Poppins Book Nook- Ponds, Lakes and Rivers

Welcome back to the last installment of the Poppins Book Nook for 2015-2016.

This month's theme is Ponds, Lakes and Rivers!



My boys love any books with ducks in them, such as One Duck Stuck and Little Quack.

Ducks are everywhere in our street, and we regularly have them as visitors in our driveway and at my dad's house nearby, where they always come to say hello!



We are lucky to have some lovely ponds and lakes in our suburb, and we took a visit to one of the bigger ones in the weekend to see the ducks in their natural home.

Feeding the ducks is always fun, and there are so many great spots to get right up close to the water.



We talked about why the ducks would like to live here, and about the other types of birds that live at the lake such as the swans and seagulls.



The ducks are always happy to see us!



At home, we each made a duck pop up card using some craft supplies we had around the house. We used glitter paint, washi tape, buttons and pipe cleaners.



The finished cards looked great!



We had a fun time feeding the ducks and visiting them in their natural environment. Click below to see how other members of Poppins Book Nook were inspired!

 Clip art by MelonHeadz.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

An InLinkz Link-up

Poppins Book Nook- Newbery Medal Books

Welcome to the September edition of Poppins Book Nook!

 This month's theme is Newbery Medal Books.

A lot of these books are aimed at readers 8-12, so we discovered one that was a nominee in the 3-5 age category. Dr De Soto tells the story of a dentist mouse who outfoxes a fox!

My boys started off our activity session for Dr De Soto with a mounth made out of apples, peanut butter and mini marshmallows.



We then went through some magazines and cut out photos of food, then catergorised them into foods that were good for teeth and foods that were bad for teeth.



This was a great way of testing how much my kids know about dental health and the appeal of sugary food! My eldest son deliberated a bit over the cookies as they did have fruit and nuts in them, but this was an opportunity to explain to my children that things may often look healthy but have hidden sugar. The end result was two collages of dental friendly food and dental no-nos! However, this also led to a discussion about eating a variety of foods and that it is still OK to have a cookie every now and then.



We then started to talk about the fox in the story, and how he ended up with a gold tooth. We made our very own fox faces by modifying this shark template. I added an extra fin and turned it into an ear, and then freehand cut a nose and punched circles for the eyes.



We coloured one of the teeth in yellow to be Mr Fox's gold tooth, and the boys had so much fun opening and closing the fox's mouth.

Click below to see how other members of Poppins Book Nook were inspired!

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

 Clip art by MelonHeadz.

An InLinkz Link-up

Poppins Book Nook- Books that were turned into Movies

Welcome to the June edition of Poppins Book Nook!

 This month's theme is Books That Were Turned Into Movies.

My boys have always had a story at bedtime, and currently we are working through the chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This was the perfect opportunity to watch the movie, based on J.K Rowling's wizarding world.

I set the table with a Hedwig centerpiece and a Basilisk.



The boys were excited to make their own Hedwigs from socks and pieces of felt. We used big googly eyes and the boys loved gluing everything together!



Dinner was owl inspired pizzas with a tortilla covered in spaghetti and cheese. I added ham wings and cucumber eyes, with a carrot beak.



I also made Butterbeer popcorn (recipe here) to eat as we watched the movie.



We had a great time watching Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, and talking about how the movie differed from what we had read in the book so far.

Click below to see how other members of Poppins Book Nook were inspired!

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

 Clip art by MelonHeadz.

An InLinkz Link-up

Poppins Book Nook- Forests/Woods

Welcome to the June edition of Poppins Book Nook!

This month's theme is Forests and Woods.

The book we read this month is a New Zealand book called Kahu the Kiwi, about a Kiwi who loses his way in the forest and then makes friends with a boy, leading to many adventures.

For some of my readers, a kiwi to you is a fruit. However, the Kiwi is a national icon of New Zealand and lives in the forest. It is a nocturnal, flightless bird and we learnt lots of fun facts about kiwis after watching this video, as well as some ways on how we can help save this wonderful namesake, as New Zealanders are also known as Kiwis!

Aren't they cute!

We decided to make our own Kiwis using egg cartons, colouring pens and cardstock. Our class mascot, Moose, was visiting our house today and so we made one for him too.

First, we coloured our egg carton pieces brown and drew feathers. Then we slotted the two pieces together and added cardstock wings and a beak. We then added some eyes and we were done!



The boys (and Moose) were very proud of their Kiwi creations.



We also made some gingerbread trees. Using standard gingerbread dough, we cut out our trees sing a cookie cutter and baked them in the oven for 12 minutes until golden brown.



As it is winter here currently we dipped them in melted white chocolate to make them snow topped trees, and then we taste tested them!



We had a great time learning about classical music and painting our own masterpieces, Click below to see how other members of Poppins Book Nook were inspired!

 Clip art by MelonHeadz.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

An InLinkz Link-up

Poppins Book Nook- Caldecott Medal Books

Welcome back to the third installment of the Poppins Book Nook for 2015-2016.

This month's theme is Caldecott Medal Books!



The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

I had never heard of Caldecott Medal books before since we are in New Zealand, but we had a great time hunting down some new favourites in our local library.

We were quite excited to see a book called The Noisy Paint Box- as one of our relatives lives in a street named after Vasya Kandinsky. This book has the most beautiful illustrations, and talks about Vasya's childhood and how he became inspired to paint works of art by listening to the sounds around him.

We decided to listen to the Bridal Chorus (Here Comes The Bride) from one of the operas that inspired Kandinsky, and create a painting based on this. Here is what we came up with.



