Monkey and ME By Emily Gravett

Monkey and Me is a very clever and interactive read. It is written and illustrated by Emily Gravett which means she has really managed to make the storyline and the illustrations compliment each other extremely well.

The illustrations tell as much of the story as the words do as children are encouraged to guess what animal they might see next by looking at what "Monkey and Me" are doing on the page. They can act it out as they go and bring the book to life even more!

It is a simple, yet exciting book that would be great for a group read as well as one on one. (I read it with my 6 month old and acted out the various animals as we saw them and he thought it was very entertaining! He was captivated.)

I also patted out a beat as a read the story, and because of the simpleness of it, I think children would be able to catch on and read along very quickly. Doing a beat alongside the rhyme always helps children catch on easier. What a lovely story.

GIANT GIRAFFE'S and much much more!

During our little trip to Hamilton we also got to stop in at the Hamilton Zoo for one of Ashton's friends birthday parties and what a treat we got while we were there! We got to see their giraffe's having lunch!!! All 6 of them! It was awesome. They were so close to everyone who had come to see them and were bending right down gently eating the bamboo shoots from the children who were holding them. To look up at all of these amazing creatures, it was just a sea of beautiful pattern, with necks gracefully moving around each other. Everyone, young and old were in awe of these amazing creatures! We also got to see some other fantastically unique animals as we journeyed around the zoo, each one more than happy to show off it's special tricks to impress us. As we visited each different animal we read the sign that was placed outside the enclosure and found out lots of interesting facts about each animal. It was a very educational little trip and we all left feeling quite amazed at all of these beautiful animals, and at the wonderful experience Hamilton Zoo offered us! Thanks Hamilton Zoo!

GREAT GRANDMA'S FARM

Recently Ashton and I got to have a little holiday with his cousins in Hamilton. During our time away we went and visited Great Grandma on her farm (this is Ashton's cousins Great Grandma) and what an experience it was! Ashton absolutely loved seeing the animals, he had no fear or hesitation in approaching the animals. Each new animal he saw he would reach out to touch and inspect.

We saw lots of horses, one of which was just as interested in Ashton, as Ashton was with the horse. We saw a goat, who loved the idea of Ashton feeding some grass. We also saw some ponies, some chickens and some ducks! Great Grandma just happened to have a brand new duck called "Donald"! (Fancy that!)

But not only did we see lots of fantastic farm animals, Ashton got to have a ride on a tractor! An Ashton sized tractor! He rode on it while he checked out the chickens and the ducks. This was such a fun little adventure being able to see all of these animals up close and personal... it was also a great 6 month old celebration for Ashton! (Where has the time gone! 6 months already!!!)

Giraffes Can't Dance By Giles Andreae

I fell in love with this book a couple of years ago when I was teaching. It has so many elements that I love... so where do I start!
A giraffe who finds himself with two left feet, or maybe just really long limbs which hinders his dancing ability really wants to be able to dance with his jungle friends at the Jungle Dance. After an embarrassing episode of dancing he finds himself feeling sorry for himself in the depths of the jungle where a friendly cricket helps him change his perspective on things and also on his ability to dance!
This story is a great story to be read one on one but also in a group situation. I love a book that gives you things that you can rein-act or discuss afterwards and this book has lots of those possibilities... As the author describes all of the different types of dances the animals are doing... how much fun would it be to try and do the waltz like the warthogs or the rock n roll like the rhinos!
I really enjoy the part of this story where the cricket coaches Gerald through finding his own rhythm and groove! The language is fantastically descriptive and every time I read it I can't help but encourage the children I am reading it with to try and do the moves Gerald might have done!

I like the different emotions that are explored throughout the story. Embarrassment, sadness, thoughtfulness, discovery, jubilation, excitement! For a children's book, the story really takes you on a journey!

The only negative point that I could possibly bring up is the way the animals mock Gerald by calling him "clumsy" and a "silly fool" But then the whole story is about Gerald not feeling accepted and finding a way to be happy with himself and in turn become accepted. So if addressed and discussed properly it can be turned into a positive point and good point of discusion

Guy Parker-Rees has also done an awesome job illustrating the story, with great colours and images that bring the story to life and compliments the journey Andreae takes you on with the storyline.

