A Simple Saturday Harmonica

One of the things that I love when working with author and dear friend Kelly Bennett is that she gets me. She knows that I am all about fostering a sense of creativity and whimsy through the use of simple, everyday things. And, both Kelly and her terrific new book, One Day I Went Rambling, celebrates the Simple Saturday spirit. It's a great story. Trust me. Zane, Kelly's protagonist, personifies the intention of this website right down to the tips of his untied tennis shoes. Rock on, Zane. Rock on!

So, today for your Simple Saturday, One Day I Went Rambling, homemade band musical pleasure, let's make a harmonica. (I confess, the construction process is going to be shamefully easy. Oh, well. What else is new, right?)

All you need to gather up is a comb and a piece of tissue paper (Or, in my case, tear off 3 squares of toilet paper.). We're sure not breaking the bank with this one, are we? 

Then, to make a Simple Saturday harmonica, fold the tissue/toilet paper over the teeth of the comb. That's it, my friend. Truly. That's it.

To play your Simple Saturday harmonica, gently lay your lips on the paper-covered comb teeth and hum. The vibrating resonations of the paper between the teeth with both tickle your lips and delight your ears. It's a really cool experience. I promise. 

If you are not satisfied with the sound your comb harmonica is making, you're trying too hard. Loosen your lips and hum lightly. There you go. Good job.

Heck, while you're at it,  maybe you can learn how to play the Beatbox Comb Harmonica, a variation of Yuri Lane's rocking theme. Isn't this guy amazing?

You know, I'll bet Zane would find a way to play a beatbox comb harmonica.

And I'll bet you can, too.

Doggin' and Horsin' Around

I just finished creating the coolest guide ever! First of all, you must check out Jeff Crosby's and Shelley Ann Jackson's b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l non-fiction picture books, Little Lions, Bull Baiters & Hunting Hounds and Harness Horses, Bucking Broncos & Pit Ponies. Not only are the illustrations amazing and the facts fascinating, you need the books to complete most of the activities I created in their Research and Activity Guide.

However, there are two anatomy lessons that you can do without the books. Look though the guide to find them. Did you know that both the dog and horse have a muzzle, stifle, a fetlock, and pasterns? And that a horse has a coronet? (I'm not talking the rootie-toot-toot type of coronet, mind you. I'm talking anatomy here.)

So, go get yourself some scissors and glue, look through the guide, print out pages 15 to 17, and have some dog and horse fun!

I tell you, it takes good books to be able to make good guides. And, my dear Simple Saturday friend, Jeff and Shelley have created two masterpieces. Don't take my word for it. Check them out and see for yourselves!!!

Paper Dolls As Pretty As You Please

 Today we're going to focus on a craft that I found while researching supportive material for one of our ReaderKidZ Beyond Boundaries selections - Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match, written by Monica Brown and illustrated by Sara Palacios. This book is way, way, w-a-y too cute, y'all.  Here's what Nancy Bo Flood says about the story:

Marisol McDonald is teased about being different – sometimes it is because of her fire-red hair and freckles.  Sometimes she is teased because she prefers playing pirates to soccer. Mostly she is teased about “nothing matches.”  This book in pictures and words is as high-spirited as Marisol and a wonderful inspiration for celebrating being different and being proud of it.  Every kid gets teased. Readers will enjoy Marisol’s creative approach to being herself.

So, now that you know about the darling story, let's get busy Simple Saturday-ing, want to? To do so, you'll need to download the Teacher Activity Guide Monica has loaded on her website. In addition to finding a ton of great lessons, activities, and even recipes in the guide, pages of paper dolls are there just waiting for you to print out and create. Print the Monica Marisol paper doll on card stock and you're ready for some good old-fashioned paper doll dressing fun.

 There are two basic styles of clothes to chose from....the pre-colored selection or the color-it-yourself-creative selection. Either of which is marvelously original, spunky, and fun - just like Marisol! (And you and me, I might add.)

