Puddles - Rainy Day Picture Book + KID KANDY

Puddles
Written by Jonathan London
Illustrated by G. Brian Karas
(Scholastic Inc., 1997)

It's a rainy day in our valley, perfect for reading Puddles.

Puddles is as the name suggests - rain puddles. The puddles are occupied by two children who leap, splash, and explore the wet world following a thunderstorm.

Puddle-jumpers, mud, worms and frogs fill the pages of Puddles. As any parent will know, the children play until they are tired, dirty, wet, and hungry. They present themselves at the door, come in, dry off, and perhaps have some hot cocoa. And then they head right back out to do it all over again.

Puddles is the book to read on rainy days. Or even just on days one wishes it would rain.

KID KANDY:

Get outside and play in the puddles!

Usually, children do not require special equipment when jumping through puddles. Just watch them. They look. They leap. They splash. Repeat.

Should you want to add tools, you could give them:

~ Umbrellas (if it is still raining)

~ Buckets and shovels (beach style)

~ Sticks and boats

~ Balloons

~ Plastic scoops, cups, and containers

~ Magnifying glass (to look better at all of those worms)

~ Chalk for lovely rainy day paintings


Rainy days are fun. Puddle jumping is even better!


P.S. If you don't have puddles, or rain, make some of your own

Angie Quantrell loves listening to the rain falling on the roof and is thankful that plants and people are getting a good watering. If enough rain has fallen, you can find her out in the gutter river, letting her grands get nice and wet.

Five Minute's Peace - Picture Book + KID KANDY Activity

Five Minutes' Peace
Written and Illustrated by Jill Murphy
(G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1986)

I was given Five Minutes' Peace by a good friend when my babies were babies. I can safely say that this book was for my mommy's heart (and tired body) rather than for the kiddos!

In Five Minutes' Peace, Mrs. Large (an elephant mommy) just wanted to get away from it all. After preparing a tea tray for herself, she sneaked off to the bathroom. All because she wanted five minutes' peace.

Alas, anyone with children knows that did not happen. Rarely does it ever happen. Mrs. Large did manage to slip into a cozy tub. But she was soon joined by one, two, and then three children. Mrs. Large did the only thing that worked. She got out and went back downstairs.

Where she enjoyed 45 seconds of peace.

The conversations and illustrations are adorable in Five Minutes' Peace. This tiny book is cute and makes me laugh. Murphy brings to life many true experiences with young children.

How do you get 5 minutes' peace?

KID KANDY:

How long is 5 minutes?

Use a kitchen timer for this activity. Actually, a kitchen timer is a great tool for rearing children.

~ Make sure to really set the timer, or children will get no sense of how long 5 minutes is.

~ Time different activities, announcing when 5 minutes is up (to go along with the buzzer or bell of the timer).

~ Some things you can time: cleaning up, building with blocks, drawing, eating dinner (or finishing some undesirable food), bath time, running around the yard, climbing the jungle gym, reading books, quiet time, time out, as a countdown to something being over (like play time with a friend or time to leave) . . . If you are doing it, you can incorporate a timer. 5 minutes is a LONG time when you are a child.

Kids want to be with us. Let's use a timer to give ourselves peace and sanity!

What can you do in 5 minutes?

Angie Quantrell clearly remembers those hectic days when she could not find 5 minutes' peace. Her children are grown, but now she has the same wonders as she watches her grandchildren. Maybe she needs to get out her timer!

Wacky Wednesday - Pete's A Pizza - Picture Book & KID KANDY

Pete's A Pizza
By William Steig
(Scholastic Inc., 1998)

What's wackier than a boy turning into a pizza and his dad cooking him up for dinner?

Preschoolers and early elementary students love Pete and the pretend play he has with his dad. It was a rainy day, after all. What was Pete to do? He couldn't go out and play baseball. So dad decided to turn Pete into a pizza.

All goes well until after Pete is nice and hot and the pizza maker wants to cut him into pieces. That's when the pizza runs away.

Pete's a Pizza cracks me up. Don't worry, there is no actual cutting, cooking, or eating of a child. Just pretend play and simple props.

But do beware. Reading this book to a child will turn you into a pizza maker because your child will want to be a pizza!

KID KANDY:

Make a pizza!

1. Dramatic Play Pizza

~ Use Pete and his father as role models for acting out pizza makers and pizzas. Props like checkers, powder, and pieces of paper will complete the imaginary play.

2. Make English Muffin Mini-Pizzas

Ingredients:

English muffins, pizza sauce, pepperoni, shredded cheese, and any other toppings you like (olives, green peppers, onions, mushrooms)

Layer ingredients on open-faced English muffins. Top with cheese. Put on a cookie sheet and bake in a 425 degree oven until cheese is melted and pizza is hot.

Be careful! It's hot! Mmmm. Tasty pizza.

Terrific Tuesday - I Can Do It! - Picture Book + KID KANDY

I Can Do It!
Written by Angie Quantrell
Illustrated by Cathy Lollar
(Woman's Missionary Union, 2003)

I Can Do It! is the partner book I wrote as I was writing I Can Give (featured last week on Terrific Tuesday). Both books turned out beautiful, but I seem to remember some mental chaos along the line.

I Can Do It! is a story about Meiying and her family. Meiying is Chinese American. Illustrations and language features reflect Chinese heritage and language. I love the Chinese characters running down the sides of the pages. They are amazing.

I Can Do It! is a story about the many things Meiying can do to learn about and do missions. Missions include things like helping, loving, sharing, telling about Jesus, and more. Meiying loves interacting with her family, church, and community. She shows how even preschoolers can be on mission with Jesus.

Missions activities, a note to parents, Bible thoughts for preschoolers, and suggested Bible readings for adults are included in I Can Do It!

I'm very proud of I Can Do It! and think it is a wonderful book for preschoolers. Cathy Lollar did a fabulous job illustrating I Can Do It! I hope you think so, too.

KID KANDY:

One activity Meiying helps with is collecting food for the hungry. Here are some ways to gather and give food with your child.

~ Go shopping together. Let your child choose several items to give.

~ Go shopping in your cupboard. Help pick out healthy food items to give.

~ Coupon together. Let your child be in charge of handing coupons to the cashier. Use the money you save to buy food or donate to a program that feeds the hungry.

~ If you participate in a specific program, make up a flyer and go door-to-door with your child to ask neighbors for help in feeding the hungry.

Be sure and say thank you!

Where can we give the food we collect?

~ Homeless shelter

~ Women and children's shelter

~ Church hunger ministry

~ Community collection site

~ School outreach programs (like weekend backpacks of food)

Angie Quantrell loves picture books with great illustrations, lots of color, and fun features like language phrases. She enjoys teaching boys and girls about missions.

I Can Do It! is available through Woman's Missionary Union:

Phone: 1-800-968-7301
Online: www.wmustore.com (Go to age levels, preschoolers, and then books)

KID KANDY = Book + Fun Activity

Dinner and dessert. Book (dinner) + dessert (fun activity). Well-balanced literary diet.

Welcome to a new feature that will be found on Book Blab - Blithering By a Book Lover. KID KANDY.

Due to my love of children's books, children, and their families, I often blog about great picture and chapter books. But recently, I grew interested in adding extra ideas for fun with kids that tie in to the theme of the book that is being featured. Over time, I realized that I need to make it a part of every blog about kids books. Read a book. Have some fun.

KID KANDY is a book extension feature for kids and their families. If a child has a fun activity to do after reading a book (or before reading a book), the ideas and information in the book are more likely to stick. We know that the more kids love books, the more they read. And the more they read, the more they internalize things like story structure, character development, language, conflict, and creativity. And the love of both reading and exploring is encouraged to grow deep and rich in the life of kids.

Some things that will help you use KID KANDY:

~ Not every idea will appeal to you or your child. Make up something else fun!

~ Let your child be the leader in making the KID KANDY activities work or evolve. They love being in charge.

~ Adjust the suggestions to fit your circumstances. We don't all have the same resources, experience, or chunks of time.

~ Be flexible. Some things might not work out. Laugh and go on. I bet kids will remember the mistakes and flops more than the perfect endings.

~ Above all, read books together. Shared love will run all over those dog-eared, food-smeared, mangled and torn pages. Books are like the Velveteen Rabbit. The books that show the most signs of wear and tear are the ones that are most loved. They are the ones that become real in your child's heart.

Enjoy KID KANDY.

