Super Simple School Bus Craft

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

We've noticed lots of school buses on the streets of our town this week! While my two little ones are still too small to ride the big yellow bus to school this year, we had lots of fun learning with a school bus book and craft. 

The Bus for Us Gus by Suzanne Bloom is one of those books that your child will want to read again, and again, and AGAIN (trust me on this one). While the text follows a predictable repetitive pattern, the pictures allow the child to guess what comes next. My little 20 month old just loves to turn the pages to see if the little girl Tess is ready to hop on the bus. There's also a certain silliness to this book when the page is turned and it's not the school bus, but a different vehicle. My son just loves to shout, "No Tess!" and laugh. 

School Bus Craft

We paired this book a super simple school bus craft that only uses construction paper and glue! Here's what to do to create your own at home.

1. Gather materials: yellow, black & orange construction paper; glue stick 

2. Cut the yellow paper into a shape of a school bus

3. Cut the black paper into 2 circles, 1 rectangle, 4 squares, and 1 triangle

4. Cut the orange paper into 1 small circle, and two rectangles

5. Glue the shapes on to the school bus outline

(note: you could add a red octagon for the stop sign, too)

 

Easy.

Great way to practice colors, shapes, and counting, too!

Don't have The Bus for Us Gus? Try pairing this craft with School Bus by Donald Crews. It's also great for little minds.

Puffy Paint "Snow" Craft and Snow Day Books

Snow, snow, and more snow! Winter hit us hard this year - with lots of snowy days, cold temperatures, and days off from school. Today I'm sharing a few great books that capture the beauty and sentiment of a snowy day. If you are stuck indoors, try our puffy paint activity to make your own snow scene. It's almost as fun as playing in the real snow, and at least you don't have to get all bundled up to enjoy it!

Snow by Steve Sanfield and Jeanette Winter

This book perfectly describes the sights, sounds, and feelings of a snow covered day as a boy explores the first snowfall of the season. The beauty of the text and pictures will make you long for a snowy walk outside to experience this world first hand.

Snow Day by Lynn Plourde and illustrated by Hideko Takahashi

Two children awaken to find "white, glorious white...EVERYWHERE!" This story captures the excitement of snow day activities - a yummy breakfast, indoor games, cuddling by the fire, eating snow day snacks, and playing outside. Children can easily identify with the snow day routine, and will anxiously await their next day of winter fun.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

A list of books about snowy days would not be complete without this classic by Ezra Jack Keats. Follow Peter as he experiences the merriment of discovering a snow covered world. What will he do? What will he see? This book is well known for its artwork, and received a Caldecott Medal in 1963.

White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt and illustrated by Roger Duvoisin

Written in 1947, this book and its illustrations have an "old-timey" feel.  The story follows a postman, a farmer, the policeman and his wife, some rabbits, and children as they prepare for and experience the snowfall.  White Snow Bright Snow mixes narrative with poetic text; and coupled with the illustrations (also Caldecott Award winning) that seem to take you back to a simpler time in life, this book is sure to be a hit in your household this winter.

Snow by Uri Shulevitz

The whole city is gray, and then....a snowflake.  An excited little boy exclaims, "It's snowing".  We've all felt the joy of seeing one little snowflake transform life from "gray" to a snow covered dream-like winter world.  Snow captures that amazing moment simply, yet perfectly, and it will capture your heart.  

Puffy Paint "Snow" Craft

If you are looking for a fun inside activity to try on your next snow day, create your own winter scenes like in the stories you've read! This puffy paint craft only uses a few materials and creates a really fun fluffy 3-D substance that you can use to sculpt an indoor "snow" creation.

1) Gather your materials: shaving cream, glue, paint brushes or sponge brushes, construction paper, and any additional decorations you may want.

2) Mix equal parts of the shaving cream & glue. You can add paint or food coloring if you don't want white puffy paint.

3) Create your design! It works best if you "glob" it on.

