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Showing posts with label senses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label senses. Show all posts

Vivienne in Paris -- Review & Giveaway Plus Paris-Themed Crafts

 


Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and will receive a small stipend as a participant in The Children's Book Review and Maria Castellucci Moore's Virtual book Tour. All opinions are my own.

Have you ever had a day "where you felt most alive, full of spirit, zestful, and sparkling with enthusiasm"? Today I get to share a book about enjoying one's daily activities by using their senses and truly observing their surroundings and interactions. The book is Vivienne in Paris by Maria Castellucci Moore and illustrated by Emanuela Mannello. I am also including a Paris-themed craft to go with the book and some other craft ideas for the book!

World Sight Day--Book Review: Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll


Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

http://www.iapb.org/advocacy/world-sight-day

Did you know Thursday, October 9th is World Sight Day? "World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment." (Source) This year's call to action is "No More Avoidable Blindness".

http://www.iapb.org/advocacy/world-sight-day

To celebrate World Sight Day, Tuttle Publishing asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a picture book about a blind girl and how she saves her village and they offered to send me one to giveaway. I of course said yes! So today we review Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll by Sunny Seki.

May Day at Drumlin Farm

Happy May Day!! Last year I made a miniature May pole for Hazel's seasonal table. Not sure where it is now. I will have to look for it later. This morning we made this May Day Basket. I used a printable from Fantasy Jr. Hazel practiced cutting so some of the flowers ended up square and we added some flower stickers we had.
For May Day we went to Drumlin Farm. Here in Massachusetts it was a cold, rainy day. Hazel was excited to see the puddles! We really need the rain so it was good to see it, but not a lot of fun with the cold temperatures.
Puddle Jumping!!
In our class today the focus was on hearing. We got there a bit late due to the horrible traffic in the rain. The visitor was just coming out of her cage when we got there. The visitor today was an American Kestrel, because she makes lots of noise.
Things I learned today: birds have hollow bones which is why they can fly. This bird weighs about the same as the glove our instructor had on to hold her; her ears are located at the top of the thick black stripes behind her eyes. Once again she had kestrel wings for the kids and moms to feel as well as an owl wing. The owls wings are very soft on the edges to help with the silent flight. After our visitor we made a fun craft which is perfect for this week and Cinco de Mayo!! A shaker noise toy out of a toilet paper roll and rice. Staple one end of a toilet paper roll shut. Decorate the outside how you want. Put some rice (amount up to you) and then staple the other end in the other direction to make neat shape.

Then we headed to the chicken house. We timed it well because there was still a hen out for another program so we got to pet it.

Then we got to go into the Staff Only section where the chicks are. We missed the hen house last year so we didn't get to see the chicks last year. They had three chick cages with different ages in each one.
Youngest

Then we went to see the newest babies on the farm.

Can you imagine having 11 babies? Oh, my!!
My piglet is piglet weight!
Then class was over so we walked over to see Midnight, the pony. Then wanted to check on the seeds we planted last week so we walked through the sheep and goat barn. All the goats and sheep were inside!

We thought this one was in the best spot in the whole farm! Eating and warm!
We checked our swiss chard, but it hadn't sprouted yet. Oh, well. It has been too cold here lately. Then we went to the gift shop to buy some bird seed and headed home.


A Walk on the Beach




This week was school vacation week in Massachusetts. The third Monday of April is a state holiday called Patriots Day. It also is the day the Boston Marathon is run and so many roads are closed down for parts of the day. Since we did not have any of our normal activities, Steve took the week off of work and we took a mini-vacation the second half of the week to visit my parents at Cape Cod. We packed up all three of us and the two cats to drive two hours to my parents. It wasn't a bad trip except Fluffy does not like the car and meowed a good part of the way there and most of the way home--though she wasn't as bad as I expected. She may be getting more comfortable with the car. Hopefully.

Adventures Outside Using our Senses and Imaginations


We spent much of the day outside on Saturday. Hazel has decided that the stuffed llama I got for my first Mother's Day (Heifer fundraiser--Buy a Llama for Your Mama) is a dog and it is Ducky's dog to be exact. Well she has me tie a string on to it as a leash and she drags it all over the place inside and out. Above she is running with Doggy. She would do this and then say Mommy needs to take a break now Doggy and come sit with me for a few minutes and then be off again.

As I have posted we are taking a class at Drumlin Farms on using our senses around the farm in the spring. This week we discussed sight. So today while outside we decided to pay attention to our senses. The first thing we always discuss is the sky--at least ever since we read Blue Sky by Audrey Wood. This book just shows different skies and labels them like blue sky, cloud sky, rainbow sky, etc. So now we always notice the sky and label it. Today was definitely a blue sky day.

Then we got to see a bird's nest--a sparrow's nest to be exact. We have a sparrow family that always nests on our house. So I pointed out the nest to Hazel today.
We also saw and heard lots of birds especially after we filled the birdfeeder.
Taking an idea from Living and Learning at Home (I featured this at Sharing Saturday this week), we drew pictures of what we saw, what we heard and what we felt today. I labeled all of our pictures so we would know what they were--especially Hazel's.
Hazel decided to go barefoot so she felt the grass on her feet as well as the woodchips. She didn't like the feeling of the woodchips.
She had fun filling the birdfeeder and carried the birdseed bag herself. She also liked walking on her stumps in her bare feet. I thought it would hurt, but apparently it didn't.
When we talked about what we see she mentioned the clothesline. I guess that is because we hung the clothes out when we first came outside.  Here are the pages from our journal.

 Then it was lunch time, so we had lunch outside.
Nothing like bringing in another sense to the day. Daddy wasn't home so he wasn't there to complain about having to eat outside. Hazel really wanted to so we went for it. After lunch she wanted to go for a walk. She decided she wanted to go in her stroller. I'll share in another post about our walk.  Then when we got back, Hazel was still a bit tired so we made her a place to rest.
After resting she wanted to play train. So we took the train to the zoo.
Hazel spots a red kangaroo out the train window...apparently we are visiting her pen pal in Australia.
She warned me it would be a long train ride and thought I should bring a book. I won a giveaway over at This Cosy Life which included a book, so I grabbed it.
I read the first chapter aloud with many interruptions to ask "Are we there yet?" per Hazel's request. Then she wanted to hear the first chapter again. Then I read the second chapter and at the end of it we were there and got off the train.
Then she played hide and seek with the sun. The sun went behind some clouds and she asked me where it was. I told her it was playing hide and seek so she went off to seek it. When it came back out she claimed to have found it. Then she went to hide from the sun.
I guess since she is in shade she is hiding from it.
Hazel's Talking Electric Toothbrush--or at least that is what she said it is

Next the chalk came out. She had fun drawing and then asked me to make 3 hopscotches for her. One for her, one for me and one for Daddy. She told me what to put in each box. She also drew two squares. It is the first time her squares actually looked squarish.

Then Mr. and Mrs. Mallard came for a visit. (Hazel had been asking me all day if they would.) We fed them some bread.
Hazel loves feeding them!
They were still out there when Daddy came home so we fed them some more. In fact they may be nesting out there. They seemed to not like us seeing them in one part of the brook.
After that we went out for ice cream--but I'll share that for Tuesday's Happy Family Times post. Hope you had a great weekend!!