Making Mini Books

Anna is really into storytelling right now and is starting to make up her own stories.  Most of her stories closely follow other stories that we have read or she has heard....and most of them are about Dora, the Snow Princess or Mariana the Mermaid (all from Dora books).

I want to continue to encourage her storytelling so I put together these little mini books following this simple tutorial from Playful Learning.  

After the books were assembled, I invited Anna over to make up some stories with me.  We talked about how stories have a beginning, middle and end and we talked about some of her favorite stories.  Of course, all the Dora stories were the top of her list so she told me a few stories and I wrote them down for her.

She wanted her little books to have a picture on the front so we looked online and I printed off several pictures that correlated with her stories.

Below is the story of Dora and Mariana the Mermaid.

Anna carries these books with her everywhere and reads them to anyone who will listen.  She's quite proud of her books and I love that she loves them.  We will definitely be making many more!!

Our Preschool Journal

Something new Anna is doing this year is keeping a preschool journal.  She loves to draw, write, paint, etc...and I wanted to give her a place where she could keep her stories and pictures, as well as practice writing.  

I picked up a mixed media spiral bound book at the craft store and adhered a piece of paper to the front with her name on it.  I let her decorate her name however she wanted.  She chose to do a new type of "splatter painting" we've been doing recently.

Inside, she adds her drawings, writings, letters, stories, etc.  The page above has her self-portrait.  For this page, I did encourage her to draw a picture of herself.  I added the date stamp above it so we would be able to remember when she did this drawing.

For most of the pages so far, she has a "story" in mind and usually draws part of the story and asks me how to spell certain words to write part of her story.  

The story above says "Snow White Leap" with a picture of Snow White dancing and leaping through the air.

On other pages, she will tell me what she drew/made and I will record either her story or what her drawing represents.  For the page above, she colored red and blue together to make purple.  

Some days I will either set something out with her preschool journal (stamps, stickers) or will have a little activity set up for her to do in her journal.  I'm planning to share more of our journal pages as we complete them!!

I keep our preschool journal and a big jar of crayons out in our kitchen.  It's not in her reach because that would mean that it would also be in her little brother's reach, but it is accessible at any time.  I love that she asks to "write" in her journal several times each week.  Hopefully as we get the playroom all set up I will be able to include some type of writing/creating center for the kids.

Beginners Word Book

And the books just keep on coming.....

This word book was completely inspired by Anna one afternoon.  

I obviously love to make mini books and have been on a little crafty spree lately making mini picture albums of our vacations and special events.  Anna decided she wanted to make her own book so I grabbed some craft supplies for her and let her lead this fun little task.

She picked out her cardstock papers and I cut them in half to have two pages per sheet.  Then using my sewing machine we sewed right down the middle to make a little book.

Using some letter stickers I had, Anna named different things she wanted to draw.  She helped me find the correct letters to spell out the words and then she drew her picture on the paper.  

Of course, Ariel just had to be in the book!!

Then she made some random faces in the book...

And drew her self portrait too.

We added the abc's on the back just because.

DIY Shapes Book

Can you guys tell that I love mini books???  

This is another little book I made mainly for my 20 month old son to take on our vacation trips, but my three year old has definitely enjoyed it as much, if not more than my son!!

All of the shape book printables are awesome and are from here.

Instead of using a binder, I just laminated my pages and used book binding rings (which can be found in the office section of Wal-mart for super cheap).

To keep all of the shapes together, I used a page protector I had on hand.  It's hard to tell in the photo below, but all the shapes fit nicely into the page protector and are easy enough for little hands to grab and pull out.

We love this book!  And like our Dress Up book, it's been a hit with car travel this summer!!

Let's Play Dress Up Travel Book

I wanted to share a sweet little dress up book that I made for my daughter to take on our travels this summer.

Anna is all about dress up and pretend play right now and this book is just perfect for her!

All of the little printables came from Babalisme and are just too cute!  I used some of the same printables in our DIY Quiet Time Book.

Here are the different "dolls" I included in our dress up book.

After I printed off all the dolls and accessories on card stock, I laminated everything and attached velcro dots to both the dolls and accessories so they could be "dressed up".

My daughter has truly enjoyed this little book!!  And it has been just perfect to take on vacations and car trips!!

It's the simple things....

I love to find my kids sitting and reading all by themselves.  Anna has always loved reading and looking through books, but Mr. Man is usually hard to keep still enough to finish a few pages.

Recently he has really found a love of books and stories.  Hoping to keep this up forever and ever.

Click here for more ideas about setting up your own reading nook and how to encourage reading in children!

For the love of reading...

I love books and I LOVE that my kids love books.  I've always tried to make sure books are a large part of our day and our life.  I'm sure you know this, but a love of books and reading sets such a precedent for early learning and achievement.

I wanted to share how I try to make sure my kids enjoy reading.

Book nook

Sweet Girl and I set up a book nook in her closet one afternoon and it's been fabulous!  Together we put all her books on her bookshelf and created a little basket for all those small books and paperback books.  Then we moved her chair into the closet.  She loves it!  I catch her in there reading often...especially during her nap/rest time.

Books, books and more books

I always make sure books are out and easy to get to.  I move them around a lot too.  Sometimes I set them on our television stand, sometimes I will stand them up on our fireplace.  Basically....I try to keep them new and exciting.

Read together

We read lots of books together.  I really think Sweet Girl would sit with me all day and read books.  Reading together is probably the single most important thing you can do with your child.

Library time!

We go to the library about every other week.  I try to get the same number of books each time so I always know how many I need to return...it makes it a little bit easier because the books usually are all over the house by the end of the two weeks.

Electronic books

Both of my kids love the iPad, but Sweet Girl is an Apple addict.  I try to limit how long and how often she plays around on the iPad, but I love that she generally prefers to listen to the books on there.

Books on CD

You can't really tell from the photo, but here Sweet Girl is hanging out in a "fort" listening to some books on CD.  These are great, and may very well be my favorite.  I usually set up some type of "fun" and different environment and invite her over for some reading and listening.

Activities based on books

I try to incorporate lots of activities to expand upon our books.  Above, Sweet Girl is working on hanging some mittens (from our Goodnight Moon activities) and shadow matching with buttons (from our Corduroy activities).

Happy reading!!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!

We are very excited for Dr. Seuss' birthday today.  Sweet Girl has been asking all week "Is today Dr. Seuss' birthday?".

To celebrate his birthday, I have some fun things planned for us.

Dr. Seuss matching and memory game

All printables from Oopsey Daily "S is for Seuss" Mommy School pack

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Sweet Girl and I made these this morning to use as our toppers on our cupcakes (what's a birthday party without cupcakes, right???).

Making cupcakes

(Notice the cute little hand digging right in our cupcake batter???)

Red fish, blue fish cupcakes

Luckily, we have some of our favorite friends coming over today to help us eat all of these!  (Hey Dana and Charlie!!)

Yummy!

Dr. Seuss coloring pages

Also from Oopsey Daisy

And we are planning on making our own family Foot Book tonight.  Check out Mom Endeavors for the awesome idea!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!