Now go get yourself some scissors, print off these sheets, and have some Simple Saturday fun, you hear? See you next week!

Meat Tray Block Printing - Inspired by Ellen's Broom

Y'all, this is an incredible book founded on the celebration of everlasting love between a husband and a wife and it ROCKS! Kelly Starling Lyons' tender poetic prose nails the inquisitive nature of Ellen, a young girl learning about great happiness born from hardship - all in the name of marriage and of freedom.

I really enjoyed working on Activity/Discussion Guide. Not only is the story amazing, the illustrations....oh, my golly gosh! Daniel Minter's linoleum block prints blew my socks off! To imagine the patience and skill required to carve away with such delicate precision baffles me.

I spent hours studying the movement of his lines and the expressive faces of his subjects. There is one spread, in particular, that I love in which Ellen and her family are gathered by the fireplace and her father has his hand on her shoulder. So sweet... And, man-oh-man, does Daniel know how to play with color and light for effect. There's a haunting spread that is so tastefully unsettling it will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life. (I'm not telling you which one it is, either. Get the book and see for yourself.)

Simple Saturday crafting, once again! You know the simple drill...meat tray, sharp pointed tool (pencil or pen), paints, brush, and paper. CHEAP!So, let's dedicate this Simple Saturday post to the fabulous art of Daniel Minter, illustrator for Ellen's Broom, want to? There is a detailed explanation of the Styrofoam Meat Tray Block Printing a-la Simple Saturday-esk technique described in the Activity/Discussion guide I made for Kelly. (Close your eyes, Daniel. This might make your stomach roll.)

Where Daniel skillfilly carves his master pieces, I basically used the point of a pencil like trowel and sketched something that, hopefully, resembles a tree. (I see you smirking...Don't laugh.) 

Then I spread black paint all over my meat tray block print and made a print. After my print dried, I used tempera paint to fill in white space with color. What do you think about my apple tree? Pretty spiffy, eh? Not bad for a novice. I'm sure you can do a whole lot better. Try it. Make a meat tray block print. It's fun!!!

And, more importantly, take a look at Ellen's Broom, when you get the chance. Get lost in Kelly's wonderful words perfectly complimented by Daniel's incredible artistic sensibilities. 

 Much like my own! Ha!

Kick Up Yer Heels

To make a vibrant guide I first need a lively, multi-sensory, energetic story filled with heart and soul. And my buddy Bethany Hegedus pulled it off without a hitch. She dun good, I tell ya. Real good.

Her Truth with a Capital T is rich, rich, RICH with, as IndieBound says, "...grace and humor and a heaping helping of little-known facts, Bethany Hegedus incorporates the passions of the North and the South and bridges the past and the present in this story about one summer in the life of a sassy Southern girl and her trumpet-playing adopted Northern cousin." How 'bout that?

In regards to making the guide, Bethany gave me a ton of scrumptious literary stuff to work with. In addition to in-depth discussion questions and those ever-important TEKS annotations I created quilt codes, metaphor madness, a Reader's Theatre, and even a recipe for deeee-licious blackberry cobbler. Yum. Yum. Click HERE to get a look at the the guide, if you'd like.

But, for me, the best part are the YouTube video clip selections - in particular The Best Bluegrass Clogging Video Ever Made. Boyeeee! I love this video!! I challenge you to watch it without letting a smile stretch across your face. Can't be done.

Check out the jaunty tilt of the banjo picker's hat, will you? How the the old guy's elbow pumps? Pap Paw snoozing on the settee? And the darling dimpled girl with the dashing smile? Got to love it! In my mind, this video captures the multi-generational heel-kicking love of cultural diversity Bethany so aptly celebrates in her books and in her life.

Think I'll watch it again.

Friday Prep: Kick Up Yer Heels

On of my most enjoyable guides I've made involved clogging. Not the thing that happens when you try to cram a bushel full of apple peels into the garbage disposal and expect it to work. (Think that I have had first hand experience with such a irresponsible act. Me? Never.)

No, I'm talking about the oh-so-energetic-try-to-sit-still-and-can't dance of the official American dance of the Appalachian Mountians. Man-oh-man, I just love it!

We took a trip to Mountian View, Arkansas once when the kids were pint-sized...a little family trip that will be forever warmly nestled in the folds of my heart. There I saw cloggers in action for the first time in my life and I was mesmerized! Still am.

Tomorrow I'll give you a little taste of what I'm talking about. Woot!

Simple Saturday: Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade

Okay, my dear Simple Saturday friends. The guide I'm sharing today has been created for the most delightfully darling early chapter book I have ever read...and compadres, I've read a bushel of them. For real.

Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade, written by my partner in crime, Stephanie Greene, and illustrated by cutie-patootie Stephanie Roth Sisson, is the first book in series starring a charmingly complex first grader named Posey, whose persona is altered when she dons her pink tutu. The moment that circle of pink netting wraps around her tiny waist Posey is transformed into --- drum roll, please --- super-confident-ever-invincible Princess Posey!Well, in her six-year-old mind anyway.

The guide I made to compliment this treasure contains not only discussion questions, a compare and contrast activity, a word bank game, and a magic letter 'e' activity, there is a folder game that I'd like for you to take a look at. Access the guide HERE  to get a gander. 

To make the game you'll need a letter-sized manila file folder, glue, a paper clip, a pencil, some game movers, and download the game board. The directions to create the game are all spelled out in the guide. It's fun. Trust me.

I have to say though, that playing the game with the book by your side would be even more meaningful. And, if you have a new first grader who is in any way anxious about going back to school, Posey will help qualm any fears.

She's sweet that way.

Simple Saturday Prep: Back to School Blues

 It's that time again, my friends. Like it or not...back to school is just around the corner.

Take a long look at this bus-load of exuberant smiles, will you? Shoot, that bus is about to topple over with elation.

School!!!

Yippee!!!

We get to go back to school!!!!

Wahoo!!!! 

 Oh, come on. Get real. You know that there are tons of kids whose stomachs knot at the thought of buying a new backpack. For some kids, going to school is arduous...especially for a new first grader!

 I made a guide for a delightful chapter book which deals with the angst of entering first grade.  In the guide is a game that corresponds to various plot points of the book. It's great. You'll love it. I can't wait to show you.

So, I'll see you tomorrow, yes? In the meantime, let me see what I can do the flatten the tires on that derned zip-a-dee-do-da school bus. Sheesh.

Ghoulish Game on!

 I know...it's still summertime and the thought of spending extended periods of time with teachers is almost nauseating. Those ghoulish, monstrous, demonic beings that they are...Yikes!

That being said, what if your teachers were really ghouls? You know - blood thirsty, brainsucking beasts. Sweet love of Neptune...what would you do?

Well, read Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys: The Rat Brain Fiasco and you'll be all but kissing the feet of your human teachers come this fall - I'm telling you! I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interpret this amazing story in a board game format, and, if I do say so myself, I pulled it off quite handsomely!

Now, when I originally created a game guide for my dear friend Julie Berry, it looked like THIS. But, once the Grosset & Dunlap's creative brains took a look at it, the game board was transformed to THIS. Neat, huh?

And...in the time that I created the game and sat back on my laurels for a while, Julie has published three more books in the series. Yeowza! How cool it that?

So, for today, my simplistic Simple Saturday friend, with your game pieces and die in hand, download that gameboard and have some last-chance, almost-over, summertime fun.

Prep: Ghoulish Game On!

Tomorrow I'm going to feature another guide that I've done to compliment a book that has now become a smash series!

All you need to bring with you in order to be-bop around the game board is one die/dice and game pieces/movers, which can be beans or buttons or tiny stones. This is Simple Saturday, remember? Keep it c-h-e-a-p!

