Picture Books for Animal Lovers

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is almost here? Time is flying by as usual. It is time to think about gift buying and the holidays. Today I am doing a round-up of picture books that are perfect gifts for animal lovers!! Do you know any young animal lovers? Perhaps kids who love the Wild Kratts like Hazel did?  To begin we will start with one with a thankful theme. It is from the World of Eric Carle. It is Little Book of Thanks from Brown Bear and Friends by Eric Carle and Odd Dot. It is recommended for babies through 3-year-olds. 

Informational Books to Explore and Learn

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I'm still sharing books that are great gifts for kids!! Today I saved three nonfiction books that kids can explore and learn from. The ages for these books start with 6+. The first book is See Inside Space by Katie Daynes and illustrated by Peter Allen. It is the one recommended for ages 6+ and is book with flaps to open up and discover more! It is part of the See Inside Series. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- Learn how she touched all of our lives

 

Today instead of doing a Black Lives Matter post I thought I would share a bit about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her death Friday night really affected me even though I have never met the woman. Her death brings about all sorts of unknowns for our country and how we go forward will make a difference. However worrying about things I cannot control like how the politicians will respond to her death so close to the election will not help me and I want to show my respect to this amazing American hero. Do you know much about Ruth Bader Ginsburg? 

Flag Day Books, Activities and Crafts

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

In the United States, June 14th is Flag Day. To many this is just a holiday that is written on the calendar. I really do not ever remember a celebration for it in my life, but I do remember learning a bit about it in school. Of course being mid-June when school is out or almost out makes it hard for even that to happen. It is the perfect time to start thinking about patriotic crafts with Independence Day coming up and focusing on the flag and its meaning as well as the Pledge of Allegiance. To do these things, I found some books at our local library. But before I share the books and activities with you, I want to share a bit of history. The date June 14th was picked because it is the day the Second Continental Congress adopted the flag. It is unknown who made the first flag and therefore who designed it. There are many legends and rumors about it. It is known that Betsy Ross made one of the earliest flags. (Source)

I Pledge Allegiance by Pat Mora and Libby Martinez is a story told in a girl's perspective. She and her family are excited because her great aunt is about to become a citizen of the United States. She helps her great aunt practice the Pledge of Allegiance and the girl's teacher has her lead the class in the Pledge of Allegiance the day before her aunt becomes a citizen to help celebrate. It is a wonderful book that explains why some people want to become citizens and a great book to start conversations about citizenship and what it means.

F Is for Flag by Wendy Cheyette Lewison is a book that talks about the flag and its meaning as well as a small amount about flag day. The history of the flag is also touched upon in this book.

The Flag We Love by Pam Munoz Ryan is another book about the flag. It goes into a bit of history of the flag, the Pledge of Allegiance as well as the national anthem.

An easy activity/craft for children is to make a flag from paper or felt. Or to have it as a felt "puzzle". It is also a great way to demonstrate how the flag has changed over the years with the number of stars. I cut the pieces out of felt (well the stars are paper and I got bored of cutting them). To get the dimensions somewhat correct I looked them up and used the ones at USFlag. I started with a white rectangle 9 inches by 17 inches. I made a pattern for the various pieces so you will not have to do the math.

We also did some activities on the Pledge of Allegiance and flag last September to go along with the book I Pledge Allegiance by Bill Martin, Jr. This was a wonderful book to teach children the meaning of the words in the Pledge of Allegiance.

We also made flag placemats and windsocks for a Fourth of July party a few years ago.

And a fun states craft with a flag frame.

For more ideas we are going to try some of the crafts and activities (educational) in Little Hands Celebrate America! by Jill Frankel Hauser.

For more patriotic ideas check out my Patriotic Round-Up and my Patriotic Pinterest Board.

Sharing Saturday 13-37

Thank you to everyone who shared their amazing ideas last week and thank you to all of you who visited to see what was shared and of course to those who left comments on others. If you have not had a chance to visit them, you should since there are wonderful ideas. Now for some features. We had one most clicked, so to check out this amazing idea (and there were several other wonderful fall inspired play that she shared last week) click on the picture!

Some Fall Favorites

1) From Mums Make Lists: Fall Foraging Fun for Kids

2) From Let's Play Music: The Autumn Fairy

3) From P is for Preschool: Leaf Confetti

4) From We Made That: Scarecrow Wreath

5) From The Chirping Moms: Pumpkin Pie Pudding Paint

6) From Little Bins for Little Hands: Fall with Earl the Squirrel

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

From Your Hostess:
This week we shared kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month by sharing two wonderful picture books of Puerto Rican legends and the Multicultural Kid Blogs Blog Hop and Giveaway, continuing our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month we shared a Chilean Snow White and we learned about Andean flamingos; we also shared our Around the World in 12 Dishes "visit" to New Zealand with kiwi and ginger cake and growing our own kiwis and another Bill Martin, Jr. book--I Pledge Allegiance for the Virtual Book Club for Kids.

