What We're Reading October 18-29 2010

There were 4 picture books the children have really enjoyed during our study of the letter/sound Ss.  Two of the books I have posted about in the two craft/activity related posts.

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri was a cute little story about a squirrel who was just too busy to accept all the other animals' invitations to join them in some fun or relaxation.  It reminded me of the Eric Carle book, The Very Busy Spider.  Can you guess what he was busy doing? We made a cute Squirrel S craft.

Sand Castle by Brenda Shannon Yee was a simple repetitious book about some new friends who meet and work together, each supplying their own unique skill, to build a grand sand castle.  We made our own sand castle for dessert.  Here is the post.

We also read Super Sand Castle Saturday by Stuart J. Murphy.  In this Mathstart level 2 book 3 children are competing in a contest to build a sandcastle with either the tallest tower, the deepest moat, or the longest wall before the tide comes in.  The children then confuse themselves by trying to measure with different spoons, shovels or feet.  Then they discover the only reliable measure is the measuring tape used by the lifeguard who measures the inches.
I would still like to do some measuring activities to explore this concept with the girls.

Our Sesame Street Alphabet book is Ss: Slimey's Sister, Sloppy by Tish Rabe.  I'm sure most people who are familiar with Sesame Street know Oscar's pet worm Slimey.  In this book we are introduced to his sister and all the fun they have together.  I really enjoy the Sesame Street Alphabet books that read more like poems, with the rhyming and rhythmic text.  This is no exception.

Our chapter book these last couple of weeks was another one of Janette Oke's Animal Friends books titled Spunky's Diary.  Spunky is a young puppy who lives with the Dobsons. It is enjoyable to see the adventures through the naive view of the puppy.  He doesn't understand why he can't go to church or to school or do other things.  What people would see as disobedience or naughtiness I see as the confusion of a puppy who doesn't understand.  Makes me stop to think how it may be the same way for a child, to not understand and try to interpret the world around them from what they know, which isn't much to start with.  At the same time if Spunky doesn't learn to obey he is going to get himself in a world of trouble (just like little children).

I am linking this up to Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope Is the Word blog (which I just discovered).  And I will be linking up to What My Child Is Reading over at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns tomorrow.