May 10th, 2008 by Marie
Have a happy Mother’s Day!
May 9th, 2008 by Marie
Today’s storytime with Make and Takes brings us to the book my son and I just finished reading, The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid by Geronimo Stilton. It’s an adventurous chapter book, part of the Geronimo Stilton series.
As I mentioned earlier in my Chapter Book post, my son received this book on CD and had previously listened to it on his own. I wanted to know what it was all about too, so we checked it out from our local library and read it aloud together. It involves a mouse named Geronimo, who owns a newspaper company and travels the world having exciting stories to write about.
To celebrate this book, we made our own Cheese Pyramids. I cut up some cheese squares, ready for building. I just happened to have Swiss cheese too, perfect for the holes that the Cheese Pyramid has in the book.
My son also drew a picture of a cute little mouse, cut it out, and it lived in the pyramid for a time. We also had fun eating our cheese pyramids with crackers at the end of building. It was fun to read together and then celebrate the book with cheese.
If any of you would like to be a Guest Make and Taker, sharing your favorite story and a celebration activity, leave a comment or email me at marie[at]makeandtakes[dot]com.
May 8th, 2008 by Marie
Stitch this Daisy card just in time for Mother’s Day. It’s the perfect card for Mom or even just for Spring. Stitch this card to be given with a gift, framed as a gift, or make a bunch for Mom to give away with her gifts.
Supplies: Everything is available at your local craft or fabric store.
Instructions: For complete instructions on Punching, Stitching, and Gluing this card, please visit my Spider Card Pattern.
Sharing Their Cards: Here is what Sew I Can stitched with the pattern for a Baby Binky Card, and it looks great. If anyone else is stitching and wants to share their fun Hand-Stitched cards, email me at marie[at]makeandtakes[dot]com.
May 7th, 2008 by Marie
Here’s a fun card for Mom at Mother’s Day. It can be made for Grandmas, or other Mother’s you think are fabulous. It’s also a great activity for students to do in class, to take home to their Moms.
Fold your paper in half. Write the word MOM at the bottom of a paper, cardstock paper would work best. Then open up the card and trace over the same “MOM” letters on the inside. It will form the word “WOW” at the top.
Mom’s won’t expect to see the trick word on the inside. When they open up the card and see the word “WOW”, they’ll feel wonderful!
I also like to spell words with the letters W O W too. Like Wise Older Woman, Wacky Original Watcher, Wildly Offroad Wonderer, or Wonderful Omniferous Woman (omniferous means bearing everything).
In addition to this fun card, here’s the perfect treat to make for your WOW MOM! Visit Bakerella who creates an amazing cupcake dessert dedicated to Mom.
May 6th, 2008 by Marie
For Mother’s Day a few years back, my sweet hubby made me the bookmark on the right (I know, very creative!). It has been my favorite gift, I love looking at the photos of my cuties. The next year, we made these bookmarks for Grandmas and they loved them even more. One Grandma keeps it in her purse instead of her books.
To make these photo bookmarks, find a Photo booth that makes the line of black and white photos, some are in color now. I have always found these booths at Kmart or sometimes at the mall. The example below was made with my computer out of photos I have and I cropped them to fit the size of a bookmark. Once you have the photos printed, then cut a piece of cardstock paper a little larger than the photo line. Glue the photo line onto the paper.
You can also decorate on the back of the bookmark. Another photo line can be added or a fun saying. You could put meaningful sentiments from you as well. I typed up lots of ways to say the word “Mother” in different languages. Then add a few stickers or ribbon to embellish.
Now you will need to seal this so it will last forever. You can go to a copy store and have it laminated. Or you can buy contact paper to laminate it yourself.
It’s now ready for a Mother and a good book. Here is one of my favorite books for Mother’s Day. It is called, What Moms Can’t Do by Douglas Wood. It talks about how Mom’s can’t “make the bed without help” or “Mom’s can’t hear themselves think!” It’s cute, a perfect story for any Mom.
May 5th, 2008 by Marie
I love to celebrate Teacher Appreciation, going on this week May 5th-9th. It helps remind me of the great things our teachers do. It’s always nice to receive a little extra love from your students. Because some days, being a teacher is the hardest job around.
My suggestion for your gift to a teacher is a classroom donation. We all know a teacher’s salary is limited, so helping fill up the classroom is the best gift you could give. Either make a guess at what your child’s classroom may need or simply ask the teacher what they would love to have on hand. Most teachers will be eager to tell you what they could use for the classroom and their students.
Here’s a few things I’m sure your child’s classroom could use for any grade:
Here are a few other sites to visit with great gift ideas for teacher:
Big thanks to my son’s preschool teacher. He has been lucky to have her for 2 years of preschool. My daughter will be doing the same this fall and she can’t wait to start.
Thanks to all our teachers out there, and know that we love what you do!
May 2nd, 2008 by Marie
This week for Storytime with Make and Takes, we read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. With Spring planting upon us, I couldn’t resist choosing this fun and colorful story. This book talks about all the colors of the rainbow and where we see them. There’s a rainbow of colors we see in the garden with lots of colorful flowers to plant and vegetables to eat.
To celebrate this book, we chose to plant a rainbow of flowers in our own garden. We went to the local garden nursery and searched for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple flowers. My kids loved helping find the colorful flowers. Blue and green were a little bit harder to find. For blue, we found a large perennial plant called Lithidora. For green, I decided to plant the herb Parsley. I don’t really know of any plants that have green flowers, do you? You could also use a pretty grass plant.
I almost planted this rainbow in little individual pots for each color and was going to have them coming down our steps. But I found we had just enough space in our little patch of dirt by the house. We got out the garden gloves and planted the rainbow right in a row. I didn’t plant all of the flowers that came in the pack. I saved some for a large planter we have by the deck. We are now ready to water and watch our rainbow grow.
Another part of this fun book talked about planting a rainbow of vegetables. You could easily find colorful veggies to plant in a row. You could do tomatoes, carrots, yellow peppers or tomatoes, broccoli or cucumbers, blue potatoes, purple/red onion or eggplant. The book gives lots of suggestions for different plants and vegetables to use.
Have fun reading and planting you own rainbow garden! I’ll be sure to post again when our rainbow is in full bloom.
May 1st, 2008 by Marie
I am happy to be participating in The Art Inside Boutique. This fabulous Spring Boutique is Saturday, May 3rd, from 10-4. If you are in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, come join the fun, directions are on the blog.
This is one of my favorite boutiques. There will be food, music, and great things to buy. It’s located in a beautiful home, with gardens that are amazing to walk around. Come join the fun, with eating, socializing, and lots of great shopping.
P.S. There is still a giveaway happening on the blog. Check the Art Inside sidebar for your chance to win something fabulous from the boutique!
Apr 30th, 2008 by Marie
As much as I love picture books to read with my kids, I love reading chapter books with them too. In school, it’s often referred to as a “Read Aloud”, meaning you read it aloud to the kids. My son is 5 and I decided to try reading a chapter book with him. Even though some things may be a little over his head, he is catching most of it and loves it. I also think he loves the “mommy reading” time too.
It can be tricky for kids to transition from a picture book to a chapter book. With very few pictures, chapter books use a child’s whole imagination, hearing your words and forming their own images. After each chapter, I suggest you do a little review with your kids, whether they’re young or older. This way you see if they got the main idea of the book, then you’re ready to move on to the next chapter.
My son and I are currently reading Curse of the Cheese Pyramid from the Geronimo Stilton series. Grandma had given this book to my son on CD and he has already listened to it before. It was fun for me to be involved in the book this time and read it to him again. We already have a fun Make and Takes Storytime idea all lined up for celebrating this book when we are finished.
Here are a few Chapter Book suggestions to start with.
Younger Kids:
Older kids:
Books as Movies: I also like to choose chapter books that have been made into movies. The book may be easier for your child to grasp if they have seen the movie version first. It will be more familiar to them. Here are a few good ones.
What chapter books have your Read Aloud to your children? I know there are SO many more great ones out there!
Apr 29th, 2008 by Marie
I had such a great week posting as a Guest Mom over at Design Mom. She is lovely and a very gracious host. I had fun writing about kids crafts, why to craft with kids, and how to make crafting easy with some simple tips. Here’s a review of the posts I wrote over at Design Mom last week.