I did this activity with my youngest with close supervision.
You'll want to do the same if your little one is still into "eating" things.

4) Add decorations. Let your creation dry & admire!

My 4 year old added glitter to hers to make it an "ice storm" and
the stars and letters (constellations) made it an ice storm at night!

I had to join in the fun, and created a snowman.

Hopefully these books and this activity will make your snow days this winter a little warmer!



Apple Books and Crafts You Can Mix and Match

 

It's apple picking time! Reading books about apples is a fun way to get into the spirit of the Fall season. Pair an apple book with an apple craft for additional skill-building fun that targets your child's fine motor ability in a creative way. This post highlights 3 apple books and crafts that you can mix and match, so choose your favorites and enjoy!  

Life Cycle of an Apple, Picking Apples & Pumpkins, and The Apple Pie Tree are three apple-themed books that are highly educational. Learn about what is involved in a fun Fall outing by following a family on their trip to an orchard in Picking Apples and Pumpkins; learn all about the changing seasons in The Apple Pie Tree; and watch an Apple grow from a bud to a fruit in Life Cycle of an Apple.

After reading any of these books try:

1. A sequencing activity.  Put the events of the book in order. What comes first, next and last - the seed, a blossom, or the tree? Picking the apples or baking the pie? These books are also a great opportunity to talk about the words before and after.

2. Taking a trip to an apple orchard. Relate your experience to the book you read. Point out some of the new vocabulary you learned from the book.

3. Creating an apple craft. Practice additional skills and concepts by creating an apple craft. It's the perfect way to talk about colors, shapes, size while practicing fine motor skills in a creative way.

Here are 3 apple crafts that we created!



Mosaic Apple Sun Catcher 

A craft that can be done with infants through preschoolers, all you need is red and brown construction paper, colored tissue paper ripped into small pieces, sticky (or contact) paper, scissors, and a green pipe cleaner.

Cut out the contact paper and red construction paper into the shape of an apple. Let the child decorate the contact paper with the ripped tissue pieces, then cover with a second piece of contact paper and trim it to the shape of the apple. Add a stem and leaf as a finishing touch.

Glittery Green Apples

 

You'll need a small plastic bag, blue and yellow paint, a green pipe cleaner, thick white paper cut into the shape of an apple, glitter, glue, and a plastic container with a lid.

 



Put a few drops of the blue and yellow paints into the bag, and let your child mix them up to make green (note: please supervise small children when doing this craft).

Place the apple cut out into the bag, and "paint" the apple by playing with it some more!

Let the apple dry.

Grab the plastic container and place the dried apple into it and squeeze the glue on top of it. Add glitter to the container and then place the lid on it.

Last but not least, play some more! Toss the container about and shake it up. When you open it up, you'll have your glittery green apple! Just add a stem and admire.

Red Apples in a Tree

Grab a paper plate, brown construction paper cut into a tree trunk, glue, scissors, green paint and red finger paint, a small sponge, and a round cake pan.

Squirt the green paint into the cake pan, and use the sponge to "paint" the entire pan.

Place the paper plate, white side down, into the pan to make a print. Remove the plate and let it dry. Once dry cut off the rim of the plate.

Using the red finger paint, create apples with the tip of the index finger.

Finally, glue on your trunk to finish the piece.

Can't get enough apple stuff? Check out 20 Apple and Tree Activities for Kids from The Weekly Kids Co-Op

Booking Across the USA: Learning about Pennsylvania

I'm very excited to be participating today in the Booking Across America project hosted by Jodie over at Growing Book by Book - a blog devoted to "nurturing our youngest readers". For this project, a child-friendly blogger from each state will showcase one book related to their state and an activity to go with the chosen book.



I'm representing our hometown state of Pennsylvania and have selected My Little Pennsylvania ABC to go along with our learning activity: A fun, crafty, kid-friendly MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA.

