We are a Family of Readers

Lilly's PPP Book Giveaway

As part of our August Virtual Book Club, Harper Collins is sponsoring a special BOOK GIVEAWAY WEEK!  Several of the participants in this month's Virtual Book Club will be hosting giveaway events on their blogs, featuring books by Kevin Henkes!

Yesterday, we featured Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes.  And guess what?  That is the book that Harper Collins has provided for Mommy and Me Book Club to giveaway to one of my fabulous readers! Isn't that so nice of them?

Would you like your own copy?  It is easy. There are four ways you can enter for a chance to win.

REQUIRED ENTRY
1- Leave a comment telling me which Kevin Henkes book is your very favorite.

OPTIONAL ENTRIES

2-Like Mommy and Me Book Club on Facebook.

3-In a separate entry, comment which Mommy and Me Book Club post is your favorite.

4-Share a Kevin Henkes book-inspired activity you did this month.  Please tell us what you did or leave link in a comment below.

IMPORTANT UPDATE!!! PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE ENTERING YOUR ENTRIES INTO THE RAFFLECOPTER.  SEVERAL OF YOU HAVE MADE COMMENTS BUT NOT UPDATED THERE.  THE WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH RAFFLECOPTER.  Thanks!-Danielle 

 a Rafflecopter giveaway  


The winner will be selected using Rafflecopter.  Entries will be accepted until 12:01 am August 29, 2012.   The winners will be posted on my blog on the morning of the August 29, 2012.   The winner will have 72 hours to claim her prize and to send me her mailing address.  If the winner fails to claim her prize, another recipient will be selected.   US residents only. No purchase necessary.The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Any information gathered through the sweepstakes including email and postal addresses will not be used in anyway other than contacting winners and shipment of winnings. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Facebook. You are providing your information to Mommy and Me Book Club and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for Mommy and Me Book Club.

Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Harper Collins. I was not compensated for this post.  I did receive one book which is the one I am giving away.  


Here are the other blogs participating in this month's Harper Collins Book Giveaway Week!  Increase your chances of winning a Kevin Henkes book by entering them all!  :) 

Sheila Rae the Brave- Juggling with Kids

Chester's Way -Toddler Approved

Chrysanthemum- Teach Preschool

SHHHH- Pleasantest Thing

Old Bear- No Twiddle Twaddle

My Garden- Crafty Moms Share

Chrysanthemum- Ready.Set.Read!

A Good Day- Adventures in Reading

Old Bear- Reading Confetti

Circle Dogs- Inspiration Laboratories

Wemberly Worried - The Eductors' Spin On It

Penny and Her Song - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Jessica - Crayon Freckles

Owen - Royal Baloo

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

We are so excited to be participating in the August Summer Virtual Book Club with some of my very favorite kid bloggers!  This month we each selected a book by Kevin Henkes to read with our children.  We created activities inspired by the chosen book.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/VirtualBookClubForKids"><img border="0"src="http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae323/toddlerapproved/svbc-august.jpg" /></a>

On the first day the boys went back to school, my daughter invited a friend over for a Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse play date.

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes is the story of a little girl mouse who loves her new purple plastic purse.  It plays music when she opens it.  Inside she has placed her movie star glasses and three quarters.  She is very excited to share it at school with her beloved teacher and classmates.  So excited that she can't wait and ends up having her purse taken away until the end of the day.  She becomes so upset at her teacher for taking her purse, she draws an unkind picture of him and writes a mean story about him.  At the end of the day, he returns her purse with a sweet note and treats.  She is heartbroken about her unkind treatment of her favorite teacher.  Her parents help her figure out a way to say she is sorry.  She goes back to school with a note, treats, and her purse.  She shares her purse at an appropriate time and the class enjoys a dance party and her treats she brought to share. 

LILLY'S PURPLE PURSE

Materials Needed: Paper plate cut in half, purple paint, stapler, purple ribbon, glue, purple collage materials

1-We painted each half of the plate purple and stapled together when dry. 

2-We stapled on the purple ribbon to create a purse handle.

3-We glued on collage materials to decorate the outside of the purse.  

 The girls enjoyed carrying them everywhere we went the rest of the day. 

MOVIE STAR GLASSES

In the book, Lilly loves her teacher's glasses with a beaded chain.  She thought of them as Movie star glasses and brought her own from home in her purse. 

Materials Needed: Plastic Beads and Plastic String

1-Tie a knot at the end of one piece of string, creating a loop.  

2-String beads to fill the string, leaving enough room to create a second loop at the other end.

3-Loop each side of the beaded rope onto a pair of glasses to create MOVIE STAR glasses like Lilly's and her teacher's glasses. 

LILLY'S MATCHING COINS GAME

I used my Cricut to cut out several purple purses and silver coins.  I added a shape to each purse and created 3 coins with matching shapes for each of the purses.   I gave the little girls the coins to sort and place inside the purses. 

 

DANCE PARTY

After our crafts, the girls danced together like Lilly and her classmates. 

***On Tuesday, I will be posting a giveaway to win your very own copy of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes!  Please come back and enter!

Here are the other participants in this month's Virtual Book Club.  Many of them will also be hosting giveaways of their featured Kevin Henkes books this week, too!  

Toddler Approved, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Rainy Day Mum, Reading Confetti, Inspiration Laboratories, Play Dr. Mom, Mommy and Me Book Club, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Two Big Two Little, Creative Connections for Kids, The Golden Gleam, Juggling with Kids, Taming the Goblin, Crafty Moms Share, Ready Set Read 2 Me, Famiglia and Seoul, The Good Long Road, The Educator's Spin On It, Imagination Soup, 3 Dinosaurs, Royal Baloo, BeingAConsciousParent, and No Twiddle TwaddleCrayon Freckles, Pleasantest thing, Adventures in Reading with Kids

 I am so excited to see what fun book inspired activities you did with your children, based on Kevin Henkes' books!  Please link up your posts below! If you want to participate in September's Virtual Book Club, we will be featuring Lois Ehlert.

