Category Archives: Themes

Jun23

Bringing Down the Moon by Jonathan Emmett and Vanessa Cabban

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IMG_0749Bringing Down the Moon by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, boardbook, first published by Walker Books Ltd in 2001, this edition published by Walker Books Ltd in 2004.

One night Mole burrows up through the dirt and sees the moon for the first time. He doesn’t know what it is, but it is so pretty, he wants to catch it. He tries jumping and reaching it with a stick and climbing a tree to get closer to it, but nothing works, and he disturbs all his friends along the way. But when he thinks he has broken the moon, his friends are there to console and reassure him.

Bringing Down the Moon is one of my pre-schooler’s favourite board books, and we enjoy reading it together before bed. She loves it when Mole yells “hot-diggerty!”, she thinks that is a very funny phrase! I also like this story of discovery and friendship. It is a lovely story with beautiful illustrations. Mole is a curious little fellow, and his friends are compassionate and understanding. Mole learns that the moon isn’t near enough to touch, but it is beautiful up there in the night sky. And it’s beautiful that he shares that moment with his friends.

 

Jun23

Paper Worms

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IMG_0723It was raining this afternoon, and we were all feeling a little tired after school, so we picked a nice easy activity to do. We cut coloured paper into strips, and then used them to make worms.

L folding up a worm.

L folding up a worm.

A made some just by folding a single strip of paper up like a concertina, and then adding eyes. L made hers using two strips of paper. She started by lining the ends up perpendicular to each other, and then taping the strips together in a right angle. Her first worm was blue and red, so she folded the blue over the red, then the red over the blue, and then the blue back over the red in the opposite direction, and so forth until she reached the end of the strips. It was a bit like plaiting the paper together to form a spring-like tube. She taped the ends together so that her worm didn’t unravel, and then she stuck on some eyes.

A's concertina.

A’s concertina.

 

A two strip worm.

A two strip worm.

A's concertina worm.

A’s concertina worm.

I love these eye stickers, they are so easy for the kids to use, and we don’t have to wait for any glue to dry. A likes the eyes that have eyelashes, because all her creations “are girls and need pretty eyelashes”. A had difficulty making worms using two strips of paper, so L made her a worm to add eyes to, which was very thoughtful.

The kids took their little worms off to bed with them tonight, and L even made her worms a special sleeping place on her desk where they would be warm and comfy.

Jun22

Surprise Rainbow Cake

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This double decker rainbow cake was fun to make and looked great when Big L cut into it (it also tasted really nice).

We started out by making a double quantity of buttercake mix, which in this case was two packet mixes. I sometimes make cakes from scratch and sometimes from packets, depending on cupboard contents, time, and inclination. I happened to have a couple of cake mixes handy, so we mixed them up according to the packet.

In one of my rare moments of organisation, I had previously taken the block of butter out of the fridge to give it plenty of time to soften before mixing up the cake batter. Unfortunately, Big L assumed I’d just forgotten to put it back in the fridge, and tidied it away. So it was hard as a rock when it came time to add it to the mix. Big L suggested that he cut it up for me, and promptly snapped one of our butter knives in two! He then softened it a little in the microwave, but it was still fairly hard when we added it to the bowl, and the batter was a little lumpy as a result, but it didn’t affect the taste at all.

Adding colour to the batter.

Adding colour to the batter.

The kids both wanted to have a go at using the mixer. Neither one of them managed to turn it off prior to lifting it from the bowl…. Must work on that. Once it was finally mixed, I divided the batter into five bowls, with each bowl holding a little less than the one before it, until the batter was gone. I added a few drops of food colouring to each bowl, and the kids mixed the colour in. We had blue, green, yellow, pink and red.

To cook the cake we used a rectangular baking tray lined with baking paper. I used the biggest bowl of batter first, which was blue, and poured it into the base of the tray, spreading it out to the edges. Then I took the next bowl, the green batter, and poured it into the tray in a stripe down the centre of the blue. I continued this with each of the remaining colours in progressively smaller stripes until all the batter was in the tray. Then we popped it in the oven and waited for it to cook.

Ready to cook.

Ready to cook.

Straight from the oven.

Straight from the oven.

The cake really puffed up in the centre of the tray, but that didn’t really matter. Once it was cool, I cut it in half. The inside of the cake looked awesome! I leveled off the top of the cake to make each half reasonably flat on top so that they could be stacked one on top of the other.

After leveling the top of the cake.

After leveling the top of the cake.

Cut in half.

Cut in half.

 

 

 

 

 

Ready to spread frosting.

Ready to spread frosting.

 

I normally make icing or butter cream from scratch using icing sugar, but I cheated this time and bought a container of Betty Crocker’s Milk Chocolate Frosting. It saved a bit of time and made the cake very chocolatey.

I spread the chocolate frosting between onto the top of one half of the cake, and then placed the second half on top. I made sure it was all straight, and then I covered the whole cake in frosting, smoothing it out with a spatula. I covered the top of the cake in lines of chocolate freckles. I had some left over, so I added these down the sides of the cake.

Cutting into the cake and revealing the hidden rainbow surprise was very exciting! The cake was very yummy too. A and L got chocolate frosting all over their faces and hands, while Baby T ate his little piece much more politely.

A slice of surprise rainbow cake.

A slice of surprise rainbow cake.

The inside of the cake.

The inside of the cake.

Jun13

Fly Guy Presents Sharks by Tedd Arnold

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IMG_0513Fly Guy Presents Sharks by Tedd Arnold, paperback non-fiction reader, published by Scholastic Inc in 2013.

Fly Guy and Buzz head to the aquarium to learn about sharks in this informative reader. It contains plenty of photographs throughout the book, complementing the interesting factual text. And Fly Guy and Buzz are always there, leading the way to more knowledge on sharks.

Moving onto non-fiction titles can be a little scary as they often have longer and harder words, and are more complicated than their fictional counterparts. Using some well loved characters, such as Fly Guy and Buzz, is useful in piquing the interest of young readers, especially those that may be reluctant to try non-fiction. I was impressed with the simple and interesting layout and facts. There was enough factual information to sink your teeth into (sorry about that awful pun!) without it becoming overwhelming.

This book is aimed at lower primary school children as a reader, but I read it to my preschooler, and she really enjoyed it. She loves Fly Guy, so this book had appeal before we even opened it. My preschooler did learn some things about sharks, such as they breathe through gills and they don’t sleep, she was particularly impressed by the Great White Shark being able to smell blood from so far away. She told me she is glad she’s never met a shark! She also liked the comments that Buzz makes, and the picture of Fly Guy pretending to have shark teeth. Combining Fly Guy and such an engaging topic as sharks was a stroke of genius, and we look forward to reading more in the Fly Guy Presents series.

 

Jun12

Bee Cupcakes

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L helped me to make these cute little bee cupcakes.

IMG_0483We made a batch of vanilla cupcakes in dark coloured muffin cases. Once they were cool, we iced each cupcake with yellow icing. I wanted the icing to be thick, but smoother than I normally make cake frosting. So I didn’t use as much butter, and I added the milk to the mix a little at a time until I had a nice consistency. I only had liquid food colouring on hand and that makes the icing runnier too. Over the top of the yellow icing, I carefully iced stripes of black icing, well, dark grey was as dark as I could get it, but I used black food colouring. Gel or paste colouring would have been better for making black. I’m happy with the colours anyway.

Once the stripes were done, we added a head made from a honeycomb pods (little choc filled biscuit cups made by Mars). I used white chocolate fudge writing icing to draw on the faces and then some black icing for little antennae. Some of the bees also got mini choc chips as antennae.
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Wing made from a pipe cleaner.

Wing made from a pipe cleaner.

L helped me make wings and stingers from black pipe cleaners. She placed the wings to the sides of the cupcakes, and the stinger at the opposite end to the head. I was quite happy with how the wings looked when we were finished.

L made a couple of bee cupcakes all by herself too. I didn’t interfere with her creative juices, just let her get on with making her bees how she wanted. She used some of the pods for antennae, mini choc chips for eyes, and the white chocolate for the pupils and mouth. Her wings and stinger were pipe cleaners. She had a lot of fun creating her bee cupcakes.  And she really liked eating them too!

One of L' s bees.

One of L’ s bees.

Jun11

Underpants, Thunderpants by Peter Bently and Deborah Melmon

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IMG_0508Underpants, Thunderpants by Peter Bently and illustrated by Deborah Melmon, paperback picture book, published by Parragon in 2011.

On a fine and sunny day, Dog hangs out his underpants to dry on the line. Then a thunderstorm whips up the wind, blowing the underpants right off the line and spreads them all around. They land in some interesting places, including in the jungle and the ocean, and one pair even gets blown right out into space.

At a time when my children are obsessed with toilet humour, this book was a good find. They think any story about underpants is funny, and this rhyming tale definitely tickled their funny bones! A perfect book for preschoolers, with a short story, large text and clear, colourful pictures. I like the octopus that gets four pairs of the undies, and no surprises,  my kids like it best when the hunter goes splat in the poop. I wasn’t quite ready for the book to end actually, it just felt like there should have been more, but maybe that was because my kids were laughing and I wanted to extend the experience! Underpants, Thunderpants is a fun book.

Jun11

T-rex’s Terrible Tooth by Kathryn England and Ben Redlich

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IMG_0445T-rex’s Terrible Tooth by Kathryn England and illustrated by Ben Redlich, paperback picture book, published by Koala Books in 2010.

Young Tyrone the T-rex has a toothache. A toothache so bad that he is unable to eat his normal meaty diet without horrendous pain. Convinced that he is about to die of starvation, he breaks down wailing. A passing Brontosaurus informs Tyrone that soft fruit and vegetables are plentiful, and by changing his diet he will certainly survive. Tyrone gives his new diet his full attention with unexpected results.