I'll provide a link to the .pdf gameboard that can be printed out on cardstock with no trouble at all.

And, speaking of trouble...the book we'll be talking about is packed with trouble - interesting, mischievous, and deliciously dangerous trouble. Come by tomorrow and I'll show you then.

Simple Saturday: Pudding Popsicles

We're going to do something a little different tomorrow. Change is good, right?

 Not to worry. We'll still be making something simple on Saturday, in fact tomorrow's treat with be deliciously divine! If you bring some milk, a box of instant pudding, a small Dixie cup, and a popsicle stick with you tomorrow, I'll show you how to make the most delcious pudding pops this side of border.

The deal is tomorrow we're going to feature an amazing picture book that I made a guide for, as well. The recipe will be found inside the guide. I'm not sure what you're going to like the most...the book or the pops. 

Now...quit that salivating on your keyboard, will you? See you tomorrow.

Simple Saturday: Labels of Love

What? Me? Read?The Simple Saturday Labels of Love reading game is so easy a dog can do it! For real. Let me show you.

Did you do what I asked you to yesterday? Did you take note of your wee one's objects of desire? Things that are the most important to them? We're going to use their love for these things to spark a love of the written word.

Have you gathered up the supplies? The index cards and markers? You haven't? Well, hurry up and get them. Tripod and I will wait for you.

Lick. Lick. Slobber. Slobber. Hug. Hug. Oh! You're back! Good...

 Now all you have to do is write the names of the objects of desire on the cards. Make a few labels. How many? Oh, about ten or so would be good. Show your child how the word is spelled. Talk about the beginning letters, the ending sounds...you know the drill. Help your child become familiar with the identification of the words. Then, mix up the cards and ask your little darling to read the cards and then find those items in the house. Reading is that easy! 

 Tripod actually did a pretty good job with this game, too. He found his toys, where his food is stored, his water bowl, and his bed. Good boy, right?

Well, I guess since he matched the label for his leash we'd better use it. See ya! We're off for a lovely Simple Saturday walk. Wish you could join us!

Simple Saturday Prep: Labels of Love

 In efforts to enhance letter/word recognition, tomorrow we're going to capitalize on your newbie reader's objects of passion. We're going to use the stuff they love to our/their academic benefit.

Food. Clothes. Games. People. Pets. Anything's fair game!

The supplies we'll need for tomorrow's Simple Saturday fun are index cards and a marker. That's it.

So, for now, observe your little darlings, closely. Notice what their objects of desire are. Keep those thoughts in mind. Check back in with me in the morning when we'll have some Simple Saturday Labels of Love fun together, okay?

I do love these sneaky posts, don't you?

Simple Saturday: Keys to Reading

Today we're going to make a Simple Saturday Keys to Reading puzzle with a collection of old keys, a small piece of cardstock, and a fine-tipped marker. That's all we need. Let's get with it!

On the piece of cardstock, lay out your keys in a pattern that pleases you. Maybe gradate them from large to small.  Or in a random splash-like design. Anything that meets your fancy. Shoot, while you're at it, make a variety of pattern cards. Let the good times roll!

Next, trace around the keys with the fine-tipped marker. Bingo, baby! You've made a puzzle!!! Good for you! Now sit back and marvel as your wee ones as they decifer between the various keys' bendy and straight lines, discovering which key goes where. 

Not only does this super simple activity help to develop eye-hand coordination and help to lengthen the concentration span, it offers the early reader the opportunity to discriminate between the ups and downs of line shapes. Pair this up with sight/sound discrimination and you've got a reader, pal.

Simple Saturday Prep: Keys to Reading

 Okay, my Simple Saturday buddies, tomorrow's post features another one of those activities that are so simple and yet so profound that I am almost ashamed to launch it.

Almost.

