5 great books for Earth Day

Earth Day is April 22 - it's a great chance for kids of all ages to learn about how they can care for the Earth, small things that make a difference, and the importance of helping in the community. momstown's got 5 great books to help engage kids on Earth Day, and every day!

Visit our Arts & Crafts site for great Earth Day crafts, too!

 

earth day books for kids

 

 

Emeraldalicious by Victoria Kann

When Pinkalicious and Peter decide to visit their favorite park, they find that it's no longer their favorite place—the park is now filled with stinky trash! So, Pinkalicious decides to make an extra-special wand out of a stick and some flowers. Now whenever Pinkalicious makes a wish, adds a little love, and recites a pinkatastic rhyme, something amazing happens: It's pinkerrific magic!

 

Earth Day, Birthday by Maureen Wright

It's April 22, and Lion and his friends want to plant trees, recycle bottles, and have fun on Earth Day. But not Monkey. He wants to celebrate his birthday. Can he convince the other animals that it really is his birthday? Violet Kim's humorous artwork, rendered in paper, photographs, and colored pencil, highlight the sunny, friendly world of the animals.


A Leaf can Be by Laura Purdie Salas

A leaf can be a . . .
Shade spiller
Mouth filler
Tree topper
Rain stopper

Find out about the many roles leaves play in this poetic exploration of leaves throughout the year.


The Berenstain Bears Go Green by Jan & Mike Berenstain

The Berenstain Bears live in a wonderful place filled with green grass, blue skies, and lots of furry friends. But on a fishing trip at the creek, the Bear family discovers that the town dump is overflowing. It's spilling garbage into the water! Can the Berenstain Bears find a pollution solution before their beloved county is filled with garbage?


Biscuit's Earth Day by Alyssa Capucilli

Join Biscuit as he helps take care of our green world. From planting seeds to cleaning up, Biscuit's celebration is an exciting adventure for Earth Day and for every day!

 

Thanks to Amazon for book descriptions.

 

Do your kids have a favourite Earth Day book?

Posted by Teacher Mom on 04/05/2013 - 10:05
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Books about Rainy Days - curriculum theme "Wet Wet Wet"

Springtime brings rain - and lots of great chances to learn about weather and stomp around in puddles! To accompany our "Wet Wet Wet" curriculum theme this month, momstown has reviewed 5 great books to celebrate Spring and encourage kids to play outdoors in any weather!

 

wet wet wet books

 

Water Baby  from Usborne Touchy-Feely    Babies    Touch-and-feel board book depicts baby having fun with water – in a turtle pool, on the beach, in the bath, watering the garden, and doing lots of splish splash sploshing!

 

Who Likes Rain?  by Wong Herbert Yee   Babies & Toddlers

Rhyming text takes the reader through ‘who likes rain?’ like the flowers, the trees, the ducks, the worms, the frogs – and the little girl who has fun jumping in the puddle. Cute illustrations and simple text.

 

Mushroom in the Rain by Mirra Ginsburg    Babies & Toddlers   

A little ant gets caught in the rain, and finds a mushroom to hide under. His friend butterfly joins him, then mouse, sparrow, and rabbit. They hide rabbit from the fox chasing him, while they wait out the rain until the sun comes out. Ant can’t figure out how they all hid under such a small mushroom, until frog reminds him what mushrooms do in the rain! (they GROW!)

 

10 Little Raindrops by Leroy Comrie    Toddlers & Preschoolers    Kevin counts from one to ten as raindrops fall on him – but he keeps playing in the park until the sun is shining. The rain drops become Kevin’s friends as they are illustrated with little faces on them. Written in rhyming text, this is a good counting practice book also!

The Rain Stomper  by Addie Boswell  Preschoolers   

Jazmin is a cheerleader who can’t wait to march in the big parade. However, when rain and wind threaten the parade, Jazmin decides she will become a rain stomper and make the best of the weather. Great text echoing the action of the story: “slap, clatter, bam, bash, boom walla, bang, crash” as Jazmin outstomps the rain.


 

Have fun getting wet outside this Spring!

Posted by momstown Teach on 04/05/2013 - 09:56
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Sign of the Month: Exploring

While your little ones are out exploring with the other momstown mamas and kids this month, take some time to teach them a new sign.  This sign is for "Exploring".  It's a great sign to teach young and older children, as it is a simple but fun sign!

 

 

How to use this sign: 

Practise with you child and model the sign; "Let's go exploring".

Teach them the sign and ask them to make the sign when they hear the word in these great Exploring books.

Show your child the sign for "exploring" when Dora and Diego go off on an adventure with map, on the tv!

 sign language for "explorer"

 

 Check our other sign language posts here.

 Laura Berg, my smart hands

Monthly signs are submitted by guest blogger, Laura Berg, My Smart Hands,

Laura Berg is the President of My Smart Hands Inc, a company that teaches baby sign language and now boasts over 200 instructors worldwide. Her recently published book, The Baby Signing Bible (Avery/Penguin) has cemented her status as the go-to authority on Baby Sign Language.
Posted by Teacher Mom on 04/02/2013 - 17:46
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Spring Robin Footprint Craft

spring robin craft

 

Have you spotted a robin yet? Word is, if you spot one first it’s good luck! Let’s make some spring robins to remind us what they look like.


Supplies you will need:


•    Construction paper – brown, red, blue, robin egg’s blue, orange beak
•    Nest fabric, scraps of brown paper, hay…
•    Glue, scissors
•    Bead for eye (black) or marker

1.    Trace the child’s foot on the brown paper, this will be the bulk of the robin’s body. Cut out.


2.    Cut a red robin’s belly out to fill in the space from the foot arch and robin’s body.


3.    Cut scraps up to create the nest. And cut robin egg’s blue circles out to used for any surprise.


4.    Start to glue and create!

 

Another super cute idea is to create the whole footprint robin with paint! Use a baby or child's foot for a paint footprint like momstown Newmarket-Aurora did in their Baby Basics program - what a cute spring painting or card to make for someone!

 

spring robin craft

 

spring robin craft

Posted by momstown mama on 04/02/2013 - 17:41
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Earth Day Bird Feeder

earth day bird feeder

 

Backyard birdfeeders made of natural materials was an inspiration to draw more birds to our yard this year. Wanting a quick and easy idea, we decided to go for all natural ingredients.


momstown had heard of many feeders using peanut butter as the base, but with an allergic chold it wasn’t usable for us. Instead we used plain on butter to stick the birdseed to.


•    Pinecone
•    Butter/Margarine (or peanut butter)
•    Birdseed (sold anywhere, Dollar store even)
•    Ribbon or string for hanging


Cut the string to the length needed to hang and tie onto the pinecone. Do this first before spreading butter otherwise it’s almost impossible to do it later.


Spread the butter onto the pinecone very liberally. It needs a good coat and inbetween the pinecone branches, this way it will trap more birdseed. Spreading the butter is great fun for the younger crowd, there’s no real way to do this wrong so let them spread independently!


Sprinkle birdseed on a flat surface, like a pie plate, and roll the buttered pinecone in it until well covered. Make sure the birdseed is well pressed onto the pinecone.


Hang your pinecone birdfeeder in a spot your child thinks will draw lots of birds. Being able to see the feeder from the window will add to the delight, especially from the breakfast table!

 

This bird seed cookie recipe is another fun way to create a a bird feeder too!

Posted by momstown mama on 04/02/2013 - 17:33
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Creating easy 3D Shapes

3D shapes

 

I love simple fun! Throw in a math lesson on top of a creative exercise and I practically break into excited hives!


That’s how I felt with this fun building and construction math lesson. One child is learning about 3-dimensional shapes in school (ie: cubes and spheres),  but my preschooler is still defining shapes (ie: square).


This fun started while having hot chocolate after playing outside. The mini-marshmallows were in high demand and then somehow the toothpicks were brought out. Suddenly our kitchen table was a sea of shapes. Both 3D and flat shapes. I watched in amazement as the kids built amazing shape sculptures with sticky marshmallows and toothpicks.


Another way to build is with soft Plastacine and plastic straws cut into 3 inch lengths.  It’s the same building principle without the sugar rush (much preferred by me). I didn’t find the sugary marshmallows did keep attention spans longer though.

 

Looking for other activities for shape practise for your preschooler? Try building a paper barn with pre-cut shapes or a homemade shape card game.

Posted by momstown mama on 04/02/2013 - 16:32
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