Story Stretchers: Snow

Today was one of those perfect days that I was looking so forward to in late fall/early winter. The kind where you hibernate inside because it's too cold/snowy to go anywhere and your house just feels the perfect combination of cozy and inviting to keep you warm and happy. We didn't have cabin fever (this unusual winter has been to thank for that) and there was absolutely nothing on our agenda. It really wasn't that cold or snowy outside either, but given how mild our weather has been, this was one of the colder/snowier days of the season! :)

All of us stayed in jammies all day, except for Will who changed into fleece pants and a t-shirt. No matter the weather, that boy prefers bare feet and short sleeves. He's nuts.

I actually borrowed these books to make us feel some semblance of a winter. Because, despite the pleasant driving/running conditions, we have missed the snow.

Cynthia Rylant's book is enchanting and cozy. She writes about the different kinds of snow... Not in a scientific way, but in the ways that snow makes you feel (peaceful) or in the effect it has on your life (being sent home from school because of an impending storm). This sort of snow on the first page - the kind that comes softly at night - is what we're experiencing right now.

The images of snowflakes were so pretty too.

The second book was one I know would be appreciated by all my teacher friends out there. I'd highly recommend them both to read with your children, but this one I know many teachers and students can relate to. Although not this winter!
The illustrations are different than the Cynthia Rylant book, but equally good. The book starts out with the weatherman forecasting a storm and the children and their dad getting hyped up for a SNOW DAY! They talk about all the things they'll do like "piling on the sofa and snuggling under that old blue blanket" or "sipping hot chocolate from giant snowman mugs". They plan to go out and play in the snow and just generally enjoy a day off of school/work... until they wake up the next morning to see the children outside the window dressed in coats and hats and... backpacks? Uh oh. In there expectation of a snow day, they've neglected to think about the possibility that they may not actually get a cancellation! And so they're rushing around and very late and we comically learn the father's career.

For our "snow day", we watched strong winds blowing huge flakes horizontally... interchanged with patches of beautiful sun that melted whatever just fell. Snow... melt... snow... melt... etc. Finally, later in the evening, the winds calmed (cold front had apparently blown in) and the snow started to fall more steadily and softly straight down.

These Gap pj's, Vic's sweatshirt robe and wool socks have certainly earned their money's worth since I've owned them. My very favorite things to wear for winter sleep/lounging.

Will brought this cute, little snowman home from preschool last Friday. He was one of the many snowmen hanging from the ceiling when I was there for helper day. Love him!

The kids and I worked on some "snow" crafts after breakfast today. (P.S. our weekend breakfasts have been getting embarrassingly late the past few weeks! The kids are letting us sleep later - well, Sophie is... Will's just entertaining himself when he wakes - and I'm not always preparing the night before anymore. It's kind of nice. Often, we just have a lighter, snack-type lunch and then another snack after nap on weekends since breakfast and lunch are so close together.)

The first craft was one I've seen in many places: building snowflakes out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

They each got a dish with the "supplies" and I added to them as needed. I was building a snowflake along with them since I didn't exactly have a plan of how this would work and so they just copied mine with a little assistance.

We made them basically star-shaped like some of the flakes in the Cynthia Rylant book.

The plan was to let them dry out and harden in order to possibly hang them up, but Sophie snuck back and ate all her marshmallows when know one was looking later on. So just Will's and mine are left and we'll see if they're able to be hung tomorrow. (We let him have 12 marshmallow minis after lunch since he didn't get to eat his snowflake. :) )

We also did a peel-away snowflake painting... with masking tape on card stock in the shape of a snowflake and covering the paper with blue paint. This was a big hit too.

After finishing her paper, Sophie decided to paint both her hands. I was actually happy to see this and let her go because, normally, both kids panic when their hands get dirty. I was thrilled she was exploring!

Afterward, she immediately wanted them washed though. ;)

Waiting to dry...

...and voila! Cool!

We tried a snowman snack (idea from Family Fun) and I was going to print off cards for Winter Bingo, but never got around to it.

We ate all our meals later than normal, took a nice nap, read books, watched the Buckeyes beat the Spartans in a close game, lounged, cuddled and played the day away. And it was wonderful.
Here's a peek at how the world looks out our window tonight:

Happy Snow Day!!

Story Stretchers: My Heart Is Like a Zoo

This was a totally spontaneous project.

While searching for Valentine books on our library's online catalog, I saw this title and knew it was a book I needed to get for Will. But it wasn't until we got it home that we realized all the pictures of zoo animals in the book were made up of various sizes of hearts. I thought it was a cool idea and that it would be fun to re-create some of these animals with some card stock hearts.

I pre-cut all the hearts and other miscellaneous pieces for two animals and presented them to the kids one night after dinner. Will knew ahead of time about the project because I'd already casually asked him "wouldn't it be fun if we made these animals for Valentine's Day?" So he specifically requested the bull and I just picked the seal for Sophie because it looked simple.

I was able to get more pictures of Will because he worked mostly independently. Despite what I just mentioned in the previous post about him not liking crafts... THIS was one that held his interest!

I had to talk him through creating each segment on its own and then working from one end to the other to build off of each piece.

He LOVED this project and took great pride in his final product, asking to carry it around every day.

Sophie did a great job placing the pieces in their appropriate spots and then I just helped her glue them together one at a time.

This project was such a hit, Will was begging me to make another animal the very next day. I think we waited a day or two in between, but I did prep the pieces for each of them to do a 2nd animal on another night.

This time, Sophie made a blue bunny...

...and Will made a red and orange fox.

Holding up their final products.

I love how they turned out and how much the kids enjoyed this craft.

Story Stretchers: A First Look At Coins

The book:

I first found this book in a Scholastic catalog and it immediately went on our library list. But after borrowing it and being fascinated with it (both Will & ME!), I'm so excited to see it pop up on this month's Scholastic order too. I definitely plan to order it.

The book explains lots of interesting facts about money and coins such as what sort of things (animals, cloths, salt, metals, etc) were traded as currency long ago and where/how money is made today. Each of the topics are presented as a father teaching his son about coins as a hobby... which is just perfect for us, as Craig and Will went through a little coin-fascination phase not too long ago.

As an extension of this reading, Will and I played a few rounds of "heads or tails" as he learned which side of the coin is called each and when this sort of game is commonly played, i.e. before kick-off of a football game! We also sorted through the coins in his piggy bank to look for the single letter (D, S, P or W) printed below the year on the front of each coin to see where each was minted: Denver, San Francisco, Philadelphia or West Point.

I suggested to Will's Papa Riedeman that maybe a quarter collection book for all 50 states might be a good Christmas gift for Will. Craig and Will were collecting awhile back, but I don't think they ever had a good place to store them and I'm not sure they finished. It was cute how serious the hunt became to find each state though. I remember getting a phone call one night from Craig's sister just to tell us she'd found an Oklahoma quarter for Will. :)

I also told Will about the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland that I remember visiting when I was in high school. Perhaps a visit there would be in order the next time we're in Cleveland?? :)

Here's another older library list that we worked through a couple weeks ago:

And a slightly shorter one last week as we waited for several of the Christmas books we requested to come in:

And this has become a very frequent sighting over the past few months: Will reading books independently and, on occasion, Sophie stopping to listen. :) I LOVE it!!!

Story Stretchers: Telling Time

Will has been interested in learning to read an analog clock ever since Aunt Casey and Uncle Dub got him a couple of toy clocks for Christmas. Often in the evening, he'll tell me "Let's get out my clock and I'll set it for what time I'm going to get up in the morning". :) We have the Melissa and Doug wooden clock with shape pieces for the numbers and also a Learning Resources clock that shows digital and analog time. For awhile now, Will has been able to tell time to the hour and half hour. We're just now starting to introduce quarters.

A couple weeks ago, we borrowed this book from the library and it really increased our clock play recently:

What Time is it Mr. Crocodile? by Judy Sierra

Mr. Crocodile types up his to-do list for the following day with times listed beside each item. Throughout the book, he checks off each task at the appropriate time and each illustration includes a clock for the reader to check against the schedule. This has been great for Will to coordinate with his clock play. We even got a look at Roman Numerals on one of the clocks. Also in the story line is his obvious disdain for a certain set of "pesky monkeys". But in the end, he befriends them and changes the wording of his to-do list for the following day.

I recently found these flashcards at Office Max when I was there purchasing the circle tags for the drink glasses at Will's birthday party. Will has a thing for flashcards. We have several different sets. These are just the hour and half hour cards shown. In the box, there are also quarter after and quarter till cards and a few other random times. What I liked about this exercise is that it reminded me to explain to Will that the hour hand is not directly on top of the hour number unless it's the start of the hour (o'clock). So when it's 1:30, the hour hand is between one and two. I just explained that in most cases (except for example 12:30, 12:45, etc.) the hour is the smaller number on one side of the hour hand. We're still working on that.

I think Will might like his own watch this Christmas! :)