Third Grade CCD 2014-2015: We Believe in God (11/17/14)

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Picture Book Review: Little Green Peas by Keith Baker (2014)

 In this picture book, scenes populated by dozens of little green peas teach young readers about colors. Keith Baker's pictures are fabulously detailed, and kids could spend hours poring over each page and studying the activities of the busy little green peas. There is just so much to see, including a little green pea version of Rapunzel, peas taking ants and caterpillars for walks on leashes, and baby green peas sliding out of their pods into the arms of waiting parents. The book is formatted so that a given color appears on one two-page spread, featuring a few objects of that color as well as the word itself in big block letters. Then the reader turns the page to see the little green peas interacting in some way with the objects just introduced. 

This is definitely the most engaging of the peas books, which also include LMNO Peas and 123 Peas. My own daughter is just one, and she can't get enough of pointing at every pea on each page to ask me who it is and what it is doing. This is also one of those rare concept books that actually teaches the concept, but without becoming too boring and instructive.

12 Literacy Activities About Cookies

One of the best things about the holiday season is baking cookies. Enjoy these fun literacy activities while you wait for the timer to go off on your next batch.

In the Kitchen

• Write fortunes, them bake them into fortune cookies. (Nick Jr. has a recipe.)
• Use alphabet cookie cutters to turn sugar cookies into initials, names, or other words.
• Follow a recipe to bake your favorite cookies. 

For the Flannel Board

• Retell The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. 
• Count out Cookies in a Dish.
• Share a cookie-themed version of Down Around the Corner as seen on Mel's Desk and here on my blog.    

Picture Books

• Read Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?, a non-fiction picture book about the many community helpers involved in the process of baking cookies from scratch.   
• Read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie then use this printable from Live Love Laugh to retell the story. (I did something similar with If You Give a Pig a Pancake at a beginning reader story time last year.) 

Songs & Rhymes

• Sing C is for Cookie. 
• Act out "Great Big Cookie" from Sylvan Lake Municipal Library.  
• Act out "I Am Making Cookie Dough" from Sunflower Storytime 
• Play Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?

LibraryAdventure.com: Meet Sharon Hrycewicz, Children's Reference and Technology Coordinator

Today, I'm over at The Library Adventure interviewing Sharon Hrycewicz, Children's Reference and Technology Coordinator at Downers Grove Public Library in Downers Grove, Illinois. Click on over to learn about Sharon's job and see pictures of her beautiful children's room!