Book Review and a Giveaway, Too-WHEN A DRAGON MOVES IN

When A Dragon Moves in, written by Jodi Moore and illustrated by Howard McWilliam, is the perfect bedtime story for those dragonfire-warm summer nights.

The Details:
Recommended ages: 3-7
Word count: 397
Average words per two page spread: 25
Extra value: Encourages use of imagination, great for identifying details

WHEN A DRAGON MOVES INto your world, be prepared for a day packed with adventure. This is quite evident when a dragon moves into a little boy’s sandcastle during a family excursion to the beach.

When the child’s family is too busy to play with him, the boy creates his own version of companionship—a marshmallow toasting, raft floating, sandwich gobbling dragon.

They have fun.

They explore.

They get into innocent mischief.

~All the things that dragons and little boys are meant to do.

This wonderful summer-themed story will most definitely edge its way into fall, winter, and spring story time requests. The pacing of the story is bouncy quick. The meaning behind the story, however, is everlasting.

While the target audience of the book is children ages 3 through 7, the lesson learned from the story will apply to the grownups that read the story to their little ones—Take time to travel through the world of imagination with the children in your life. Who knows—even you might find a dragon at your doorstep.

 

The activity I have created to go with this book falls right into the above-stated category. So, climb into your imagination and explore the possibilities of a dragon moving into your home.

On the hunt for dragon treasure

This activity is loosely structured. Have fun with it. Modify it. Let your little ones guide the direction each step takes. Not only will both of you have fun, but your little ones will also practice critical thinking skills.

MATERIALS:

Book: WHEN A DRAGON MOVES IN (Jodi Moore, Howard McWilliam)

Footprints (painted footprints for family members, printed dragon footprints)*

Shark's teeth or seashells

Jewels (rainbow colored cereal used, but many other options)

Various beach gear inside a beach bag

Marshmallows

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. The night before the main activity, read the story as a bedtime tale. Discuss what dragons like and how real they are.
2. The next morning set the stage for the dragon discovery. Place footprints in various places throughout the house. Place a beach bag where your little one will see it first thing in the morning.

3. When your child finds the prints in the kitchen, discuss why the dragon was there. For example, dragons get hungry. Was he looking inside the pantry for some food? Or—did he want to toast some marshmallows?

4. When your child finds the prints that lead to the back yard, explore the reason he went there. Did he leave any of his dragon teeth and scales in the sandbox?

 

 

5. As your child finds more prints, have him talk about whose prints they are and why they are there. For example, Mom’s prints in front of the closet may mean she might have been putting clothing away earlier in the day.*

6. Talk about where dragons like to sleep—cozy caves where they can protect their treasure. Continue the dragon hunt until the treasure is found.

 

*A few days prior to the activity, have some painting fun by making paint footprints of the members of your family. Allow each member to paint their prints with their favorite colors. These can be used for a variety of activities—color recognition, size sorting, counting, etc.


This book is available on Amazon.com.

 

Interested in adding this book to your child’s library? Register here for a book giveaway. Click here or add a comment to the blog.*

*This giveaway will include a free copy of When a Dragon Moves In (Jodi Moore and Howard McWilliam), as well as a surprise. The registration will last from the posting of this blog post until midnight, July 27, 2013. One winner will be randomly selected from all entries. The book will be shipped from Amazon within approximately 2 weeks following the close of the giveaway. The giveaway is open to residents of the United States with a United State’s mailing address. The winner’s name will be posted on the blog, unless the winner chooses not to have his/her name posted.

 

GIVEAWAY UPDATE: The second book giveaway is now complete.

Congratulations to Katie B. and to Pam!

 

The Temps are in the 90s~Time to Jump into the Deep End of the Pool

Welcome to my first post on Rainbows2Snowflakes. While I definitely know what direction I intend to take with this blog, I will more than likely modify the paths I travel to reach the final destination.

Rainbows2Snowflakes is intended to be a friendly and informative online space to distribute and share ideas for activities, projects, and children’s literature. As we are all forever learners, many of the activities will appeal to a wide audience and age range. However, for the duration of this summer, the posts and ideas will be geared towards children ages four through eight.

Since summer has unofficially begun and the pools are now open, I thought I’d join in with the summer fun and jump right into the deep end of the blog pool with my first activity from The Sizzling Summer Snow Day thematic unit. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will post different ideas and activities from this summer unit. Some of them are easy to do with few materials required and some of the activities are more elaborate and require careful planning. When all activities have been added, I will add a link to the entire unit, just in time for the super sizzling days of July and August.

Activity 1—Sticky Snowman Snowball Sort—Twice the Fun

Marshmallows are such entertaining treats. They squish. They roll. They stick to just about anything. This marshmallow-themed activity will provide both a fun afternoon of learning and play as well as an educational boost for the little ones in your life.

Ages: 3-8

Time to complete: Part 1—15-20 minutes; Part 2—45-60 minutes

Hint: To make sure your children have super clean hands for this activity, instead of singing the usual Happy Birthday song while they was their hands, sing Jingle Bells while they splash in the soap and water. The kids will love singing the Christmas song in the summer and they will have squeaky clean hands when they are ready to dive into the bowl of mixed-up marshmallows.

Materials:

4 nesting bowls

3 small bowls, 1 cup sized

3 bags of marshmallows in 3 sizes (available in big box stores)

Rice Treat ingredients—1 10 oz. bag marshmallows, 3 TBSP butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 6 cups rice cereal

Embellishments: Mini M & Ms, fruit rolls, pretzels, powdered sugar (optional)

Cookie sheet coated with non-stick spray

How big is your marshmallow—Part One

Instructions:

1. Prior to the activity, place the marshmallows in the largest bowl, making sure they are mixed, as shown.

 

2. Arrange the remaining bowls by size from smallest to largest in front of the large bowl.

3. Discuss the sizes of the three types of marshmallows.

4. Sort the marshmallows by size into the corresponding bowl.

 

Make the fun count by counting your snowballs

Use three 1 cup sized bowls and have the children predict how many marshmallows of each size it would take to fill that bowl. Fill the bowls, one at a time, with each size marshmallow. Count the total number of marshmallows it takes to fill the bowl.

Ask: Why did it take more of the small marshmallows to fill the bowl than the other two sizes?

 

Create a Crispy Summer Snowman—Part Two

 

A fun follow-up activity to the marshmallow sort, this activity uses the marshmallows from Part One and continues to reinforce the concepts of comparing items by size as well as counting skills.

Instructions:

Hint: Step 1 should be completed by an adult.

 

1. Create the marshmallow treats.

            a. Melt the butter over low heat.

            b. Melt the marshmallows by stirring them in the melted butter over low heat.

            c. Remove the melted mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

            d. Stir in the rice cereal until coated with the melted marshmallow mixture.

2. To prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands, apply a coating of butter to the palms of your hands.

3. Grab three clumps of the mixture and place them on a cookie sheet coated with non-stick spray, making sure there are three different-sized clumps.

 

4. Roll the clumps into firm ball shapes and allow to stiffen slightly before proceeding to Step 5.

5. (Optional) Roll each of the balls in a layer of powered sugar, leaving a quarter-sized area that is not coated. The uncoated area will be used to help the balls stick together to form the snowman.

 

6. Assemble the snowman by placing the balls from largest to smallest, pressing them together to stick.

7. Decorate the snowman with the candy, fruit roll, and pretzels.

 

Have fun with this activity!