Activity Calendar {Day 5}

Day 5 is a super special day every December. Mostly, because it's my birthday :)
Today for day 5 we went to the library to pick out the rest of our holiday books to wrap and place under the tree.

The puzzle piece for today, I wonder what it is!

Today's joke:

What do you call a snowman in the summer?

A puddle!

LOL, kinda morbid, but Charlotte got a laugh out of it. Doing the jokes each day is really fun for me too because it helps me gauge what she understands. Then I can help her to understand them if she doesn't!

So here's what we've been doing every night with the books. 

Every night when the girls go to their room to get PJs on and go to brush their teeth, either Travis and I will jingle the elf a bit, hide him (in our room) and leave a book under the tree for the girls from the elf. It has really taken off and the girls love coming out into the living room to see what book has been left for them from "Elf" Sometimes we wrap them, sometimes we don't. The girls don't seem to mind either way, but the wrapping is fun for them to rip off every once in a while.

Here is the list of holiday books the girls will get one by one (and some extras to read whenever):

• Hanna's Cold Winter ~ Trish Marx
• A Mountain of Mittens ~ Lynn Plourde
• Robert's Snow ~ Grace Lin
• The Shortest Day ~ Wendy Pfeffer
• Snow ~ Uri Shulevitz
• Snowy, Blowy, Winter ~ Bob Raczka
• The Mitten ~ Jan Brett
• The Elf on the Shelf ~ Carol V. Aebersold
• The Wild Christmas Reindeer ~ Jan Brett
• Snowmen at Christmas ~ Caralyn Buehner
• The Snow Must Go On ~ Molly Wigand
• Merry Christmas, Curious George! ~ Margret and H. A. Rey
• The Mouse Before Christmas ~ Michael Garland
• Best Christmas Book Ever! ~ Richard Scarry
• Snow What Fun! ~ Cheryl Hawkinson
• The Hat ~ Jan Brett
• You Can Do It, Sam ~ Amy Hest
• Winter Waits ~ Lynn Plourde
• Footprints in the Snow ~ Mei Matsuoka
• Polar Bear Night ~ Lauren Thompson
• My First Kwanzaa ~ Karen Katz
• It's a Miracle! ~ Stephanie Spinner
• Merry Christmas Everywhere! ~ Arlene Erlbach
• The After-Christmas Tree ~ Linda Wagner Tyler
• Lyle at Christmas ~ Bernard Waber
• Mim's Christmas Jam ~ Andrea Davis Pinkney
• The Family Christmas Tree Book ~ Tomie De Paola
• Coming Through the Blizzard ~ Eileen Spinelli
• The Christmas Ship ~ Dean Morrissey
• The Worst Person's Christmas ~ James Stevenson
• A Merry Little Christmas ~ Mary Engelbreit
• Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect ~ Richard H. Schneider
• Celebrate Christmas ~ Deborah Heiligman

It's a great list of books and I look forward to reading all of them to the girls, I'm half tempted to give them to the girls all at once!

Girls' Pick

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On the Pampas by Maria Cristina Brusca
This is a great book to introduce children to the Pampas in Argentina (that's our current stop in the ABC World Tour). The Pampas is a very flat grassland that runs through Argentina and Uruguay for miles. Ranch animals roam the Pampas watched over by Gauchos (cowboys).

ridetheroad.com

On the Pampas tells the story of a little girl who lives in Buenos Aires but visits her grandparents estancia (ranch) every summer. The little girl tells how one summer she visited and learned the ways of the gaucho, doing everything from taking care of horses to learning to lasso and even herding cattle. She learned so much about being a gaucho she earned her own rastra (gaucho belt) and a surprise for next summer!

I'd recommend this book even if you aren't learning about Argentina, it's a great story about working hard, having fun and being rewarded for it.

Girls' Pick

Lexi's Pick:

Big Sister, Little Sister by Leuyen Pham

We got this book for the girls shortly after Alexis was born, it's such a sweet book. I grew up with a brother and we have a pretty good relationship but nothing compared to the relationships that my girls have. They are the cutest sisters ever. This book describes them perfectly.The author, Leuyen Pham, wrote the book for her big sister as a gift and it's narrated by the "little sister". It tells how the big sister gets to do all the fun stuff like try on lipstick and go to bed later, but, even though the little sister gets all the hand me downs and likes to be messy, she's awesome in her own unique way! It's a great story about how sisters, even though completely different, can be the best of friends.

amazon.com

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Char's Pick:

I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! by Dr. Seuss

When I saw this book at the library I thought the title meant lick with a tongue, turns out it means lick as in fight! There are also a couple other stories in this book as well. It's an enjoyable and typical Dr. Seuss book with great rhymes and intriguing stories. We really liked reading the different stories in this book, especially The Glunk That Got Thunk. 

Girls' Pick

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Lexi's pick was Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss. Both girls loved this book. It's soo much fun to listen to them try to recreate the sounds that Mr. Brown can do. It's a fantastic book to encourage involvement in reading.

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Char's pick was SPIDER-MAN! She finally was able to check-out a Spider-Man book from the library. Every time we've gone before it's been checked out. While I was picking out our books for the upcoming week Charlotte told me she was going to ask if they had any Spider-Man books and she left. She walked right up to the information desk, said, "Excuse me, do you have any Spider-Man books?" and then followed the librarian to where the books would be located. I am loving how independent she is becoming. This isn't the first time she's ever asked a librarian for a book she wanted but she did it with confidence that she's never had before. It makes me so proud to see her growing up before my eyes into a proud confident girl that knows what she wants and knows how to get it. We haven't finished reading the book yet, but we haven't been disappointed with it so far.

Girls' Pick

Yep, we're still in Australia! And thanks to some supplemental curriculum I stumbled upon we'll be staying for one more week.  Spending three weeks in a continent hardly seems like enough time, Australia has so much to offer! 

Here are the picks for this week:

 Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo by Alison Lester

This book is amazing! I love it! What a great way to introduce children to Arnhem Land, which is in Northern Australia and is home to many different indigenous tribes and language groups. The book specifically focuses on Gunbalanya where Kunwinjku is the main language that is spoken.

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The book is about a boy (Ernie) who is leaving his friends to live in Arnhem Land where is parents are working at a hospital. What makes this book so great is that its written as if Ernie is writing a letter to each of his friends for each of the Arnhem land seasons, there are six seasons! For each season there are different activities that each of Ernie's new friends are doing such as fishing, learning traditional Dreamtime stories, and playing sports.

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Another great thing about this book is that there is a short section at the beginning of the book explaining a bit about Arnhem Land, and the pronunciations of the seasons. At the back of the book there is a small glossary with terms that may not be familiar to the reader. It's a very easy read and beautifully illustrated. I can't wait to read more books by Alison Lester!

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Waking Up Down Under by Carol Votaw

Another book that I've fallen in love with! This is an adorable book about 12 different Australian animal babies waking up in the morning. When the babies that wake in the morning go to sleep at night the story transitions right into the nocturnal babies waking up. So there are always babies awake in Australia! The sweet rhyming words 

Wake up, little emu, nibble in the sun. Your feathers may not fly, but oh, how you can run!

 and the delightful illustrations of the baby animals by Susan Banta make this book a must read!!!

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