Friday, 5 June 2009

Wreck this journal ~ First Day..with a helper!



Today is the first day of the Next Chapter book club for Wreck this Journal by Keri Smith. This is going to be so interesting...seeing everyone's creative destruction! I hope to see lots of pictures from the other participants, so I will make sure to add many in my posts!

I had mentioned here that my son wanted to help me along with the destruction, but this morning I had a different helper.. my little one, Celeste (5) asked to help. We picked the Instructions page, coloured all the letters with crayons, then used watercolours pencils and water to create a background. Lots of fun!

Next we worked on the paper chain page. Celeste coloured the top part of the little strips with crayons, and I did the bottom. I ripped the page out and she cut the strips. We both constructed the chain. I can't say I see the destruction too much from today's pages, besides ripping the one page out of the journal, but it was a lot of fun anyway !





The destruction has begun!!


wreck this journal

Thursday, 4 June 2009

No idea how this one will turn out...

Celeste has been asking for a quilt, after all Adrienne and Andre have each one, and she doesn't...We talked about a spring theme quilt back in the fall, since she had told me that she wanted flowers, green, yellow, and pink in her quilt. I started collecting fabrics here and there for a few months. I was finally ready to start something last month.


Then she changed her mind.

Ok. Fine. It is for her, and I do want her to like her quilt. I did explain to her that she needed to choose from my fabric stash then, I couldn't buy a whole new set of fabric. She looked through and decided that she wanted a purple and pink quilt, and chose the fabrics. I am now following, loosely, the quilt-along at Old Red Barn Co. and I am not sure how it will turn out, since I don't have quite the fabric requirements for the quilt...It should be interesting! Maybe I will get a prize for creativity!


Celeste's purple & pink quilt ~ in progress

What my children are reading

We missed week 1 of this feature on The Well-Read Child" blog, but I thought we would jump right in for week 2 of "what my children are reading". We are supposed to share what our children are reading at the moment. We all love to read. They usually have a couple of books on the go, switching back and forth every night.


This week, Adrienne (almost 12) is reading the second book in the Phoenix Rising trilogy by Erica Verrilo called "Elissa's Odyssey".


Here is a short summary of the book:

"Having escaped the avaricious Khan in Elissa’s Quest (2007), animal speaker Elissa makes her way across the Great Desert to Alhamazar, where she becomes separated from her travel companions. Bereft, she lands a job as cook on a patched-together boat, thus embarking on a quest to catch up with her friends. Her powers growing as rapidly as the hazards she faces, Elissa realizes that the prophecy of the Phoenix is guiding her journey. Once again, the story’s humor pairs with riveting action that mounts to a startling conclusion, boding well for the finale of the Phoenix Rising trilogy" from Booklist.





Adrienne's other book on the night table is from the Adventures of Tintin series. She loves these, and I do too, I grew up with them! Right now, she is re-reading "Flight 714 to Sydney".






Andre (10) read "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo this year, and is now trying "The Tiger Rising". It sounds interesting. Here is the short summary from the back of the book:
"Walking through the misty Florida woods one morning, young Rob Horton discovers a large and very real tiger in a cage. On the same extraordinary day, he meets Sistine Bailey, and begins to understand that some things - like memories, and heartache, and tigers - can't be locked up forever."




The other book for Andre is "Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship" by Isabella Hatkoff, Craigh Hatkoff, and Dr. Paul Kahumbu. It is the true story of a baby hippo and a 130 year old tortoise, brought together because of the tsunami in Asia and their unlikely friendship.





It was difficult to pick just 2 books to show you what Celeste is "reading" this week, because she usually has about 10 on the go! She just turned 5 and is now starting to recognize a lot of the letter sounds, and is quite interested in learning how to read. I am planning on teaching her this summer. It will be so much fun! Anyway, we moved in our current house a year ago, but she discovered this book "Moving House" by Anne Civardi this past weekend again, so she has been reading it and asking me to read it many times during the day when she is home. I love all Usborne books, and these First Experiences series is great. The text at the top of each double page is great for beginner readers, and the text at the bottom for more experienced ones (or for Mom to read aloud).


This is also from the First Experiences series, called "Going on a Plane" by Anne Civardi. Both books have a little duck hidden in each page that add to the fun!

Monday, 1 June 2009

Book Sharing Monday

Before I start my sharing today, I wanted to say a huge WELCOME to everyone that has signed up for Book Sharing Monday over the last few weeks! Please make sure to visit all these wonderful families and read about their book choices, the list is on the left side of my blog. Again Welcome everyone!

Today I am sharing with you a beautiful and very interesting book called "Close to the Wind: The Beaufort Scale" written and illustrated by Peter Malone.

Francis Beaufort developed the thirteen-point wind scale called the Beaufort Scale which is used still today to describe the force of the wind. The book shares the diary of a young boy on a ship in the 19th century, and his reactions to the weather. At the top of each double page, you can see the Beaufort scale level, from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane), along with how the sea surface looks, the effects on land, and man-of-war (which the glossary taught me meant warship).


Here is a small section of the boy's diary during a storm:


"The master, who's sailed these waters many times, says it's a hurricane, and that we haven't felt the worst of it yet. There is now no chance of reaching Jamaica, and our best course is to run South-East before the wind, and get ourselves as far as we can from the storm's center."
Peter Malone.







If you would like to participate in Book Sharing Monday, it's easy, just follow the link below for the instructions:

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