Earth Day Book Reviews and Giveaway

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copies of these product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own, and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. They are also providing copies for the giveaway.


Today I am joining with a group of bloggers to do an Earth Day Giveaway. There are three prize packs and the information for the giveaway is below. Today I am lucky enough to review two of the books that are in the third prize pack. Hazel loves both of these books! The first book is Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree by Durga Yael Benhard. This book was released to celebrate Arbor Day which is April 24.

This book is a fun book about what you may see climbing different types of trees around the world. It is fun and the pictures are beautiful. The words are a poem and have been set to music. Here is a video of the book trailer which includes the song.




We decided to look at photographs of the types of trees and place them on a world map.Unfortunately I could not find our bigger world map and used one I printed from on-line. I took all the pictures from Wikimedia Commons. Since we had a small map all the kinds of trees could not fit on it at once. I put the small world map and the pictures in a pdf for you if you want the activity to go with the book.

I was able to find a picture of each type of tree and love having Hazel place them in the appropriate area on the map to learn a bit of geography as well as seeing the trees. Another wonderful extension would be finding where else in the world the species of tree grows.

We also saw a fun idea on DLTK of making an Earth Day Paper Quilt. We are using the label from there and may use some of the pictures, but wanted to have a picture to represent the various books we are reading along the theme of Earth Day. For this book we used a coloring page from Twisty Noodle. I resized it to be around four and a half inches. I gave Hazel a few choices and this is the one she picked.

The next book is When the Animals Saved Earth retold by Alexis York Lumbard and illustrated by Demi. 

This tale is inspired by a 1,000-year-old fable called The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn. It is a bout an place where the animals are living in harmony on their island and then after a bad storm a boat of people come to the island and immediately begin cutting, building, planting, polluting, etc. The animals finally complain to the spirit king who holds a trial to figure out what is going on. It is a wonderful reminder about how our progress can hurt the animals and the planet. We need to consider both when we decide to change our environment whether it be for progress, personal gain or just life. It is the perfect story for Earth Day. We really enjoy it. A few times Hazel has asked questions based on what is happening in the story and the title, but she really likes the book and the beautiful illustrations. Our craft for this book was making our quilt square. I had Hazel color an earth coloring page in the size of four and half inch square. Then she put animal stickers on the earth.

Our Earth Day Paper Quilt only has a few squares thus far, and we changed the middle square to one Hazel picked. We will be adding more squares throughout the giveaway and beyond. I hope you will check back to see our progress!

Earth Day Books and Music Giveaway

To inspire earth-friendly practices with your family, I’ve teamed up with several kid bloggers to bring you this awesome Earth Day giveaway. Several publishers have offered earth-themed books and music prizes for your Earth Day celebrations. Hopefully, these wonderful resources will inspire a love of nature in your children and motivate them to make a difference in the world. Amazon affiliate links are below for your convenience.  The Earth Day Giveaway co-hosts are: Kids Yoga Stories, Mama Smiles, Spanish Playground, Creative World of Varya, Crafty Moms Share, The Piri Piri Lexicon, All Done Monkey, and Eva Varga  

EARTH DAY GIVEAWAY PRIZE PACK #1

Water Rolls, Water Rises, by Pat Mora Celebrate the wonders of the water on planet Earth with this poetic and illustrative bilingual book.

Call Me Tree, by Maya Christina Gonzalez Act out this beautiful bilingual story following a young child mimicking the growth of a tree.

Kings & Queens of the Forest CD, by Kira Willey Act out a journey to the forest with Kira Willey’s enchanting yoga-inspired music.

Imaginations 2, by Carolyn Clarke Use guided imagery to explore nature while learning to calm the mind and body with these relaxation stories.

Sophia’s Jungle Adventure, by Giselle Shardlow Join Sophia and her family on a jungle adventure while learning to appreciate jungle life and doing yoga along the way.

Every Day is Earth Day Kids Yoga Lesson Plan PDF, by Next Generation Yoga Create an earth-themed yoga session with this kids yoga lesson plan.

Compost Stew, by Mary McKenna Siddals Dig into composting with this engaging rhyming text.

Too Much Junk song, by Elska Get inspired to enjoy nature and simplify your life with this new musical adventure.

Backyard Garden CD, by Earthworm Ensemble Celebrate nature, green living, and gardening with this uplifting new music.

 

EARTH DAY GIVEAWAY PRIZE PACK #2

Change the World Before Bedtime, by Mark Kimball Moulton, Josh Chalmers, and Karen Good Find out how the simple things in life that can inspire huge differences that change the world.

Picture a Tree, by Barbara Reid Discover new ways to experience trees in this book with stunning imagery.

This Tree Counts, by Alison Formento and Sarah Snow Practice counting with animals that live in trees.

Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green, by Eileen Spinelli and Anne Kennedy Join Miss Fox as she teaches her forest animal students how to go green.

In the Garden with Dr. Carver, by Susan Grigsby and Nicole Tadgell Step into the historical world of Dr. Carver as he teaches children about gardening.

What’s So Special About Planet Earth?, by Robert E. Wells Learn how planet Earth is different from other planets.

Polar Bear, Why is Your World Melting?, by Robert E. Wells Learn why and how the world is getting warmer and what we can do about it.

 

EARTH DAY GIVEAWAY PRIZE PACK #3

Earth Day CD and Recycled Musical Activities eBook, by Daria Marmaluk Hajioannou Sing and dance to catchy folk music to celebrate our beautiful rainbow world.

Nature Anatomy, by Julia Rothman Take a look at nature in a new way with this book that explains all about the nature with sketches.

Catch the Wind, Harness the Sun, by Michael J. Caduto Learn about renewable energy with 22 activities on producing and using it.

Ecology eBook – Ecology Explorations, by Eva Varga Explore your local ecosystems with this hands-on ten-week life science curriculum.

When the Animals Saved Earth, by Alexis York Lumbard Read a tale about how animals teach humans to restore balance in nature.

Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree, by Durga Yael Bernhard Explore trees all over the world and see what a child sees when climbing those trees

 

EARTH DAY GIVEAWAY FREE DOWNLOAD FOR EVERYONE

The Garden Classroom Journal, by Nurture Store Download this free Garden Classroom journal to record your gardening experiences.

Some of the resources above were given to us bloggers free for review, but the decision to include them in the giveaway was entirely our own. Please read the full Contest Rules below for details. We look forward to your entries. Thank you for taking the time to participate in our giveaway. Please let me know if you have any questions or problems with the Rafflecopter tool below by sending me an e- mail at giselle at kidsyogastories dot com.

Earth Day Giveaway

To enter the contest, sign in using your Facebook or e-mail account and click on the different ways to enter. You can enter every day, using this Rafflecopter online giveaway tool.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest Rules:

1. Entries are open worldwide.
2. You can be any age to enter.
3. Participation in the contest constitutes that you agree to the Contest Rules.
4. Please enter using the Rafflecopter tool above, obtaining points as follow the different options.
5. You can enter every day.
6. No purchase is necessary.
7. You must enter the contest giveaway with a valid e-mail address. The winner will be notified by e-mail, and at that time, we will request a mailing address. The winner must respond within 72 hours, or we will pick a different winner. The shipping of the books and CDs can take some time, depending on the winner’s location. Each publisher will ship the books separately and will cover the shipping costs.
8. If you have any questions, e-mail Giselle directly at giselle at kidsyogastories dot com.
9. The contest closes on Tuesday, April 15th, 2015, midnight EST.