Book Club: The Gingerbread Pirates

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I love reading children's Christmas books. There is a great deal of excellent choices and so many retellings of famous stories, too. Our library usually puts out books for each holiday on top of the children's bookshelves but for Christmas they have so many that they displayed them in a book rack. How exciting to pick through the books to find new ones to read with our children!

Our son picked out The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup and illustrated by Matt Tavares. This story is about Jim and his Pirate cookie captain that he creates with his mom. Jim and his mom bake cookies for Santa but instead of regular Gingerbread Men, they make pirate cookies!

During the night, on Christmas Eve, Jim's favorite Pirate cookie captain goes on an adventure and meets Santa. In the morning, Jim finds a wonderful new Pirate ship with a wooden captain with a cutlass and a peg leg to pilot the ship.

There are number of fun ways to expand upon the reading of the story with your children.

Baking

This year why not be creative with your cookie decorations? You can make unique characters instead of just regular Gingerbread men. Make pirates, ninjas, astronauts, cowboys and cowgirls, and all kinds of "people" using your cookie cutters.

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Crafts

Using the same basic Gingerbread cookie cutter, you can create your very own pirate salt dough ornaments.

We made our own ornaments using:

• 1 cup flour
• a little more than 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of salt 

We stirred the mixture till it formed a dough and then used a rolling pin to roll out the dough on wax paper. I recommend sprinkling a little extra flour so that the dough doesn't stick to the wax paper or the rolling pin.

I didn't bake the ornaments right away but let them air dry for a day. I finally baked them at the lowest setting on my oven checking them every half hour. I let them bake for about 2 hours.

One of the characters in the story is called Dots. 

The next day we painted them and finally added the ribbon so we can hang them from the tree! 

Family Discussion Time

After reading The Gingerbread Pirates, use the following questions to spur conversation with your children:

• What was your favorite toy or present to find under the Christmas tree? 
• What adventure would your Gingerbread men go on? 
• What type(s) of cookie(s) do you leave for Santa? 
• What are your favorite type of cookies? 

Do you have a favorite Christmas story to read with your little ones?

Wordless Wednesday: Enderman Cake

My first time using fondant! 

I linked up the following blog(s): 

  

Learning about the Alphabet: C is for Construction

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Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.

For the letter C, we focused upon Construction. 

Coloring Pages

Coloring.WS from DLTK's Construction Vehicle Coloring Pages
Super Coloring's Construction Vehicle Coloring Pages 

Projects

Craft: C is for Construction

SchoolhouseTeachers: Small World Sensory Science Lesson: Science 

Painting: Truck 

Books

Our neighbors recently had their driveway removed and repaved, which prompted my son to ask lots of questions about the equipment and construction in general on our walk to the library. He went to the library hoping to find books about Bob the Builder, but sadly our library doesn't have any about this famous TV contractor. Our librarian did pull out a half-dozen books on construction including Bulldozers by Jean Eick.  My son looked over the book selection and chose two (this one and One Big Bulldozer by Michael Dahl).

We both enjoyed Eick's Bulldozers book with the many photographs, explanations, and definitions.  The book explores what constitutes a bulldozer, how they are used, the different parts, and tools -- as well as how they are used worldwide. 

Bulldozers teaches its readers several things in addition to facts about the construction vehicle. One can learn mathematics when Eick discusses the weight and height and geography with the inclusion of the world map when reading "Where in the world can you find a bulldozer?"

I would recommend this book to families of budding contractors from preschool to early elementary-aged children. We will also be looking for the others in the series. 

Featured Shape 

As so many construction vehicles have a rectangle as a base for the truck, practicing drawing rectangles this week is perfect. 


For example, when I sketched a fire truck for my children to color, I used three rectangles along with three circles and a trapezoid. 

Crafty-Crafted.com has a Basic Shapes Dump Truck Craft that is perfect for this week! 

Activities

Baking 

Make a dump truck-themed cake to share. Your kids will love to help not only with the decorating but also with the eating of the cake!

Puzzles 

My kids love Melissa and Doug puzzles. They received this construction-themed one for Christmas. 

Painting with Trucks 

Use some of your children's older trucks and cars to paint. Run the trucks through paint on a tray and have them make tracks on paper.  If you use large paper, you can even turn it into wrapping paper for a party when it dries. 

Other Topics

Colors 

There are so many possibilities to teach children about colors. Here a few fun ones to try with your children. 

Create a chameleon and talk about camouflage. 

Learn about color mixing with ice cubes.

Enjoy a rainbow salad with your children. 