When I came across this book at Barnes and Noble earlier this week, I thought it was perfect for this blog, my baby bookworms who are 3 years and 2 months, and the Booking Across the USA project. Here's why:

1) it has this super cute baby on every page that is dressed up as "something Pennsylvanian" (for example, L is for Lancaster and he's dressed up in Amish gear) - which happens to make learning a little more fun,

2) it's a board book which is great for the "littlest learners" ages 3 and under that are the focus here at Land of Once Upon a Time,

3) it teaches alphabet knowledge and phonemic awareness - important emergent literacy skills,

4) it provides a great basis for a discussion about our state and could easily tie in to a crafy learning activity, and

5) baby bookworm could make connections from the book to her life because we had already visited many of the places in PA (which is a great learning mechanism).

Showing off the cover of the book



J is for Johnstown Incline Plane - a place we have visited! 

 

After enjoying this book several times, we dove into our craft and learning activity which was a MAP OF PENNSVANIA. It could easily be created with infants, toddlers, or preschoolers by modifying a few elements.

Here are the instructions for this learning activity, if you would like to make your own (for PA or another state).

Gather the following materials:

• Contact paper
• Scissors (adult)
• Finger paints
• Art smock
• Large sheet of paper
• Pen (for drawing the outline of PA)
• Craft letters (to spell Pennsylvania)
• Craft stars (for showing where cities are)

INSTRUCTIONS: Begin by either tracing or free-hand drawing an outline of the state of Pennsylvania on to the contact paper. Cut it out, peel off the contact paper, and stick it on to your large sheet of paper.

Then you are ready to paint (and make a mess) - which is the fun part!

Let the paint dry for a few minutes and then peel off the contact paper; your outline of Pennsylvania will be revealed.

Allow the paint to fully dry, then grab your craft letters and stars, and your book! Identify the word Pennsylvania on the front cover, and invite your child to name each letter; play a little search and find game with the craft letters and see if your child can find all of the letters to spell out Pennsylvania.

Once you have found all of the letters, glue them on to your map.

Last but not least, add stars on your map to represent various cities in PA. We chose to identify cities in PA where we had friends or family living, or ones that we have visited.

In addition to this book on Pennsylvania we read a bunch of books on the largest city in PA - Philadelphia, which also happens to be where we live.



Our collection of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia books

 

 



1 2 3 Philadelphia by Puck - A counting book for young children

 

Good Night Philadelphia by Adam Gamble - A perfect bedtime story

The ABC's of Philadelphia by Greg Landry - An illustrated guide to the city

P is for Philadelphia by Susan Korman - An ABC book about Philly illustrated by Philly kids

Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania: Cool Stuff Every Kid Should Know - A book with tons of facts for learning
 



Baby bookworm loves seeing the places that she has visited in these books, and has a list of places she would still like to see.

I'd also like to mention that Pennsylvania is home to a few of our favorite authors: Jan and Stan Berenstain of the Berenstain Bears series (my last post was about their book The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist and learning activities to accompany it), and Mr. Fred Rogers who was from Latrobe! Comedian and educator Bill Cosby is also a Philly native.

Be sure to visit Growing Book by Book for links to each post, but here is also a list of all participating blogs that are full of wonderful kid-friendly activities:

Alabama: Everyday Snapshots
Alaska: Little Wonders’ Days
Arizona: Simply Kinder
Arkansas: Homeschooling in Arkansas
California: Juggling with Kids and The Outlaw Mom
Colorado: Learners in Bloom and Living Montessori Now
Connecticut: The Teacher Park
Delaware: Mama Miss
Florida: Teaching Stars
Georgia: Fabulously First
Hawaii: Teaching With Style
Idaho: True Aim Education
Illinois: Growing Book by Book
Indiana: Teach Preschool
Iowa: Surviving a Teacher's Salary
Kansas: KCEdventures
Kentucky: Chicken Babies
Louisiana: New Orleans Moms Blog
Maine: Maine Adventure Mom and Country Fun Child Care
Maryland: Picture Books and Piourettes
Massachusetts: Mama Smiles
Michigan: Play DrMom
Minnesota: The Wise Owl Factory
Mississippi: Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk
Missouri: Ready. Set. Read!
Montana: The Honey Bunch
Nebraska: The Good Long Road
Nevada: Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts
New Hampshire: Elementary Matters
New Jersey: The Pleasantest Thing
New Mexico: Enchanted Homeschooling Mom
New York: What Do We Do All Day
North Carolina: Realistic Teacher Blog
North Dakota: ND HealthWorks
Ohio: Smart Chick Teacher’s Blog
Oklahoma: Herding Kats in Kindergarten
Oregon: Journey of a Substitute Teacher
Pennsylvania: Land of Once Upon a Time
Rhode Island: Smiling in Second Grade
South Carolina: Cookies and Kiddos and JDaniel4’s Mom
South Dakota: The Wise Owl Factory
Tennessee: No Monkey Business
Texas: Curls and a Smile and Kid World Citizen
Utah: Teach Beside Me
Vermont: Burlington Vt Moms Blog
Virgina: Once Upon a Story, and The Freckled Homeschooler
Washington: Home Learning Journey and Boy Mama Teacher Mama
West Virginia: This Week @ Great Peace Academy and Mamas Like Me
Wisconsin: Reading Confetti
Wyoming: No Twiddle Twaddle
USA: The Corner on Character        

Disclosure: Some of the book links in this post are Affiliate links.

A Visit to the Dentist: Book and Learning Activities

February is National Children's Dental Health Month. It also just so happened that baby bookworm took her very first trip to the dentist this month.

I wanted baby bookworm to know what she could expect at the dentist, so we read The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist. In this story brother bear visits the dentist to get a cavity filled, and sister bear goes along to get her loose tooth pulled.

With kid-friendly language and pictures that show exactly what a child will encounter on his first visit to the dentist, it is the perfect book to read to help a child feel at ease with this new experience.

Baby bookworm did amazing while in the dentist's chair, and I actually learned a lot from the dentist about what she should be eating and drinking and what she should not (I didn't know raisins were worse than chocolate for your teeth!). I am a firm believer that reading books before (or after) various life events helps a child to feel more at ease. Children can easily identify with their favorite characters, and will make the connection back to the book! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures at this first appointment so I don't have any to share, but will hopefully remember to bring my camera in 6 months at the next visit.

As a follow-up to our trip to the dentist, we did two learning activities based around a dental theme. Here they are:

Count Your Teeth

One of the things that the dentist did while he was examining baby bookworm was count her teeth. She learned that she had 10 on the top, and 10 on the bottom.

Repetition is an easy learning technique, so to reinforce (and repeat) what she had learned at the dentist, we did a counting and sequencing activity with baby bookworm where she had to put 20 teeth in order in a mouth.

 

"Good" Food or "Bad" Food

The dentist also talked to us a great deal about the foods that will help to build healthy teeth and those that will hurt teeth. To repeat this idea, we did a sorting task and categorized different foods as to whether they were healthy for our teeth or bad for our teeth.

Even if you don't have a trip to the dentist coming up, I hope you have fun with these learning activities! And if you do, "Good Luck".

It Looked Like Spilt Milk {Book and Craft for Kids}

What do you see in the "spilt milk"?  That's the question that baby bookworm and I asked ourselves after reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw.

 

 

 

With simple blue pages that highlight stark white images, these Rorschach-like inkblots for children will delight little minds as they try to uncover each object in the "spilt milk" for themselves.

 

To extend our reading, baby bookworm and I decided to add our own page to this book.

 

We got out our blue paper and white paint, and set to work.

 

It looked like spilt milk,

 

 

 

But it wasn't spilt milk....

 

 

 "It was a bird."