Got any kiddos that are working to learn the shapes of letters? That in grasping the awareness that specific bends and straights of simple line drawings is actually key to learning something completely life altering - the ability to READ!!!! Can you give me  hearty hip, hip, hooray for reading? Hip. Hip. HOORAY!

Tomorrow bring a fistful of old keys, a piece of cardstock, a fine-tipped marker, and maybe some scissors with you and we'll make a game guaranteed to mesmerize any child working to unlock the mysteries of  the sight/sound connection  of the written word.

Uh, oh. I feel another cheer coming over me. Please indulge me, won't you? Hip. Hip. HOORAY!!!

Simple Saturday: Lucky Ladybug Bingo

 Before we get to our Simple Saturday activity, I want to chat up this first book on the Princess Posey series. It is cute, cute, CUTE!!!! So cute I just had to buy a copy for my great niece. This book is PERFECT for a child who is about to take those big-big-big steps into the scary halls of First Grade! Believe me.

Y'all, I just have to brag on my pal, Steph. She's such a great writer that girl has gone and got herself a great starred review in The Horn Book. For real! Dude, that's no literary chump change...I'm telling ya!

The activity we're borrowing today comes from the guide written for the second book in this series called Princess Posey and the Perfect Present. The only real bummer here is that we can't buy this book until March! Darn it all.

Here. Click on this link and download the Lucky Ladybug Bingo Game and then I'll tell you how to play.

Prepare game board by printing pages on cardstock or copier paper. Cut out the nine Ladybug Bingo game pieces. Cut out the nine word labels.  Conceal the words on the labels by folding the paper strips in half.   Place folded strips in a small box or basket.

 To play the game remove a folded strip from box or basket. Encourage your wee one to read the word printed on the strip. On the game board, find the picture of the object written on the folded strip.       Cover the picture with a ladybug game piece. When all of the pictures have been covered by ladybug game pieces, remove them and begin again! If you'd like to, go ahead and print out a few game boards and play with your friends. The more the merrier!

Let's fly away home and have a little lucky ladybug fun, shall we?

Speaking of flying home, I'm on my way, John. I've missed you so!

Simple Saturday: Private Pen Pals

You and your partner must make a pact. A pinky swear to keep a secret to the depths of your graves. Tell no one the deeds you are about to embark upon. You have the note card and pen, right? You need only one card to begin this writing voyage together. However, in the days to come, you'll want to have a surplus on hand to keep this quirky correspondence with one another going.

First you two must decide upon a place for notecard exchange, a sort of 'X marks the spot', if you will. Under a rug? Behind a chair? Near the dog bowl? Hmmmm, probably not. On the bookshelf? Yeah...that's a good idea. Decide on a place where notes can be occasionally hidden. Not every single day, mind you. Our game would get old then. One person writes a note and hides it. The private pen pal sneaks about, snags it from the designated spot, then finds a quiet place to read it. Now it is their turn to correspond!

Write silly jokes, light-hearted comments about work or school, find some specific wonderful attribute to praise, or express your affection for one another. Slip a little flower bud between the folds of the card. Maybe a handmade book mark or a nice piece of stiff, pink, cardboard-like bubble-gum. Simple treasures to be shared. Precious memories to cherish forever.

I have found that this game is particularily helpful when a parent has to travel frequently or shares custody of a child. Playing Private Pen Pals helps to ease the burning ache of absence from one another in a fun, simply silly way.

Warning, parent! This is not a time to lament over invented spellings. For now, enjoy your child's message. We'll work on that spelling later.

Simple Saturday Prep

Is there a child in your life learning how to read or write? One that may be needing emotional support of some kind? Or a child who simply enjoys a good joke? Well, Saturday's activity is one for you.

Do you have a stash of funky stationery? Stuff that you'll never use? Pull it out. We're going to use it tomorrow. The supplies needed for Simple Saturday fun are a note card and envelope, pen or pencil, and a pal to share in the adventure with you.