Feel free to share the ideas found in this blog. I would love to hear how your KID KANDY escapades work out.

KID KANDY UPDATE: KID KANDY has been a regular feature on my blog for close to three months, though the name did not come about until January. I hope you and your children are enjoying the fun books and activities. Thanks for reading!

Angie Quantrell writes picture books, blogs, takes photos, and chases her naughty kitties off of the counters. Books come to life in her imagination and litter all spaces in her home. If it weren't for all of her books, Angie could live in a one room house.

White Rabbit's Color Book - Picture Book + KID KANDY Color Mixing Activity

Rabbit's Color Book
By Alan Baker
(Scholastic Inc., 1994)

Rabbit's Color Book is one of my favorite books. I know. I say that a lot. But it's true! I have many, many special books.

Rabbit learns all about color mixing when he becomes the paint brush, er, experimenter with his furry white body. Rabbit is adorable. He makes me want to get a bunny.

Rabbit's Color Book is the perfect introduction to color mixing, art projects, painting, rainbows, and free exploration of color. Way to go, Alan Baker!

KID KANDY:

Do Your Own Color Mixing Experiments

~ As shown in the photos below, nothing much is required for color mixing. You can be as elaborate or as simple as you wish.

Materials: white ice cube trays (colors show better in white), liquid food coloring dyes, plastic containers, water, pipettes (plastic are best, similar to eye droppers), towels

I usually begin color mixing by making only the primary colors of water - red, blue, and yellow. Children figure out pretty fast how to make purple, orange, and green.

My grandson is 5 and had no problem with the pipettes. Khloe is 3 and had some trouble, but kept at it. I eventually gave her a spoon and she was quite happy with that.

The towel on the table kept spills to a minimum. But in the summer, this could go outside with complete disregard to messes. This activity will keep children occupied as long as there is colored water to use!

Other suggestions:

~ clear plastic candy mold trays are WONDERFUL for eye-hand coordination and fine motor control

~ suction cup soap holders require even more finesse and make cool designs on paper towels that are laid on top after each suction cup has one drop of colored water on it

~ for older children, I like to use baby food jars so each child can mix with the 3 primary colors and be in control of the outcomes

Angie Quantrell loves simple science and art projects. Kids need to play and experiment as they have learn. Play is the work of a child. Put those kids to work.

The Black Stallion - Chapter Books

The Black Stallion
By Walter Farley
(Random House, 1969 - original in 1941)

Meet a book that I absolutely adored when I was in elementary school. The Black Stallion was one of my favorite and most re-read books in my growing collection of all-things-horse.

Walter Farley created a world for me. That world consisted of danger, excitement, horses, adventure, challenge, horses, and more horses. I didn't care if the main character was a boy. He was doing things that I wanted to do - traveling, getting shipwrecked (ok, I may skip that one), and rescuing a beautiful, strong-willed black stallion to be his own horse. What could be better?

The Black Stallion is still one of my beloved favs. The horse world in Farley's books was my world of escape. In the pages of his writing, I could do and be anything.

Isn't that what good books are for? To let us get away, learn more about ourselves, dream, and give us the chance to live vicariously through the choices and actions of another. A perfect day back then would be reading for hours and then getting up to go ride my own horse, pretending that I was on a similar adventure. Never mind that I was in a desert, my horse was a scrawny nearly spotless Appaloosa and sometimes knot-head, and the extent of my adventure usually ended with me walking home on foot.

I recommend The Black Stallion for elementary and intermediate school students. And any girl who loves horses.


KID KANDY:

1. Watch the movie! For a book adaptation, they did a pretty good job.

2. Get outside and play horses. I remember doing this well into the intermediate years. We were the horses and the riders. Our legs were the horse legs, and the rest of our bodies became adventurers setting out looking for danger. Those 2-legged horses could gallop, trot, switch leads, back up, and do all sorts of great things. Just check out the way our horses could barrel race!

And you've never seen a younger child turn down the chance to ride the horsie (you or I) in their own version of playing horses.

Giddy-up!

Blaze and I in sunny Arizona (1978)

Angie Quantrell is a long-time horse lover. While she is unable to have a horse right now, she dreams of the day when perhaps a 4-legged beauty will allow her to ride away on an adventure, real or make-believe.