VBC for kids – Donald Crews – Freight Train – Smudging Artwork

This month’s virtual book club for kids features Donald Crews.  The only book we have of his is Freight Train , but it is a perfect one for Luath.  She loves trains, this summer she saw a steam train and also had her first trip on a train.

I especially like the images of the moving train with the blurring and blending of the wagon colours and was inspired by this to do art with Luath.

I set out chalk pastels (they have been waiting patiently to be used), cotton wool balls, a foam sponge paint brush and different coloured paper.

Luath asked what we were to do.  I said she could pick a piece of paper and draw on it using the chalk.  Once she had finished with the one colour I then told her she could smudge it with the cotton wool. She really enjoyed this and repeated with many different colours.

I drew a few rectangles in a row to be like a train and Luath smudged these together.

She tried using the foam sponge paint brush which gave a gentler smudging effect.

The final image, our train is on the left.
 
We were doing this as I prepared dinner so while I finished up I suggested she and daddy could make a firework picture on black paper.
   
(Luath is 30 months)

Book of the week – The Foggy Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt

 The Foggy, Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt.  This is quite a simple idea for a book but cleverly done.  Each page is made similar to tracing paper with a black silhouette  Who is is this in the foggy foggy forest?  You turn the page to see a coloured image of the silhouette and a reply in rhyme.  It features some fairytale characters.

We borrowed this book from the library and the librarian said that the hardback (which the library had) was much better than the paperback.  Not 100% sure why but something to do with the quality of the pages and the silhouettes.
(Luath is 30 months)

Book of the week – Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne

Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne is a picture book about Handa, a Kenyan girl, who decides to take seven delicious fruits in a basket (on her head) to her friend Akeyo.  Along the way she passes various different wildlife who help themselves to the fruits.  Handa does arrive in her friend’s village with something in her basket.
Luath loves this story and while we were on holiday she was reciting parts of it so I brought it out of the bookcase and into our box of books in her room.  We have read and acted it on often this week.
(Luath is 30 months)

VBC for kids – Jez Alborough – My Friend Bear – Learning Emotions

                                                                            

Apart from The Washing Line, Jez Alborough was a new author to us earlier this year, I didn’t realise The Washing Line was written by him until recently.  I started looking out for his books when I saw he was an upcoming author for the virtual book club for kids.  We are all happy to have discovered his stories. 
My Friend Bear is a follow from Where’s my teddy and It’s the bear.  Eddy (boy) is in the woods with Freddy his teddy he is feeling lonely and sad and wishes he had someone to talk to.  He spies a giant teddy which he recognises as belonging to the bear.  The story covers a range of emotions for both Eddy and the bear.  I thought looking at various emotions would work well with the story.
Luath has a dressing bear puzzle that has bear faces with various emotions.  I placed it out one morning and Luath soon started dressing the bears.

Once she had finished dressing she began to line up all the bears tops so I lined up all the faces.

I then picked a bear’s head to trace around onto paper and repeated this eight times.  I asked Luath to selected a face for me to draw and  repeated this until all eight bear faces were filled.  We coloured them into together.  Between us we decided what type of emotion each face represented.

Luath also had paper to draw on.  I think she must have loved the novelty of the big box of pens as she drew and investigated the variety of pens for much longer than she normal spends drawing.
     
Luath decided to match the wooden faces to the picture.

We have used the bear faces a few times to talk about how we feel.  Generally we all are quite aware of each others moods but this was a fun way to review feelings.
(Luath is 30 months)

Book of the week - Read with Biff, Chip and Kipper series

Read at Home Biff, Chip & Kipper series that we own is a collection 48 books  (24 x Phonics Books and 24 x First Stories Books) that are aimed at helping children learn to read and their progression.  There was a fantastic deal on these books last year so I purchased them well in advance of any plans to use with Luath.  We have read them a few times with Luath.  The stories are fun, the illustrations up to date and there is lots to discuss about the images and stories.  Many of the books have things to spy – a butterfly in each picture, hidden keys.

We keep the books on a bookshelf in the main bedroom.  This week Luath was chilling with daddy on the bed and spied them and so we have been enjoying the bundle.  Luath likes looking through the stories herself.
(Luath is 30 months)

Book of the week – The Grunt and the Grouch by Tracey Corderoy

The Grunt and the Grouch is a brightly illustrated picture book featuring two trolls.  The Grouch lives up to his name and is very unhappy when the Grunt decides to camp out in the Grouch’s garden.  Some of the pictures are quite disgusting.  Luath loves the front and back inner cover pages with images of the Grouch’s cupboards.  We have spent a time exploring and discussing the contents.

(Luath is 30 months)

Craft – Gruffalo Natural Art Scavenger Hunt and Picture

The Gruffalo is a big favourite in our house.  We haven’t read the book in a while but we talk about it often, quoting parts of the book and acting it out.  At the weekend Luath saw a pile of logs and immediately said “a log pile house”.  I planned for us to make a Gruffalo so I brought out the book to read.  Next we looked out the colours that makes the Gruffalo. Luath knows her colours so we really didn’t need to do this stage but I thought it was good matching practise. 

Later we went on a natural scavenger hunt for these colours.  I had planned to go to the woods but we ended up doing the hunt in our garden.  We struggled to find bright orange as I was trying to avoid Luath picking our flowers.

I drew the Gruffalo’s outline (sorry doesn't show well in photo) onto thick paper from the inside of a banana box.

We then covered the picture with glue – Luath loved this part.  We then added the leaves, petals, bark to the appropriate parts.

Once it was drier I drew the outline in thick marker pen.  I was quite surprised how well our image turned out.  If you had an older child and more time you could get a stunning picture.
 
(Luath is 30 months)
Shared with Tuesday Tots and Eco kids.

Adventures – Steam Train Spotting

Luath enjoys Thomas the Tank Engine and Chuggingtons Stories, and playing with her train set. We thought it would be fun to see a real steam train.  A few minutes drive from where we had a short holiday was one of the stations on the Strathspey Steam Railway Line .  You can take a ride on the train.  There are three stations on route, one of them was used as Glenbogle Station in the Monarch of the Glen series. We arrived with perfect timing, we had just got onto the platform when in the distance we spotted a black object.

What a sight as it came closer and closer. 
 
Once it had stopped we climbed over the railway bridge.  Having a look down onto the carriages.  Daddy telling us he could easily do his James Bond (running along the train) move!

We went down for a closer look at the engine.  They let you get a real close view as it stays here for five minutes.  We didn’t move far enough away before the train left, the steam is very noisy  and Luath was quite upset.

The station itself is beautiful with lots to see. 

Checking out the signals.
 
With many small touches.
  
At the moment Luath’s biggest memory is that she didn’t like the noise the train made.  We will remember next time to make sure we are far away when a steam train is about to leave.
(Luath is 29 months)

Shared with Family Days at mums do travel

Book of the week – The day Louis got eaten by John Fardell

The evening before the mobile library was due Luath asked for some monsters stories at bedtime but we didn’t have any, so next day we borrowed six different monster books.  One of them was The Day Louis Got Eaten by John Fardell.  I won the Scottish Booktrust award in 2012 but I haven’t heard of it before.
On first reading I was a bit unsure if Luath would like it, however she loves this book.  The story is fun, clever, what will happen.  The illustrations really bring the tale to live and add so much extra detail.
Louis and Sarah (his big sister) and out for a ride and unfortunately Luath gets eaten by a Gulper.  Sarah knows that Gulpers usually swallow their dinner while so Louis should be Ok if she can catch up with the Gulper.
Sarah has to chase after more than just the Gulper and invents extras for her bicycle to help her.
(Luath is 29 months)