365 Days Outdoors: Water Fights and Hanging Out

The best place for a splash fight is grandma's house. Simply fill a bucket with water,

Aim at your opponent and fire.

He will get drenched, securing victory.

Peace time will be so sweet!

We linked up with Rural Thursday.

Fairy Tales are not all shelved under Disney

One of the most popular types of books for children are fairy tales. One of the most popular questions I receive while working in the library is, "Where are your classic fairy tales located?" Nine times out of ten, they are really asking where the DISNEY fairy tales are located.

I'm a huge fan of Disney. In fact, my favorite book as a child was the Golden Book version of Cinderella. I don't know how many copies of that book I went through because I absolutely loved it. That being said, I've also extensively studied fairy tales through classes and research. So for me, the CLASSIC fairy tales are shelved under 398.2 in Dewey, and Disney is not the author.

In the 398.2 section, you'll find so many versions of the classic fairy tales. Some of them are gruesome with definite right and wrong mentality like the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Charles Perrault. Others take these classic tales and put them into another culture or time. Several show beautiful illustrations with only slight changes to the original story.

If you only look under Disney, you'll miss several of my favorite fairy tales like The Snow Queen, The Polar Bear King and The Mask of the Dancing Princess. If you only look under Disney, you'll only ever see the recognizable cartoon characters and miss the art of talented illustrators.

I'm writing this post because I absolutely DO NOT discourage parents from taking home Disney books. I encourage children to read anything, because reading is so important. If they are reluctant readers, seeing characters who appear on TV may be the only way to get them hooked. By writing this post, I'm hoping to make you aware of the alternatives. The next time you visit your library, ask the librarian to show you the 398.2 section of classic fairy tales.

Read & Learn Fireflies

Glow in the Dark Firefly prop

"Firefly Fly" sung to the tune of "Three Blind Mice" by Miss Meredith.

Fly, fly, fly,

Fireflies fly.

Fly over here.

Fly over there.

They fly up high, and they fly down low.

Around and around and around they go.

They fly fast, and they fly slow.

Fireflies fly.

The theme of the week was fireflies and crickets, but I love fireflies too much to split the attention. I read Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges and The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle. We sang "Firefly Fly" with the light on a couple of times flying around the firefly props.

Glow in the Dark Firefly prop

Then, I slowly turned out the lights, so the children could see each firefly magically light up.


 "Little Firefly" sung to the tune of "This Little Light of Mine" adapted by Miss Courtney.

See a little firefly,

Flying in the midnight sky.

See a little firefly

Flying in the midnight sky.

See a little firefly

Flying in the midnight sky.

With a light, oh so bright, oh so bright.

For the craft, we made the band-aid firefly. We used stickers for the glow part.

WMCIR: The Greedy Python

Bobo's favorite book from this round has been The Greedy Python by Richard Buckley with illustrations by Eric Carle. The greedy python is hungry and gobbles up everyone he comes across. He eats a rat, a monkey and even an elephant. Then, the python begins to feel ill when all the animals start jumping around in his belly. After the animals escape, the python finds an even better treat, his own tail. He's so greedy, he eats himself right up and disappears. Bobo's favorite picture is the greedy python's swollen belly after he's eaten the elephant. This book is part of a new series of easy readers, so the text has simple structure with vocabulary that can be identified by the illustrations. So far, I've really enjoyed what I've been seeing.

As I've said in several other posts, I adore Mo Willems' books. I finally coaxed Bobo into telling the Pigeon, "No!" He gets it, now, and thinks telling him no is really funny. He did say, we'd have to let the pigeon stay up a little later because he said Please. If we ask for something nicely in our family, we try to say Yes. After a couple of seconds, he told the pigeon to go to bed now.

From the author of the Do Princesses... finally comes a book for boys and girls. This is my favorite of this series because a super hero can be a girl or a boy as shown in the illustrations of a boy and his little sister. The rhyming text and colorful illustrations make this a fun read aloud. Bobo loved that the teddy bear and dog were both dressed like super heroes. His favorite part of the book was the very end where the boy is looking at his father and asking if there is a difference between regular heroes and super heroes. 

Look on my sidebar to see all the other What My Child is Reading posts.

Vertical learning without the easel

The Invitation:
Old rug

Newspaper taped to window
Paper taped to newspaper
Paints

Real paint brushes

I read recently that 3-year-olds should write, paint or create on a vertical surface every day. It helps with pre-writing skills. We don't have an easel, but the window works just fine.

Flannel Friday: Ten Flashing Fireflies

Miss Meredith made the velcro firefly story board this week and I added the rhyme.

"Ten Flashing Fireflies" by Miss Courtney

Ten flashing fireflies flying in the night

One's bright light

Went night, night

Good-bye, sleep tight!

(count down to one)

No more fireflies flashing in the night

They are all gone, good night!

The velcro story could also be used to replace or re-tell the book Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges. See what the rest of the Flannel Friday group has been up to this week at Read, Rhyme & Sing.

365 Days Outdoors: Why always keeping a bathing suit in the car is a GREAT idea!

You never know when you may come across a great place to jump in!

Run wild...

get your hair wet...

and cool down!