Thinky Linky Thursday

Some Pinterest pumpkin finds for this week that are good thinking activities:

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3-D Pumpkin Puzzles

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Storytime Sunday (A Day Early)

Tomorrow is the big giveaway announcement, so I decided to go ahead and release Storytime Sunday today even though it's Saturday.

So today I will talk about the Crayola board book Two Hippos up on Sticks. This was a fantastic Target find in the dollar section. But I guess I didn't really realize how great of a find until I searched it and found a copy selling on Amazon for $4.99+$4.99 shipping! Wow!!!

Anyways, this simple counting book is great for very young children (I actually bought it and 3 other Crayola books for the baby). It has the best pictures with all different patterns, cute animals doing silly things, rhyming words, and of course counting. I also like that some of the animals are doing things that they would realistically do like butterflies welcoming spring and ants moving a load (which can tie in with life science concepts) and some of the animals are doing unrealistic things like dinos soaring in space and hippos up on sticks. So you can use it to talk about real vs. fantasy concept as well. I love this book!

Happy Reading!

Storytime Sunday Linky Party

This week's book I chose from my collection of children's books since the kids haven't started back to school yet. It is one of the Usborne Lift-the-Flap books called Who's making that mess? by Philip Hawthorn and Jenny Tyler.

This book has got the most precious illustrations and it's a totally cute story of how "messy Jess" is always getting blamed for the mess, but as you can see when you lift the flap, it is indeed an animal making the mess.

Tons of fun for kids to read especially with the flaps they love to lift, but also the repetitiveness and rhyming words helps them learn pre-reading skills. Not to mention the opportunity to allow the children to predict who made the mess or what kind of mess will be on the next page. I know your kids will have a great time with this book!

Storytime Sunday: 10 Favorite Children's Books

Here are 10 of my favorite children's books. I am going to purposely leave out all the Eric Carle books because you all know how much I love those already. So here goes...

This book I read while in college in a children's lit class. It is great, especially for older kids who can read or the teacher can read with the help of another adult if you have younger children. The poems are meant to be read aloud by two people, sometimes seperately and sometimes together (the book will indicate when it's your turn to read). All of the poems are about insects. This is such a great book and the imagery is awesome. I think your kids will like it!

LOVE this book. All about feelings and the pages open up, so the kids can use it like a mask. So much fun! My kids always have a blast with it and want another turn.

I love Lois Ehlert books. The shapes and colors are wonderful. It's a good introduction to abstract art for young children as the pictures are mostly made of symbols.

This book as well as How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight are 2 of my faves. I love the detail in the illustrations. Also, I love how you think the dinosaur is going to be trouble, but at the end, he ends up doing exactly what he's supposed to do!

Rhyming words, fun imaginary creatures, and faraway lands, what more could you ask for in a children's book? But of course, the legend that Dr. Suess is, there is so much more in this book. It is a great inspiration for children. All kids should have this book!

This book as well as the next one were childhood favorites of mine. Not only does this book have rhyming and great vocabulary, it also has a rebus format, substituting images for words in the text. This helps children read along. Great for pre-reading skills.

I know, I know. They are giving moose muffins and pigs pancakes now, but back in my day, it was If you Give a Mouse a Cookie and I so loved the cute little mousie! This book is perfect for predicting.

This book is good for science. It not only talks about houses for animals and different people, but objects and vehicles too. It makes you think because you don't normally think of all these different things as having a house, but more like a place where it belongs.

This book definitely teachers kindness and patience because I know I wouldn't be sharing my pizza with a bunch of people who wouldn't help me make it, but the little red hen did. A different take on the classic book The Little Red Hen in which she makes pizza instead of bread, this book is nice for doing with a nutrition lesson, writing recipes and sequencing the order of events (or ingredients used for the pizza).

And last, but certainly not least, The Water Hole. This book is a whole lot more than just a counting book. The illustrations of the animals in the rain forest are amazing! It uses onomatopoeia when the animals speak to each other and address the topic of droughts.

So here are my top picks, more exciting story times coming up every Sunday. Most likely I will be discussing books that I will be reading in my classroom for the upcoming week.