Now for This Week's Party  
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1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook and Google+

Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

Virtual Book Club for Kids--I Pledge Allegiance

Today I am going to share a second Bill Martin, Jr. book for the Virtual Book Club for Kids. If you missed our post last week, we shared The Little Squeegy Bug. Today's book is I Pledge Allegiance and it is co-authored with Michael Sampson. Now the main words to this book are the Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Virtual Book Club for Kids--The Little Squeegy Bug

The author for September in the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Bill Martin, Jr. For those that do not know about the Virtual Book Club for Kids, each month a group of bloggers pick one author to feature on all of our blogs and host a blog hop. Each blogger picks one (or sometimes two) book by that author and does an activity or craft with it and posts about it. Then we open up the blog hop to anyone else who would like to share a book by the author of the month and an activity to go with it. The Virutal Book Club for Kids is brought to you by the following group of bloggers:

Happening in September here at Crafty Moms Share

It is another busy month here at Crafty Moms Share. September is National Sewing Month. We are helping promote the Waverize It! Facebook Contest sponsored by Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts and Waverly Fabrics. To do this, I made Hazel a ukulele case so she can take her relatively new ukulele anywhere she wants to. She has already played at our public library and Trader Joe's Store. She has been asked to play at school and church as well. She loves playing it. You can learn more about it all here including some videos of her playing.

September is also Hunger Action Month. I am joining a group of wonderful blogging moms to help No Kid Hungry try to end hunger for our local children. My first step was to put together some story time food drive ideas and I sent them to local libraries and preschools. I hope someone is using them. You can read about them here and feel free to use them or send them to people as well. We also hosted a butterfly party where we asked guests to bring a can or two of healthy food for our local food pantry. Stay tuned for more ways we are helping and please accept my challenge to help in your local area as well!!



September also is the month of the first anniversary of the amazing group of bloggers Multicultural Kid Blogs. Stay tuned for more events to celebrate this as well.

September 15th to October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage Month. I am joining some of the bloggers in Multicultural Kid Blogs to celebrate this as well.

Around the World in 12 Dishes is "traveling" to New Zealand this month. Hazel and I have already started enjoying some New Zealand stories.



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The Virtual Book Club for Kids is continuing for another year. There are a few changes. This year the blog hop will begin the second Monday of each month and there is a change in who is hosting. This month's author is Bill Martin, Jr.

 Hosting the Virtual Book Club for Kids this year are:

The Educators' Spin On It -  Toddler Approved  -         3 Dinosaurs - Learn~Play~Imagine -  Crafty Moms Share - Reading Confetti  - Inspiration Laboratories - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Kids Yoga Stories - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Ready-Set-Read - Boy Mama Teacher Mama  

I hope you will join us for all of these fun-filled events this month!! Plus we will have our regular events--Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Flamingo Friday, Sharing Saturday, Math Lessons, and Virtual Flat Stanley!

Fireflies Part 1

Source

Summertime always reminds me of fireflies. I have fond memories of catching fireflies in jars and using them as a nightlight in our pop-up camper at sleepover parties. Of course when I woke up early the next morning I was very afraid of the ugly bug in the jar. We use to have sleepovers in our camper in our backyard in the summer. 

 I wanted to share this with Hazel.  Since she does not stay up when it is dark we read some books and did some crafts.

We took some books out of the library. First is Fireflies! by Julie Brinckloe. This is a great story of a child going out with the neighborhood kids to catch fireflies and realizing as the light changes color that the firefly needs to be free.

Next is Living Lights: Fireflies in Your Backyard by Nancy Loewen. This book gives interesting facts about fireflies and their general life cycle including what they eat, how they are born, etc.

The third book is Go, Critter, Go! Flash, Firefly, Flash! by Dana Meachen Rau. This is another  book about fireflies and is written for the very young. 

Another great book is The Little Squeegy Bug by Bill Martin, Jr. We did not take this book out this time, but have in the past. We love this book. It is a story of how the firefly got its light.





Next we went and got some glow in the dark fluorescent yellow paint. We started by painting dots on black paper. Or should I say I did. Hazel had other ideas.
 

My painting

Hazel's painting

Next we tried to paint fireflies on the black paper using the yellow for just the tail.

My Painting

Hazel's Painting

 Stay tune to see more firefly projects!


This is where I share...

Imagination--Readathon Week 4

Sharing Saturday is still open through Wednesday!! Please stop by to share your child-oriented crafts and activities and to check out all the inspiration others have shared!

Also Happy Family Times is open! Please stop by and share your fun family activities this week! Help us to inspire each other to have more quality family time!


As you know, we are participating in several book clubs, readathons, etc. this summer. The Memetales Readathon 2012 has imagination for its theme this week! I love this theme!! For the people signed up, there are three free electronic books to read with this theme. (Plus for every child who signs up a meal is donated to FoodforEducation.org!)

The first is Night Boy by Anne Laurel Carter. I love this story. Night is the younger brother and Day is the older sister. Night cannot wait to play hide-and-seek with his sister, but he has to wait until it is dark. He pulls out his blanket to make it dark and she goes and hides (to the west of course), but he jumps in his spaceship and heads in the wrong direction and gets distracted creating constellations and the night sky. Day calls him back and it is his bed time, so she tucks him in for the daytime. The perfect activity is to study the night sky of course. Although Hazel's bedtime is well before the sun sets during the summer here, we did some exploring of constellations. We talked about how people saw images in the stars and named the constellations using their imaginations. Then we created some of the constellations using flashlights and black paper or tin foil as suggested in the links below.

Doll Carriage Re-do

So today, I tackled Hazel's doll carriage. It went from:  

to:

Hazel has a habit of sitting in it herself, so the cheap fabric it came with did not last long. I used the original as a pattern and then doubled up decorator fabric to give it more sturdiness. I reused the clasp but bought on clearance some new webbing--also stronger than the original. Hopefully this one will last.

Some books Hazel and I have been enjoying from the library:
The Sunflower Sword by Mark Speering
The Little Squeegy Bug by Bill Martin, Jr. and Mark Sampson
Moonstruck: the True Story of the Cow Who Jumped Over the Moon by Gennifer Choldenko
Press Here by Herve Tullet