johnston
This book had a really fun message. This family was proud of their worminess. They sang a song about how loud and proud they were to be worms. They were shunned by other families but stayed strong. In the end they were accepted because they were proud of who they were. This would be a GREAT book to read to a child who is being torn down or to read often to your child to help them realize they are special and should be proud of what they have and who they are. It was fun.

The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! By Steve Martin and Roz Chast
Another fun book. This wrapped up our alphabet theme. It highlights each letter (like Dr's Seuss's ABCs book) and gives a funny little two line poem for each one. It's a fun read-check it out!

Turtles and Aesop's Fables

We chose to read about turtles for our letter T today. We had an added bonus of getting a book that had a bunch of Aesop's fables though!

Turtle in the Sea by Jim Arnosky
Cute book about a mama turtle who lays eggs on the beach. Talks about the life cycle of a turtle and how it went through so many struggles in life yet still laid eggs.
The Rabbit and the Turtle: Aesop's fables retold by Eric Carle
This is a great book to teach morals to your children. It contains the following stories:
-The Lion and the Mouse (teaches friends come in all shapes and sizes-a mouse helps a lion that's in trouble because the lion didn't eat him)
-The Wolf and the Dog (teaches being free is the greatest gift-wolf wants to be a guard dog until it realizes it needs a collar and would be tied up)
-The Fox and the Crane (teaches treat others as you want to be treated-fox invites crane to dinner but crane can't eat off fox's plates so crane invites fox over and fox can't eat out of a goblet)
-The Cat and the Mouse (teaches that an idea isn't always enough-mice plan to put a bell around cat's neck so they will hear cat coming but no one volunteers to do it)
-The Monkey and the Fox (teaches to not try to be something you're not-Monkey imitates a king so everyone except fox votes for him, he ends up falling for a trap)
-The Rabbit and the Turtle (classic slow and steady wins the race-rabbit and turtle race, rabbit decides to rest until turtle catches up but turtle wins)
-The Wolf and the Lamb (when faced with danger make wise choices-wolf catches a lamb who for her final wish asks for wolf to play her music, eventually the shepherd hears and doesn't recognize the music and comes to save the lamb)
-The Fox and the Ox (be proud of who you are-frog tries to be big like ox and ends up blowing up even though his family told him to stop)
-The Blackbird and the Peacock (don't pretend to be someone you're not-a blackbird wants to be a peacock so it sticks feathers in its belt and everyone makes fun of him)
-The Fox and the Crow (common sense is greater than beauty-a baby fox is hungry so it's mama starts talking about how beautiful everything about a crow is, crow starts singing and drops its food and the baby fox eats it)
-The Grasshopper and the Ant (always prepare for tomorrow today-grasshopper sings all summer while ants work, in the winter grasshopper has no food)

F is for Fish-a Rainbow Fish!

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
I was quite disappointed by the reviews on Amazon for this book because this was one of my favorite books growing up. We ordered a copy for ourselves. This book is simply about sharing and that is what children get out of it. The whole moral of the story is that is you share with everyone you will be happy. My son LOVED the sparkling scales on the fish (that was my favorite part growing up too)

Curious George

We LOVE Curious George at our house. We own this book and we love to read about George. My son's nickname is Monkey and I call him George a lot because he likes to be curious and get in to trouble (like any other 14 month old!). I highly recommend that book. It has all of the original books in it by Margret and H.A. Rey. We decided to check out all of the books that our library has about George so look forward to another post soon when we get the rest of them!

Curious George Visits a Toy Store
I wouldn't say this is our favorite George book but it's still fun. There's a new toy store that opens and George is excited to check out the new toys. He learns how to Hula-hoop and helps children get toys off high shelfs. The owner is mad at him throughout the book because he keeps making messes but in the end realizes that he made the grand opening a big success.

Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon
George and his friend visit Mt Rushmore on a vacation. Workers are working on Mt Rushmore and George wants to go in a helicopter to see what they're doing up close. They have to run to see the hot air balloon race though. While everyone is distracted George sees a rope and MUST climb it. While he's climbing the rope up to a balloon the rope that's holding the balloon down comes undone so he starts going up and up with the balloon. George ends up at Mt Rushmore again and helps save a stranded worker. They land and a big crowd rescues them. George then gets to go on a helicopter ride to see Mt Rushmore closer.

Curious George's First Day of School
I really liked this one and think we'll have to buy it so we can read it over and over when we're learning colors.

George is invited to visit school. He is very helpful all day. They get to paint and only have red yellow and blue paints. He decides to make more colors. He ends up mixing them all together and makes a big mess. He tries to clean it up but makes more of a mess and gets upset that everyone is mad at him. His classmates help him clean up.

Curious George Feeds the Animals
George visits the zoo and feeds the animals. He gets in trouble for feeding the animals until a lost parrot finds him. He's told not to feed the animals but is thanked for helping find the parrot. There are a lot of animals he sees (you read what they are) so it's great for learning animal names.

Ducks and Dragons (and a Cow and Pig too)

It's been a while so I'm reading A LOT this week so we can catch up before our trip. We picked up a bunch of books from the library last week and plan to pick some more up today. When I was getting books I browsed a bit and found a cute book about a cow and a pig that are confused. I will talk about the dragon and duck books first.

There's a Dragon in my Sleeping Bag by James Howe
This is a book about imaginary friends (a dragon and a camel). The dragon was made up by the older brother to keep his little brother from sleeping in his room, eating at his place at the table, playing on the swingset, etc. The little brother "meets" a camel and the camel keeps the big brother from doing the same things. The camel and dragon become friends and later move to Boston and the brothers realize what it is to be brothers. This would be a great book for brothers (or sisters) that are having sibling rivalry issues but it's also a fun book for anyone.

The Ugly Duckling (we read the one I linked but the story is by Hans Christian Andersen and all of them are similar)
This is a story EVERY child should hear. It's about a duckling who was rejected by everyone because he was ugly. After many trials he grew up to be the kind of bird he loved the most-a swan. He loved himself at that point. This book is great for self-esteem. It teaches children they should love themselves no matter what others say.

The Cow that Went Oink by Bernard Most
We found this one by browsing at the library. I liked the title. It's about a cow that says "oink" and a pig that says "moo". All of the animals in the barnyard laugh at them because they're different (they laugh with their own animal sounds which my son thought was fun). They teach each other to say the opposite thing and have the last laugh. They ended up being bilingual. We thought this book was fun.

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Today we lumped caterpillars and butterflies together. We read 3 books:

The Caterpillar and the Polliwog by Jack Kent

This is a cute story about a caterpillar who brags to all the creatures around the pond about how she'll become a butterfly when she grows up. A fish tells a polliwog that he'll change into something else too. The polliwog thinks he'll become a butterfly too so he watches closely as the caterpillar goes about her transition and doesn't notice he's changing too. Great for little ones to learn about changing and loving who they are.

I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe

This is a little bit longer of a read but it is about a cricket who doesn't like himself and thinks he is ugly. He has to learn to love himself instead of wishing he was a butterfly.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
A classic that just turned 40! This is an excellent board book that talks about the journey of a caterpillar starting out as an egg, eating everything in sight, and then becoming a butterfly. It's my son's favorite because it's fun to flip through.