This is a delightfully humourous rhyming story featuring dinosaurs, one of my kids’ favourite topics, so it is a hands down winner in our house and has been read numerous times to both my preschooler and second-grader. We love reading this book out loud to make the most of the rhyming text, and it always makes us laugh. My preschooler likes the meat meals Tyrone dreams of but can’t eat, such as Triceratops lollipops, while I like his melodramatic response to his toothache. The ending is very satisfying and my kids think it is hilarious. A great book for preschoolers and lower primary school children, I highly recommend T-rex’s Terrible Tooth for every little dinosaur fan!

Jun11

The Pocket Dogs by Margaret Wild and Stephen Michael King

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IMG_0439The Pocket Dogs by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Stephen Michael King, paperback picture book, first published by Omnibus Books in 2000, this edition published by Omnibus Books in 2001.

Mr Pockets owns a big blue coat with two big pockets. His little dogs, Biff and Buff, ride in his coat pockets every day as he walks to the shops. A hole develops in Biff’s pocket, and it gets bigger and bigger until Biff falls right through it and is lost. Several people try to help Biff, but he runs away because he is Mr Pocket’s pocket dog and he just wants to be reunited with Mr Pockets and Buff.

This is a cute picture book that my kids really like, it is also popular at their school with the preschoolers and lower primary school children. The language is easy, the story interesting and the pictures are engaging. It shows that knowing who you are and feeling that you belong somewhere are important in life. Biff finds that he is a pocket dog and only a pocket dog, and he belongs with Mr Pockets and Buff, and that makes him happy. My preschooler likes to curl up in my lap to read this book together when she is tired. She likes Biff’s short adventure and his reunion with his best friends.

Jun10

Cupcake Bee Cake

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Cupcakes iced and ready for decoration.

Cupcakes iced and ready for decoration.

I was thinking about ways to make bee cupcakes, when I thought that perhaps I could make one big bee cake using cupcakes. I pondered this for a while, but finally came up with a plan. After baking two dozen cupcakes, I laid them out in a bee shape to see if it looked okay. It did, so I mixed up some yellow icing and some black icing, which is not perfectly black, but rather a dark grey. To get the icing really black, I would have needed some food colouring paste or gel, but I only had liquid colouring, so dark grey it is. This wasn’t an issue though, as the colours looked quite good together.

L icing a cupcake.

L icing a cupcake.

I got to icing, starting with the black head. The two cupcakes at the front are angled up a little to create the head shape. I used a couple of toothpicks to secure them into place against the single black cupcake behind them. L helped me to ice some of the other cupcakes, and was a big help whilst making this cake. The cupcakes that make up the stripey body are just placed into the correct shape. I ended up using fourteen cupcakes for this cake.

The head of the bee.

The head of the bee.

L made the antennae and stinger out of black pipe cleaners. I stuck one antenna into each of the head cupcakes, and then added eyes below them. The eyes are made from a single malteser chocolate ball with some white chocolate fudge writing icing blobbed on it. L stuck the stinger into the last yellow cupcake.

A wing.

A wing.

The wings of the bee were the trickiest part of this cake. They are made out of clear cellophane. I cut a double sheet into a rough wing shape, and then scrunched one edge together to create the shape of the wing emerging from the body. I separated the two sheets of cellophane slightly to give the wing some depth, and then wrapped half a black pipe cleaner around the scrunched section, and secured it between two of the body cupcakes using toothpicks. The toothpick slotted under the pipe cleaner and then poked into the sides of the adjoining cupcakes. I made another wing for the other side.

And there I had my cupcake bee cake. It was very difficult to photograph, but I’ve done my best. The cellophane didn’t show up very well in the photos, and it was difficult to get one good shot of the whole cake, so the photos don’t really do it justice. It did look much better sitting on my dining table!

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Jun10

The Bus to the Zoo by Mary Murphy and Josh Lee

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IMG_0441The Bus to the Zoo by Mary Murphy and illustrated by Josh Lee, paperback picture book, first published by Omnibus Books in 2009, this edition published by Omnibus Books in 2011.

The big blue bus is on its way to the zoo, picking up passengers at every stop along the way. The passengers waiting for this bus are a bit unusual though, there are seagulls in school ties, a donkey with earrings, a goose in a party hat, and many other animals. The bus driver is a penguin, and she wants the passengers to keep moving down the bus to make room for more and more passengers, but it’s getting pretty crowded, and it’s looking very chaotic. Who is the last passenger to get on the bus?

The bus to the zoo is also the bus carrying the zoo, a bit of a Noah’s ark on wheels. It quickly becomes packed with an assortment of interesting creatures. While the story is fun, and it rhymes, it is the illustrations that make this book so engaging. My preschooler loves to study the pictures, finding different animals, and strange things that the animals are wearing or holding, such as the monkey’s camera, or the toad’s snow globe. When we read this book together we like to try to name and count as many of the animals as we can. This is a great book for sharing with preschoolers, and for independent reading for lower primary school children.