Review: Dinosaur Countdown

Dinosaur Countdown by Nicholas Oldland

My Rating: 3 out of 5 Smiling Deinonychus

Recommends for readers of 1-2-3 Dinosaurs Bite! A Prehistoric Counting Book by the American Museum of Natural History, Dinosaurs! by Gail Gibbons and Inside-Outside Dinosaurs by Roxie Munro.

Summary: Count to ten with lots of happy dinosaurs.

Review: The best parts of Dinosaur Countdown are the numerous smiling dinosaurs. Most of the books you find on the shelf about dinosaurs are realistic to the point of being a little bit scary. The other extreme is having dinosaurs that look nothing like any fossils ever found. I'll never forget when I shared a magnet board tale of ten dinosaurs in storytime and a little enthusiast shouted, "Those aren't REAL!!!"

Children can learn to count to ten with realistic, friendly dinosaurs. My favorite part of the book is the 0/none page where fossils are shown. I would have rated this book higher if the pronunciations were included on the page. They are included in the back (on my Kindle version), but it's difficult to flip back and forth. My storytime anecdote should serve as a warning, you definitely want to pronounce everything correctly!

Sensitive Readers Beware: No objectionable material.

D is for Daredevil

The usual suspects:

Sorting capital/lowercase magnets

Practice letter shape with Crayola monster flashcards

Color weekly superhero

Leapfrog flashcard D (for drum)

Play dough

Letter worksheets from Raising Rockstars

Honestly, I couldn't find much for Daredevil, so I also looked for Dash sheets from the Incredibles. There wasn't anything out there that I could find. Note to all you tech savvy mama's: Please make an Incredibles Preschool Pack! Instead, I chose to use the materials we already had on hand. We've used the DC sticker books in the past, but I found this Dinosaur sticker book to use this week. Bobo worked on the parts of T-Rex and the life cycle of a dinosaur.

We made dinosaurs out of Play-Doh and letter Ds.

We have a large collection of coloring and activity books, so I pulled out the How to Train Your Dragon one. The riddle activity was Bobo's favorite. 

We attempted to watch the Daredevil movie with Jennifer Garner (I just started watching Alias on Netflix!!!), but we couldn't get through it. We didn't even make it to Elektra's appearance.

Our favorite video of the week is "Dee Doodley Do" from the StoryBots.

Shared with TGIF.

Marble Valentines

I've had this idea pinned for a long time from the Chocolate Muffin Tree. We used Super Foam from the Dollar Tree and food color mixed with a little water.

Spray lots of shaving cream on a tray and smooth it out. Bobo used a clay tool.

Use a dropper to put colors all over the shaving cream.

Then, cover yourself with the colorful shaving cream. What? Wait a minute, first cut out a heart from white paper and place it flat on the shaving cream. Scrape off the shaving cream and let dry.

After they are dry, you can glue them to anything. Bobo chose red paper. We've been reading lots of Valentine books the past couple of weeks. This activity goes great with any of them.

Shared with Read.Learn.Explore and TGIF.

Valentine Read Alouds

Jasper is searching for the perfect gift for his bunny love. Snowy Valentine reminds me a bit of the Gruffalo in that it is a circuitous story with a hint of danger. Bobo and I both enjoyed this adorable story.

I Love You, ZooBorns! is a fantastic easy reader with new vocabulary. The owl is our favorite. He's so fluffy and cute! The photography is just right with capturing the love mood.

The perfect Valentine book for a boy! Leon has a secret crush on Zoey Maloney. He makes her a Valentine confessing his love. The Valentine tries to persuade Leon to give up his crush because, 

Love is yucky,

Stinky too!

It will turn your brain to goo.

Bobo has been singing this song all week. The little Valentine may change his mind about love when he comes face-to-face with a girl Valentine. Definitely check this book out for a funny, upbeat Valentine story.

I love Jan Brett, but I don't often share her stories aloud. The story becomes richer with the illustrations, which you need to explore carefully. It doesn't lend itself to sharing with a large group. Fortunately, I have an audience of one at home, so I was excited to read the new Jan Brett book about a lovesick turtle. Mossy is an interesting character. She is a turtle who loves her home and even begins to grow part of it on her shell. She is discovered by a natural museum curator and taken away. But the curator's niece shows her aunt, Mossy would be happier in her natural environment. Mossy returns to her beloved Lilypad Pond to find her mate, Scoot. The last page is simply an illustration, which I flipped right over, but Bobo exclaimed, "Awww, her babies!" When I turned back, Mossy did indeed have a family.

What has your family been reading? Find more ideas for read alouds at Read-Aloud Thursday and the Children's Bookshelf.

Bloodlines Series

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2)
The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines #3)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Performance-enhancing Tattoos

Recommends for readers of Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, House of Night series by P.C. Cast or Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine.

Summary: Sydney is an alchemist who uses her powers in the magical world's equivalent of the CIA. She covers up vampire and dhampir activity to protect innocent humans. Before she met Rose Hathaway, she believed vampires and dhampirs were demonic, something to be feared. Now that the vampire royal family is in danger, which side will Sydney choose to protect?

Review: Bloodlines takes place in the same world as the Vampire Academy series with some of the same characters. Do you need to read the other series first? I say, "Why wouldn't you?!?" I may be a bit biased as VA is my favorite book series of all time. I think everyone, everywhere should read them regardless if you go on to read Bloodlines.

Once you read VA, you will be compelled to read this series, though. I will tell you why in one word, "Adrian." Adrian is the bad boy love interest of the main character in VA. He is also in this series and has gone back to his bad boy ways. Plus, you may want to find out what happens in the political upheaval in the aftermath of Last Sacrifice.

Let's say you don't want to read VA, first. (Again, WHY NOT?) Then, you'll simply be starting a series surrounding the lives of the secret agents of the vampire/dhampir world who use magic to battle the forces of evil. Still interesting, right?

Sydney comes from a long line of alchemists. She grew up with a demanding father who wished for a boy. She has never been to a regular school, instead she was taught the art of alchemy at home.  Perhaps most important, Sydney is a sister who will do anything to protect her family. She takes her work seriously, and right now her work is protecting the vampire princess from assassination.

Bloodlines is full of mystery and action. It is light on love, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Sydney is the exact opposite of Rose. She is a logical introvert. Again, this is not necessarily bad. I've only read the first two books. The third, Indigo Spell, just came out and we still have three more books coming. I think Sydney has plenty of room for development. She's already adding more color to her wardrobe!

Sensitive Readers Beware: I consider this series to contain mature content in general. There may not be sex or offensive language (yet), but the tone is dark.  

Preschool Trays: Valentine's Day

Magnetic science tray. Bobo asked for the magnet balls and I added the pipe cleaner hearts.

Heart skewers in styrofoam. Stickers on heart-shaped box.

Heart beads and heart-shaped boxes.

I didn't get pictures of some of the invitations because Bobo was so eager to decorate. He filled a vase with heart gems and flowers. He put together the materials for this one.

I love these stamp sets they sell at the Dollar Tree. They are the perfect size with nice variety. The stamp pad was dry from this one, but we've gotten ones in the past that worked. I just used another stamp pad. Or you can use paint.

And now some non-related trays. Daddy's concert is coming up this week, so there's lots of music and practice. Bobo has his own music tray.

And a couple of trays that came in our early learning bag this month. Drawing shapes.

Thomas wooden puzzles. The puzzles we borrow in these bags are so much better than the ones I've bought at the dollar store. I'm inspired to look for high-quality puzzles, now.
Sharing with Montessori Monday, Tuesday Tots, Finished Fridays and the Kids Co-Op.

Sensory Bin: Valentine

What's in the bin?

Rose petals (fabric)

Heart jewels (pink and red)

Glittery foam hearts (pink and red)

Heart-shaped cardboard boxes

Heart-shaped balloon

Red potpourri

Bobo helped with the construction of the bin this time from start to finish. We also purchased some Easter items, which explains the bunny ears. I love how this box smells! Bobo had lots of fun sorting the potpourri. He was heartily disappointed that everything wasn't for decorating. However, I think I appeased him with other activities.

Shared with Tuesday Tots, Share It Saturday and the Kids Co-Op.