Learning With Books - Books We Enjoyed This Week 3/21-3/27

Terrific Trains
This book of rhyme about trains has a wonderful rhythm to it is fun to read and listen too. We talked about how the train goes over the water on the bridge and the water goes under the bridge. We also talked about how red lights mean stop and green lights mean go.








Fox in Socks by Dr. Suess
I always enjoy reading this book, the challenge of reading through these tongue twisters without getting my tongue completely twisted is fun. We talked about some of the colors in this book - pink, blue and red - and counted the pink pigs in Ben's Big Pig Band. There were eight. Michael enjoyed the pictures of the beetle bottle battle since like many little boys he is fascinated with bugs.







Go, Dog. Go!
This book addresses a number of concepts as we follow the many dogs on their adventures. There are green, blue, yellow, red, black and white dogs. These dogs go up, down, over, under, in, and out. There are big dogs and small dogs. The dogs sleep at night and play and work during the day. The dogs stop at the red light and go at the green light. As we read I point to the scene being described and even the younger toddlers enjoy this book. We read this book twice  this week.






Thomas and the Big, Big Bridge
This book seems to be bit of a stretch for the toddlers, yet they repeatedly choose it for story time. We did talk about the colors blue, green and white and count the trains on one of the pages.









Disney's The Lion King II Simba's Pride
We had fun finding and naming the animals in this book - giraffes, zebras, antelope, warthog, baboon, crocodiles and, of course, lots of lions. And it's fun to roar like a lion.









 Animals
 We had fun going through this book of animals and signing the ones that we've learned the signs for so far. And it's always fun to make the animal sounds.










 In a People House
 This is a fun book for practicing the names of common items around the house. Hunter and Michael especially like the page with the lights and lamps. Lauren enjoys the page with the bouncing ball.










 The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
 Hunter was particularly interested in the water in the bathtub when we read this book this week. We looked several times at the pictures of the water running into the tub and then at the one where there was no water running. Reinforcing our ABC's and the color pink were also covered with this book.








 Just Me and My Mom
 There were a lot of fun things to talk about in this book. From the dinosaur skeleton with BIG teeth that was in the museum, to the seals, to the yummy looking hot dog they ate for lunch. And of course we had to find the frog on each page as he followed along for all the Little Critter adventures.









Ten Apples Up On Top This book was a big favorite with Hunter this week and gave us lots of opportunity to practice counting to ten.











 Walt Disney's Peter Pan and Wendy 
 Michael was thrilled that there was a character with his name in this book and on nearly every page we had to find the boy named Michael. The pirate's boat in the water was another big topic of conversation and Hunter insisted it was in a bathtub.









 Disney's Beauty and the Beast
 The talking teapot, clock and candlestick were points of interest in this book, along with the wolves and the horse.










 Bradley and the Great Swamp Mystery
 This book has a lot of interesting things in it to talk about. It's fun to name all the food the animals took along for their picnik - bananas, balogna, bread, and the bottle of blueberry soda. Then there are bird, butterfly and bee to look at and talk about. Since there is a lamb in this story we Michael wanted to sing Mary Had a Little Lamb so we did. Bradley Bear's flashlight is very useful in finding his lost friend, and we check on each page to see if his flashlight is on or off. At the back of the book is a list of Bb words with pictures that we review.





 Baby Einstein See and Spy Counting
This is a fun book for practicing counting to five. The illustrations are bright and interesting and the text fun.










Love - Johnny Appleseed 
We enjoyed this book and looking at all the animals who lived in and around the tree.











What Will I Be?
This is a really fun book about careers with photographs of children dressed up as people in the various careers. Baker, mechanic and astronaut were big favorites when we read the book this week.