This Week We are Reading: Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car and 3 Go-Alongs

For the last two weeks we have read Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham. I needed to choose a book that is set in England so we could continue our journey around the world we started by following the baker in How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman.  Unfortunately this book is not in Volume 1 of Five in a Row, it is in Volume 2 and I don't have that manual. So we haven't really done much besides read the book and the go-alongs and talk a little about England. You would have thought I'd have more to discuss, seeing as my mom is from England, but I didn't. We did have our two muffin tins based on this book and Mr. Gumpy's Outing.

Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car Muffin Tin:

This muffin tin was a combo of the two books:

In Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car Mr Gumpy is going for a ride on a nice day when the children and the animals all want to come along. The weather turns rainy and they get stuck in the mud because no one wants to help push. It isn't until they are completely stuck that everyone gets out to help. We talked about the need to be willing to help and cooperate. We also talked about the fact that the steering wheel in Mr. Gumpy's car is on the right side of the car. I realized after I read Mr. Gumpy's Outing that Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car is actually a sequel, which explained why all the animals just piled in all at once without much of an explanation. In Mr. Gumpy's Outing

Mr. Gumpy is going out on his boat and the two children and each animal asks in its own way if it can come and Mr. Gumpy tells each of them yes, though each one is given a condition. As we all know it is important to be very careful while going on a boat ride so they don't tip over.  Of course, one thing led to another as the animals reacted to each other and they did tip over.

We read two other books these past two weeks.

In Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough, Duck is driving down the road when he gets stuck in the muck. One by one a few friends come to help until they are able to budge that truck onto the road and it gets traction to go down the road. I love the rhyming words in this book, and we spend time finding them on each page. What I didn't like at the end of the book was that Duck went on down the road without a backward glance or a thanks and left his friends stuck in the muck. Which ended up being okay, because we were able to compare it to our next book:

In this story a more realistic duck is stuck in the muck by the marsh. He calls for help and on each page  different wildlife animals try to come to his aid. This is also a counting book. So first, two fish try to help, then three moose, and four crickets and so on. I love the descriptive words used in this story, and there is a little bit of rhyming too. Finally they all work together and get the duck out and he says, "thanks." Definitely liked this book better than the first duck in the mud book.

We still need to finish, but we are doing our find England on the map for our notebook page and matching some England landmarks to the names. As I said, nothing spectacular. 

One thing I did not plan on was their fascination with the muck and getting stuck in it. They were outside yesterday and when I looked out Tabitha was walking in the mud. I yelled at her (a bit ashamed I did) and made her come in. She was in one of her better dresses and sneakers. When she came in she said she was getting stuck in the muck. I just couldn't stay mad any longer.

And there is our muck:

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