We had a great time learning about classical music and painting our own masterpieces, Click below to see how other members of Poppins Book Nook were inspired!

 Clip art by MelonHeadz.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

An InLinkz Link-up

Poppins Book Nook- Farms

Welcome back to the second installment of the Poppins Book Nook for 2015-2016.

This month's theme is Farms!



We have lots of books about farms at home- a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. Here are some of the books we have been reading this month.



Snack time on farm themed day was tractor tyres- Oreo biscuits with an M&M attached using a little bit of melted chocolate.



As we snuggled up for some TV time with our snack, there was even a Bubble Guppies episode about farms!



We also watched this video about Tractors on the farm.

The boys love tractors, so I put some brown food colouring in a shallow dish and then told them to add some dirt (shaving foam) and mix it together. They then had fun driving their tractors across a messy field.



We also created some green playdough using this recipe:
3 cups flour
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup salt
few drops green food colouring
water to mix

Put all ingredients in a bowl; slowly add water until the mixture becomes a firm dough.

We used this green playdough as our field, and the boys planted some foam flowers in the field. We also put a fence around the field with popsicle sticks.



We used a counting mat from Mommy School and created some chickens out of modeling clay to put on our mats.



We had a great time reading about farms, re-visiting classic songs and having fun with tractors and messy play. Click below to see how other members of Poppins Book Nook were inspired!

 Clip art by MelonHeadz.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

An InLinkz Link-up

Poppins Book Nook- Weather

Welcome back to the first installment of the Poppins Book Nook for 2015-2016.

This month's theme is Weather!



My boys love to look at the clouds, and we found an adorable book called Not a Cloud in the Sky by Emma Quay.

This book had the most amazing illustrations, and it was a real joy to read. It was one of the books I suggested we read over and over, as I loved guessing all the cloud shapes and talking to my boys about what we see in the clouds.

On a walk around our neighbourhood, we saw...

a fish

a genie coming out of a lamp

and a wriggly worm!

We used our homemade puffy paint recipe to create a picture of our own puffy clouds, and talked about why clouds are sometimes white, sometimes gray,and sometimes pink, purple or yellow!



We also made our own cloud in a jar. We poured hot water into a glass jar, then after a couple of minute poured most of it out but left some sitting in the bottom. We then placed a metal strainer over top of the opening, and placed ice cubes in the strainer. The result was water vapour, then condensation, then a cloud that formed when the hot air hit the cold air.



We then talked about why it is sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny, and why sometimes we see clouds racing across the sky when it is windy. Making our own weather wheels was a good way to check the weather and find out what the weather was doing each day.

I cut out two large circles using white cardstock, and divided these into four sections; sunny, windy, raining and snowing. The boys had great fun drawing a representation of each description.



I then used a cut out arrow and attached this to the centre of the weather wheel, so that it can point to the corresponding section.



The finished weather wheels have been used every day to discuss what to wear and what our plans are for the day. We cannot go for a walk if it is raining, and windy days are good for the washing.



We had a great time using experiments from this book to investigate the world around us. Click below to see how other members of Poppins Book Nook were inspired!

 Clip art by MelonHeadz.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

An InLinkz Link-up

Book Nook Roundup- our Favourites!

This month marks the end of my first year with Poppins Book Nook, a virtual book club for children of all age ranges. This experience has been amazing as it is not just about reading some fun books, but having experiences as a family.

Here is a roundup of each theme we have done throughout the year, as well as links to each individual post for further instructions.

Our first month was exploring the world around us, where we made a kiwi snack, a chicken craft and a tuatara!



Next up was Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which saw us take a trip on a steam train as a family.



Folktales was a very fun theme, and we learnt about the real reason the tide goes in and out after reading about taniwhas and the tide.



Winter was well and truly on out doorstep when we had The Great Outdoors theme, so we had a fun week of snow related activities. Our PVA glue snowmen were a huge hit!



The boys made their own parrots when we read about pirates, and we also had a pirate themed dinner.



Things got a bit more serious when I asked Lucas what he would like to be when he grew up. He thought for a while and decided either a policeman or a clown! We ended up looking into what policemen do and had fun creating our own police badge.



By far, the most popular theme for the boys during this round of The Poppins Book Nook was The Wild West. We don't have a desert in the south island of New Zealand, but the boys were fascinated by some photos I showed them of me in the Atacama desert. We also watched some movies about cowboys, made our own Wanted posters, practiced pasta threading and also made some puffy paint.



Beyond Our Planet got the boys thinking about the moon, planet and stars. We invented a new outdoors game, made swirling planets from milk, and explored the phases of the moon with Oreos, as well as making our own starry sky painting using a cheese grater!



The kitchen is a great place for cooking, but we also used this theme to explore science recipes using common kitchen items such as baking soda and vinegar. This was a messy theme but made both boys extremely excited as they love to bake and make things blow up.



The boys also got to do some science experiments involving movement and force for the Poppins Book Nook, which was right up their alley.



Our last theme for this round of the Poppins Book Nook was reading some poetry, and one of our books was all about different types of dogs. Noodle the Poodle was our favourite dog, and so we made our own poodles out of noodles!



I have loved being a part of this round of the Poppins Book Nook, and can't wait to be involved for the next installment!

The themes have just been released, so if this sounds like something you would be interested in participating in, simply come back on the last Monday of each month where there will be a linky provided for you to share your reading creations with the other co-hosts and bloggers.