 There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow, so make sure to read them:

1. Link up only posts inspired by Kevin Henkes that share children's book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
2. Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
3. Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you'd like.

Kindergarten is FIN-tastic!

My 5 year old son and his friends are starting Kindergarten this month!!!  He is a little nervous, so I decided to throw him a Kindergarten is FIN-tastic party based on his current favorite book, Don't Eat the Teacher by Nick Ward.

One of the writers at Toddler Approved is my REAL LIFE friend, not just a virtual one.  Our children are going to be in the very same class this year and we are going to be the class reps together.  We put our brains together to plan a super-fun party for 7 cute soon-to-be kindergarteners!  

Gathering Activity: Name Bracelets

Kindergarten Skills:  Name recognition, patterning, Name spelling, Fine Motor Skills

As the children arrived, they located their names that I had written on these adorable name plates I found here. The children found a bag with letter beads and sea animal beads that they used to make bracelets.  

TEACHER SAYS

As they finished their bracelets, they joined in a game of TEACHER SAYS, played just like Simon Says.  We played a noncompetitive version, where no one got out.  

Kindergarten Skills: Listening and Following Directions

Circle Time: Don't Eat the Teacher by Nick Ward 

Kindergarten Skills: Active Listening, Participation in Circle Time, Singing in a Group 

I love the book Don't Eat the Teacher by Nick Ward.  It is the story of a little shark who is nervous about his first day of school.  He has the unfortunate habit of BITING things when he is excited and nervous.  At school, he keeps "accidentally" eating things.  He eats a paintbrush, a story book, and even a friend (who is safe).  At the end, he tries to eat the teacher!  All of his friends yell at him "Don't Eat the Teacher!"  Intermixed in the story are introductions to different parts of the school day.  This is a simple and fun book!  It is VERY SILLY!  Every year that I read this to my Kindergarteners they begged for it to be read over and over and over again.  So much so, that the cover of my book is torn off.  I borrowed a friend's copy for the party. 

After the story, we sang the traditional silly camp song, "Baby Jaws."  

JAWS
(repeat each line) 
Baby Jaws, doot doot doot do (thumb and index finger open and shut like a mouth)
Mama Jaws, doot doot doot do (Hand opens and shuts)
Papa jaws, doot doot doot do (two hands together open and shut)
Grandpa Jaws, doot doot doot do (fists together to look like toothless mouth)
Giant jaws, doot doot doot do (arms together to make mouth)
Lady swimming, doot doot doot do (swimming motion)
Shark is coming, doot doot doot do (hand on forehead like fin)
Lady Screaming "A-HA" doot do (arms in air)
Shark is leaving, doot doot doot do (hand on forehead)
And That's the story doot doot doot do...ABOUT JAWS! 

Craft:  Shark Teeth Phone Number

Kindergarten Skills: Following Directions, using a glue stick correctly, learning phone number

Materials Needed: Blue paper plate, 3 triangles cut from blue poster board, 2 large googly eyes, 7 white small triangles with one digit of  the child's phone number written on each tooth, stapler, glue stick

1-Staple one blue triangle on top as the shark dorsal fin.  Staple the other two triangles on the side to make pectoral fins.

2-Glue on the googly eyes.

3-Allow the child to arrange the digits to create his phone number.  Glue to the plate in the correct order.  

 Game: Don't Eat The Teacher!

Kindergarten Skills: Taking Turns, Following Directions, Color Identification, Comparing Sizes, Fine Motor Skills

I created a large poster board sized game inspired by the game "Don't Eat Pete."  Using my Cricut, I cut out 9 sea horses: 3 sizes and 3 colors.  

1-The children sat in a circle around the game board. 

2-A goldfish cracker was placed in each square of the grid.  
3-The children took turns leaving the room one at a time.  When out of the room, a seahorse was selected as the "teacher" for that turn.   
4-When the child returned to the room, he ate one goldfish cracker at a time.  If it was not the seahorse selected, the rest of the children all said together, "THAT'S NOT THE TEACHER."  

5-The child continued to the crackers, attempting to find the teacher.  Once they ate the cracker chosen as the teacher, the other children all yelled, "DON'T EAT THE TEACHER!" 

6-Crackers were replaced and another child took a turn. 

This is such a simple game, but the kindergarteners thought it was hilarious! 

Outside Learning Games by Toddler Approved

Kindergarten Skills: Taking Turns, Letter Recognition, Number Recognition, Gross Motor Play 

The children changed into swim suits and headed outside for shark themed learning games that included WATER!!!!  For all of the details of the fun games go to Toddler Approved's post on the party. 

SHARK SNACKS

The children enjoyed shark tooth shaped pizza slices, a watermelon shark, and shark cupcakes. 

PARTY FAVORS: CANDY KABOBS

We created these adorable party favors using Swedish fish and shark gummies, inspired by Celebrations At Home Blog. 

We are participating in the KBN Back to School Bonanza! 


 

 Check out these other great Back to School Ideas!

Bagels for Benny

Mommy and Me Book Club wrote a guest post for Make and Takes Storybook Summer Series!  We chose to feature Bagels from Benny by Audrey Davis.   It was a new to me book, but one that has become an instant family favorite.  We had so much fun making bagels together and delivering them to a local day shelter for homeless men and women in our community.  If you have not read this book, I highly recommend that you head to your library and check it out today!

Please take a moment to visit Make and Takes and even comment and let them know you dropped by!  I am grateful for the chance they gave me to share Mommy and Me Book Club with their readers.