PAPER FUN!

Art was on the days plan today! I love art so I have been trying to figure out art activities that I could do with Ashton. With the lack of sleep I had last night the best I could come up with was crayons drawings! Sad, I know... with 13 years+ early childhood experience, all I cam up with was crayon drawings! But we had never done it before so I thought we would give it a go.

I stuck a piece of paper down on Ashton's high chair tray and put the crayon down in front of him. We talked about what colour it was and when he seemed unsure what to do with it, (other than put it in his mouth) I placed it in his hand and showed him how it could make a picture.

I showed him how he could go round and round in circles, (he thought this was funny, he liked holding on to my hand while drew circles all over the page.) We also went up and down on the page, and from side to side as well. After I had demonstrated the possibilities I put the crayon down to let him explore.

This is where the activity took a turn . . . Ashton decided that the paper on his tray was more interesting that the crayons. In his efforts to eat the paper, he ended up ripping it off the tray, which created a lovely ripping noise that he seemed to rather enjoy the sound of. He grabbed the other corner of the paper and ripped it up again. Once he had all the paper ripped off the tray the activity then took on the focus of scrunching the paper up and throwing it around! He was having a great time!

So where I thought I was providing an art activity (all plain as it may have seemed). I actually ended up providing resources for Ashton to formulate his very own exploration of sound and the qualities of paper! ha ha. Unusual but fun and valuable none the less!

Once he had destroyed one piece of paper I placed a fresh new piece on and he went through the same process again, ripping, scrunching, throwing!

EGG SHAKER MANIA

Ashton went crazy with the egg shakers today. While he was in his high chair I put one of the shakers on the tray in front of him, within seconds he pounced on the egg and had a firm grip on it and was shaking it around. (Not long after of course, it ended up... wait for it... In his mouth! The final destination for any object within hands reach for Ashton at the moment!)

He continued to pick up and drop the single egg shaker for a while and then he noticed that I had some other shakers in my hand. He just sat and stared at them, then with his gaze going between his shaker and the shakers in my hand he started to bang his shaker on the tray while reaching out for the other shakers. (I thought this was rather clever for him to communicate what he wanted in this way.)

One by one, I started to place an extra egg on the tray in front of him with a minute or so in between each one. Each time a new egg came onto the tray he would bang his hands around and mix the eggs up, hitting them against each other and making quite the ruckas.

I love these egg shakers, they are just the perfect size for pre-schoolers to get their hands around. They are easily manipulated and make a great sound! This was such a simple little activity but it kept Ashton occupied for ages and I just sat and watched him! It was quite mesmerizing!

SOUND STICKS WALK

We went for a walk with our sound sticks today. It was a beautiful clear morning and the farm seemed to just be asking us to make some noise! And we were more than willing to oblige! So we grabbed our sound sticks and headed out to see what sounds we could find around the farm.

We started with our wooded fence. Just banging along it in different places. I tried to get Aston to hold onto the sticks himself so he could feel the beat as we tapped along . . . this came eventually.

What was really cool about this activity was that there was just sooo many different sounds to explore. Standing in one place and only moving our sound sticks to a different piece of wood, or to a tree we could discover a different sound.

We tapped the aluminum gate, the metal fencing, and the wooden fence posts. We tapped the rocks, the trees, the boat, the garage door, the wooden jetty, the gravel, the grass (which evidently didn't make much noise!) But that was just as valuable to see which objects made loud noises and which made very little noise. Some vibrated, others were dense in sound, and Ashton responded differently to each sound as we found them.

As we tapped all of the different objects we also tried to explore different tempos and beats. We tapped fast and slow. We tapped loudly and quietly. It was lots of fun and made our simple walk very eventful! I think we will do that again!

If you want to watch a bit of our Sound Sticks Adventure follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx_Fa2UUzEU