Our next book was: The hat by Jan Brett.

Synopsis: 

When Lisa's woolen stocking flies off the clothesline, Hedgie finds it and pokes his nose in. He tries to pull it out, but the stocking gets stuck on his prickles -- and the fun begins. A mother hen comes by, then a noisy goose, a talkative barn cat, a playful farm dog, a mama pig and her piglets, and a pony. They all laugh at Hedgie, especially when he pretends he's wearing a new hat. But in the end, it is clever Hedgie who has the last laugh. And where is Lisa when all of this is going on? She's in the borders, getting ready for winter, until she realizes her stocking is missing and she enters the story to look for it.

Pinky, as usual, loved the story because there’s a funny twist: ANIMALS DON'T WEAR CLOTHES…….DO THEY? Also, because the disappearing clothes form the clothesline picture above each page.

About mommy point of view, I am IN LOVE with the illustrations. Those are such beautiful pictures. 

Our activity for this cute book was:

• Making our own winter hat of Rudolph! This idea I got it from here.

Reading the story! Every animal with their “hats”.

Pinky making her Rudolph hat.

I let her fill the gloves with cotton and glue the eyes, nose (red pom-pom), and felted ears. After that, mommy had to use her not-good sewing abilities to sew everything together because as I know you know, the glue was not strong enough for my princess high activity level. The only bad thing is that the antlers don’t stay up, maybe using kids gloves (which I couldn’t find at the moment) and less cotton would make it better….

So, here’s our version of THE HAT:

Isn’t she cute??????

• Additional activities:
• In addition here’s an activity if you want to add a school kind of learning: Graph the animals from The Hat depending on the number of feet, if it walks or flies, if it has a beak or mouth and if it’s a bird or mammal.
• Story animals sequencing here.
• Set up a play here.

Bonus: here we are having fun with our new hat!

Happy holidays!!!

For our third day we read the book: Calliou makes a snowman. Pinky loved since she loves Caillou already.

Synopsis:

With the help and guidance of his friend Sarah, Caillou experiences the joy of playing in the snow and learning to make his first snowman.

Our activity were: Making a cotton ball and pinecone snowmen and foil snowflakes.

Painting the pinecones.

Make a hole in the cotton ball with your finger and fill it with glue. Then put the mini pinecone inside.

The pinecone is the hat! And the cotton ball is the face. Glue two more cotton balls for the body, medium and large part. Tip: to get the medium size cotton ball, you need to unfold one cotton ball and enrolled around another one. For the largest part of the body, repeat the above step twice.

A tip from Pinky: be careful to don’t glue the cotton to your fingers!!

Use pipe cleaners for the hands and scarf', googly eyes; and jewels to decorate. You can use buttons, confetti or maybe felt pieces for the final decorations. I draw the mouth with a sharpie.

Pinky and mommy made 3 snowmen!!

Here are our paper foil snowflakes. I asked Pinky what did she think this was….she got very curious about it…but she told me that didn’t know….

After I unfolded….she got very excited to see a snowflake….Mommy is in love with that smile!!!!

We had such a fun day….Both LOVE snowmen!!!!

Linking to:

Our second book is: When will it snow? by Kathryn White, Alison Edgson

Synopsis:

'Winter is coming', Mother Bear said. 'We must snuggle down to sleep in our den'. Little Bear doesn't want to sleep! He wants to know what snow is like. His friends try to show him by making mud-balls and angels in the sand. But Little Bear knows that while he's asleep his friends will have fun in the soft, white snow. Will they forget all about him?

Pinky loved it because is about a little bear just like her beloved Teddy bear.

Here’s our activity for this book:

She is LOVING her Christmas books advent countdown!

Activity: cotton swab snowflakes plus painting snow around little bear.

Our final product!!

And a bonus for you: A cute ballerina!

Have fun!!!!

Our first book is: The biggest Christmas tree ever by Steven Kroll.

Synopsis:

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and Clayton and Desmond feel the chill in the air. The cool weather makes them think of Christmas . . . and Christmas makes them think of Christmas trees! Who'll find the biggest one?

Our book activity was making our big Christmas tree art with lots of gifts under. Last year we did this one: Handprint Christmas tree.

Don’t you like that smile?

Our Big Handprint Christmas tree ever!!!

Have fun!!!

 

Linking to:

Since I put away our Christmas books advent basket on November 30, and I knew Pinky will be desperate to unwrap the “gifts”, I added an extra book that I really love. It is: The Little Tree Who Didn't Want to be Green by Ruth Hobson Kruge, Caroline DiCicco Bohus (Illustrator).

Synopsis:

It is the story of an ever green tree whom was unhappy of been always green when other trees and flower change colors during the seasons. So he decided to talk directly to God and ask him to change his color. So, God explain him how he made the color green (mixing primary colors which we have been doing activities about that) and the important of loving and seen yourself through God’s eyes.

Craft: we painted a green tree mixing color blue and yellow just as God did in the story.

Isn’t this fun???

Have fun!!!

Here’s our Advent calendar: Christmas’ Books!!! This idea is all around the web and Pinterest, for sure; and the thing is that I LOVE IT!

Pinky is crazy about books (ok, DNA is strong…..both mommy and daddy LOVE books) and I now she will get more than happy to find a new one each day and, the best part, unwrap it.

So, here’s our list, just some books we have already and other we got at the library, which has a HUGE selections of great books and for FREE (the great part is that we can borrow them for 3 weeks, so I added them to the list before their due date). I plan to have a little craft or activity for each book…OK, I will TRY my best!!

• Bonus: The Little Tree Who Didn't Want to be Green by Ruth Hobson Kruge, Caroline DiCicco Bohus (Illustrator). Craft: Paint a green tree

1. The biggest Christmas tree ever- Craft: Handprint Christmas tree.
2. When will it snow?- Craft: paper snowflakes
3. Caillou makes a snowman- craft: footprint snowman
4. A letter to Santa- craft: write a letter to Santa
5. The hat- craft: make a felt Christmas hat
6. Christmas cricket- craft: make an angel
7. Suzy goose and the Christmas star- craft: make a star
8. Olive the other reindeer- craft: footprint sleigh + reindeers + Olive
9. The snow tree- craft: paper cone + cotton balls tree
10. A Christmas story- craft: make a donkey
11. Clifford’s first snow day- craft: paint with shaving cream
12. The poky little puppy’s first Christmas- craft: bake cookies
13. The 12 days of Christmas- craft: dove
14. Bears stays up for Christmas- craft: string popcorn
15. Santasaurus- craft: Pinky will decide
16. Mickey and Minnie’s gift of the magi- craft: Christmas card
17. Santa duck and his merry helpers- craft: make an elf
18. The little engine that could and the snowy blowy Christmas- craft: Pinky
19. The nutcracker- activity: Ballet recital- play with Barbies + nutcrackers
20. The snowy day- craft: paint a Winter tree with lots of snow
21. The story of Christmas- craft: make a nativity
22. The bears’ Christmas- craft: winter activities coloring book (I made this)
23. Rudolph the red nosed reindeer- craft: Rudolph
24. The night before Christmas- craft: bake cookies
25. The first Christmas- craft: Baby Jesus

That’s our looooooonnnngggg list. I hope we can get almost more than a 50% done. We love to read and making crafts so I think we can make it.

I will try to post everyday about our book and activity.

Have fun!!!!

Disclaimer:

I won’t get any commission for the links; they are just to have a look at our books. The one that doesn’t have a link is because I found them at the Dollar Tree Store last year and others are old copies from the library.

Linking to: