The Book Bunch: Mars Needs Moms!

Today The Book Bunch soared into out of space when we read Berkeley Breathed's Mars Needs Moms!

For our introductions we told our name and our favorite thing about space.We took turns reading the book and had a conversation about the way the character Milo feels about his mother. He used the words "tyrant" and Milo's very strong negative feelings about his mother in the beginning of the book. The group agreed that Milo shouldn't be meant to his mother and that his behavior was not nice.

They were very interested in how the aliens seemed to appreciate Milo's mom and discussed what they would do if they were him.

After we finished the book we compared the book to the movie. The group split in whether they liked the book or the movie better.

For our craft we attempted to make spaceships and aliens. I found a craft on Pinterest but didn't have enough supplies for our group.

Source: daniellesplace.com via Rachée on Pinterest

We came up with an alternative using lids and paper cups. The results were not as...polished but they were fun.

An alien and his ship

A home for the Martians!

The Martians are landing!

A space ship and alien

We lifted the glitter ban to make lovely space ships

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays at 4:00 PM and is a book group for children aged 4-7.

-r

Over the Moon with the Book Bunch!

Today the Book Bunch celebrated the new full moon with books and sweets! We read Kevin Henkes' Kitten First Full Moon and then did a craft together using Oreo cookies. There are several examples available on the Pinterest website but we choose this template from Rockin' Teacher Materials. Since the group is made up primarily of 4-7 year olds and is so close to dinner we only showed four phases (the Full Moon, the New Moon, the first Quarter Half Moon and the Third Quarter Half Moon) so that we were not serving eight cookies to each child.

Today's prompt was to introduce yourself to the group and tell a full moon story. There were lots of full moon/werewolf stories! Then we read the book, each member has the option read read a page as we go around in a circle. We discussed the book a bit as the group were amazed at how the kitten could think the moon is milk. There was some discussion about the distance of the moon and then we began our craft.



Volunteers helped set up the craft




Our volunteer shows the stages of the moon




All 8 stages of the moon using Oreos




Children used a template to create four moon stages.



The template and the example

The group hard at work

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM and is for children aged 4-7.
-r

The Book Bunch Takes the Cake

Yesterday's meeting of The Book Bunch was literally sweet: we shared cupcakes as we read Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. First we shared mini cupcakes and answered what happens if you give a girl or boy a cupcake.

Among the responses were:
Rachee: If you give a girl a cupcake she gobbles it all up!
S: If you give a girl a cupcake she sits quietly and eats it!
T: If you give a girl a cupcake she goes crazy and runs all around the room.
D: If you give a girl a cupcake she will keep asking for more.
M: If you give a boy a cupcake he says thank you.

Then we shared the book. Some of The Book Bunch members are stronger readers than others so we pair of and let those who want to read take a turn and those not ready can follow along. We also had some from the bunch tell the story using the pictures.

For our craft we created paper cupcakes. Using silver paper for the liners and construction paper for the icing. The cakes created were inspired by pumpkins, red velvet, "regular" and chocolate. We also used a hole puncher to make sprinkles as so desired by the cat in the story!

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays at 4PM and is for children ages 4-7.

-r

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Aargh!

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day and the Book Bunch celebrated early with treasure maps!

On Thursday for our opening greeting, members were invited to share their pirate name and the name of the vessel. I was Cap'N aRrrrrr (get it?) and sailed on ye Olde Lansdonwe Ship. Other pirates included Pirate Feather and Captain Jack.

We read the book Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long, illustrated by David Shannon and then we created treasure maps.

Our book and a map to treasure!

A map in progress

Getting inspiration

More maps

Some 'gold' coins

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays at 4:00 PM and is for children ages 4-7.

Racing Around With the Book Bunch

Today our Book Bunch group once again took inspiration once from the Little Family Fun blog when we read and created roads for the book Sputter, Sputter, Sput!




We started by taking a picture walk, explaining what we thought was happening on each page and then we read the story.

Our crafts varied. Taking black construction paper we used chalk or yellow construction paper to make roads. We then cut out cars to travel along the roads.

















The Book Bunch meets weekly for book discussion and crafting.

Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum...

Inspired by Kristin at the Swarthmore Public Library, Wee Reads and The Book Bunch went crazy with books about giants and had huge fun pretending everything around us was smaller than us.

Our reading list:
Chicken Big by Keith Graves
I think the adults in the room enjoyed this as much as the children!


How to Make Friends with a Giant by Gennifer Choldenko
Which generated a surprisongliklively discussion about acceptance, differences.

The groups had a blast making books for giants (large pages and lots of staples!) and teeny tiny books that were 'left in the giant's castle when Jack ran out!'

Strega Nona

Today for Wee Reads and the Book Bunch we read Tomie dePoala's Strega Nona and created our own overflowing bubbling pasta pots!
For the pots we used baby food jars (empty and clean of course!)
Masking tape (to color our pots)
Sequins (decorations)
Yarn (pasta)
Here are some pictures from the day:

Materials for our pots!

More material for our pots

The Book Bunch is Just Ducky!

We're here for the books!

While the Book Bunch is aimed at children ages 4-7, during summer and school vacations we may relax the rules as attendance mandates. For our meeting this past Thursday, our members of the Book Bunch enjoyed duck themed activities as we read Phyllis Root's One Duck Stuck.

Copies are available at this and other libraries!

After reading the book we learned sign for some of the animals (courtesy of ASLpro):

duck

frog

fish

moose

possum

snake

skunk

snail

Then it was off to the races! Through funding by our generous Friends of the Library Group, we had a rubber duck race. Attendees raced ducks across a water pond (aka a plastic container!) and each participant was awarded a rubber ducks purchased with funds from the donation.

The contenders in the 'pen'

The ducks dry out between heats

We also drew and colored our own ducks!

A rainbow duck!

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays at 4PM during the summer! Join us for books, new friends and crafts!

-r

Going Batty with The Book Bunch!

Today the Book Bunch was all about Bats!
We read 'Bats at the Beach' by Bryan Lies, learned the sign (courtesy of ASLpro.com) and created our own paper bats to take home with us!
Miss Rachee shared a story from when she was younger about a bat sighting.
If you are interested in bats, here are more books for your pleasure:
Bats at the Library also by Bryan Lies
Bats on Parade by Kath Appelt
Homework Hassles by Abby Klein
For non-fiction titles check out the juvenile non-fiction collection under 599.4.

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays at 4PM during the summer.

-r