In addition to What's Alive? and Curious George at the Aquarium that I mentioned previously, this is what we are reading this week:
We borrowed a few books from Uncle Dub's classroom recently (thanks, Dub!) and two of them were fun to read right after our visit to the aquarium.
1) Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae - This book has a rhymey blurb about lots of different sea animals. Will had fun showing me how to walk like a crab, snapping his pretend-claws like a lobster, and getting tickled on his belly like the mommy octopus does to her babies.
2) The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen - another of Dub's books - this one is super cute and Will likes being responsible for saying "Blub, Bluub, Blluuub" each time that page comes up. The pout-pout fish cannot be cheered up by any of his friends until, suddenly, a new lady fish comes along and plants a kiss on him.
3) Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli - I meant to pick this one up right when we got our swing set and forgot about it. It's very short and simple - a little girl swinging with her dad and requesting to be pushed higher and higher. She swings so high that she finds herself in outer space, high-fiving an alien... on a swing. :)
4) The Umbrella by Jan Brett - another good one from our beloved Jan Brett. The story line is similar to The Mitten. In this case, a little boy (Carlos) goes out for a walk in the rainforest to see some animals. He carries his umbrella with him and sets it down to climb a tree for a better view. Meanwhile, LOTS of different animals find their way into the umbrella and can't all fit.
This week, we splurged and got three more Tana Hoban books. She is just brilliant. I want to own so many of her books already.5) Shadows and Reflections is probably my favorite thus far. What an awesome collection of photographs. And how better to teach the difference between these two concepts? Will and I "play" with our shadows often so he already understood this. But now he knows the difference and can say the word "reflection".
6) Shapes, Shapes, Shapes - once more, just a collection of photographs that require a little hunting and a keen eye to spot all the different shapes involved. A new one for Will: an arc.
7) Let's Count - an excellent accompaniment to our Tot School discussion this week. His one-to-one correspondence is improving! He can now pretty solidly count 1:1 up to 6 and sometimes 7. In this book, Will read the number, spelled out the word form of the number, counted the dots on each page, and counted the number of objects in the pictures.
8) Bigger by Daniel Kirk - a cute story about a boy's ever-changing self. From inside his mother's womb to riding a bike and beyond, the boy grows bigger and bigger and bigger. The illustrations of the boy kind of creeped me out a little though.
9) Jack and Jill and Big Dog Bill by Martha Weston - I selected this one because I knew Will would enjoy it and it's an excellent phonics reader. We've been talking about letter sounds and how they come together to form words quite a bit this week. I love how this book has a letter to the parents in the front with tips on how to encourage and nurture this exciting time when a child is beginning to understand the written word. We followed their suggestions and Will was able to find a few words in the text upon my request. I'd say "Can you find the word 'hill'? It starts with the /h/ sound." Then we'd talk about the words in the text that rhyme with hill, i.e. Jill and Bill. And words that start with the same letter sound, i.e. Jack and Jill. He found the words "hill" and "dog" pretty easily. And he clearly enjoys the story. So I'd like to hang onto this one for awhile and see if he can't pick up more of the text. I'm also excited to find some more phonics readers for him to practice with!
And finally, I got a 40% coupon from Borders in my e-mail inbox this week and decided to go purchase the first book from our wish list since we've been making all these library trips. We LOVE Blueberries for Sal and I was pleased to see that they had a whole display of Robert McCloskey books in the children's section at Borders. So I purchased the hardcover copy and am excited to slowly start building a new collection of classics and favorites for the kids shelves. This week I went through all their books and got a box together of titles that just aren't that great or that have been outgrown. I plan to donate any hardcover/board books to the library and take all paperbacks to Salvation Army.
6) Shapes, Shapes, Shapes - once more, just a collection of photographs that require a little hunting and a keen eye to spot all the different shapes involved. A new one for Will: an arc.
7) Let's Count - an excellent accompaniment to our Tot School discussion this week. His one-to-one correspondence is improving! He can now pretty solidly count 1:1 up to 6 and sometimes 7. In this book, Will read the number, spelled out the word form of the number, counted the dots on each page, and counted the number of objects in the pictures.
8) Bigger by Daniel Kirk - a cute story about a boy's ever-changing self. From inside his mother's womb to riding a bike and beyond, the boy grows bigger and bigger and bigger. The illustrations of the boy kind of creeped me out a little though.
9) Jack and Jill and Big Dog Bill by Martha Weston - I selected this one because I knew Will would enjoy it and it's an excellent phonics reader. We've been talking about letter sounds and how they come together to form words quite a bit this week. I love how this book has a letter to the parents in the front with tips on how to encourage and nurture this exciting time when a child is beginning to understand the written word. We followed their suggestions and Will was able to find a few words in the text upon my request. I'd say "Can you find the word 'hill'? It starts with the /h/ sound." Then we'd talk about the words in the text that rhyme with hill, i.e. Jill and Bill. And words that start with the same letter sound, i.e. Jack and Jill. He found the words "hill" and "dog" pretty easily. And he clearly enjoys the story. So I'd like to hang onto this one for awhile and see if he can't pick up more of the text. I'm also excited to find some more phonics readers for him to practice with!
And finally, I got a 40% coupon from Borders in my e-mail inbox this week and decided to go purchase the first book from our wish list since we've been making all these library trips. We LOVE Blueberries for Sal and I was pleased to see that they had a whole display of Robert McCloskey books in the children's section at Borders. So I purchased the hardcover copy and am excited to slowly start building a new collection of classics and favorites for the kids shelves. This week I went through all their books and got a box together of titles that just aren't that great or that have been outgrown. I plan to donate any hardcover/board books to the library and take all paperbacks to Salvation Army.
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