Resources

Kindergarten Worksheets and Games Alphabet Resources 
Tots and Me..Growing Up Together's R is for Rice and Rainbow Sensory Fun 

I joined up with the following blog(s): 

Learning about the Alphabet: B is for Baking

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Baking shortbread cookies

Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.

For the letter B we focused on baking.

Coloring Pages

Super Coloring's Baker Coloring Page 
First-School Preschool Activities and Craft's Baker Coloring Page 
DLTK's Coloring Pages' Chef Coloring Pages

Baking Projects

Letter B as a Baker Craft

SchoolhouseTeachers.com's ABC: What Will I Be offers a great lesson on B is for Baker.

Baking Cookies

Getting into the kitchen and baking cookies with your preschooler is a wonderful way to share family time and incorporate education into your day. Your child can help gather ingredients, read the recipe, measure ingredients, and prepare the cookies for the oven.


Safety first! Please keep in mind that the oven is very hot and your child should be supervised at all times near an oven. Do NOT allow them to handle items going in and out of the oven. Use your due diligence to prevent injuries. Allow trays and cookies to cool after baking before allowing children to touch them again.

I have to admit that I love using the pre-measured cookie mixes like those sold by Betty Crocker.  They make it very easy when you need to make cookies quickly for an event. We have used the following mixes with good results: Sugar Cookie Mix, Salted Caramel (which is a limited edition mix), Rainbow Chocolate Candy, and the Pumpkin Spice (which is also a limited edition mix).

The 36th Avenue's Christmas Cookies - Funfetti Cookies 
This recipe calls for red and green sprinkles and M&M's but you can use other colors for the rest of the year, too.

Books

There are so many books out there teaching how to bake or cook with children. Visit the library or use one of the links below to learn about some of the books available.

Featured Shapes - Circle and Sphere

What better shapes are there than circles and spheres when you are taking about baking? So many cookie recipes ask you to roll your cookies into balls (or spheres) and then press flat (creating a circle shape).

One great way to incorporate a painting activity is with circles. Gather materials around your house that have a circular shape that could act as a stamp. For example, plastic cup, plastic lid, empty and clean yogurt container. Let your child use them as stamps with paint and a large sheet of paper.

Activities

Imagination Time: Play food

While talking about baking, allow your children to cook you a pretend dinner. In our household, we love the products from Learning Resources. They have such a variety of kits from fruit salads to healthy dinner baskets. They even have a baking set!

 

 

Visit a bakery

Watching older brother
pick out rolls for dinner

Rolls at our local bakery

Take the time to visit a bakery with your children. We are fortunate enough that we have bakeries that specialize in sweets and bread within driving distance of our home.

Clay Play

Use old cookie cutters and clay to let your children pretend to bake cookies. (Remind them not to put the clay in their mouths!)

Other 'B' Topics

Bees

I Heart Crafty Things' 15 Adorable Bee Crafts for Kids 
Included in this roundup of crafts are those that incorporate a variety of materials including paper bags, paper plates, paint, glue, craft sticks, and tissue paper among other items.

Ms. Barbara's Bees: A Preschool Study 
This includes many lessons to incorporate the study of bees into your preschool or homeschool including a really cool beehive created with egg cartons.

Butterflies

Fireflies + Mudpies' Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft 
This is a great craft for a warm day outside. We used to make similar butterfly crafts when I taught workshops at the zoo. Kids love seeing the marker colors spread and combine when spraying water on the filter.

Fun Learning for Kids' Butterfly Collage 
I always love the idea of giving kids materials and letting them create their own art project. Here is one you can do with butterflies as the base.

Parenting Chaos' b is for Butterfly Letter of the Week Craft 
This offers the lowercase letter b for the butterfly craft.

Mommies Reviews' Homeschooling Craft B is for Butterfly
Cute art craft using pasta to create a butterfly picture.

Birds - Bird Feeder

There are lots of interesting bird crafts that could accompany the letter B. And you can also make a bird feeder to hang outside allowing for some nature watching time. Please visit my Crafts - Animals Pinterest Board for more bird craft ideas.

The Resourceful Mama's Peanut Butter Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeder 
We used to make these when I taught at the zoo. They were an easy way to prepare a bird feeder with just a few supplies.

Kitchen Counter Chronicles' Cookie Cutter Bird Feeders
These bird feeders use gelatin as the 'sticking' agent instead of peanut butter. Great if you (or a loved one) have a food allergy. They also allow for creativity and experimentation, if you and your children want to try different shapes than just the heart suggested.

Resources

First-School Preschool Activities and Craft's Alphabet Letter B Baker Theme
MPM School Supplies B is for Literacy Center Craftivity 
Sight and Sound Reading's Letter B Crafts