Lucinda's Library Notes

Picking up on the previous post about the importance of building up your observation skills, I am today focusing on a keen observer in nature, the owl. With a child in your life, research owls in books, online and in nature as well. Regarding their eyesight. I would like to highlight three specific facts. 1.  Owls need to be excellent observers for the sake of their survival.  If they cannot see their prey, they will miss their opportunities to capture it as food. So owls are evidence of the importance of observation skills!😎 2.  Owls can see at a distance. They do not just look at what is immediately in front of them.  This is key not just in what we physically see but also in how we 'see' a situation. Can you see beyond the moment and know that there is more to a situation than first meets the eye? 3.  Owls can see at night.  How do you see in the darkest moments of life?  What is your perspective on the challenges you face?  Like owls, conside...

The power of observation is a critical skill that should be practiced by all people.  Here are a few activities to work on this skill in general .

I am writing this post on the day we had to say "Night Night" and farewell to our dog named Kia. Kia was a very sweet 12 year dog who has taken to being by my side although he is actually my mother's dog.  As I went to write about The Night Sky and Night Animals and The City at Night, I was torn because I really wanted to tell you all about Kia and honour him. So, I chose a "N is for Narrative" story book about a puppy.  I always called Kia 'my puppy'. I chose this book because it is a classic Little Golden Book that was written in the year my mother was born so it seemed like a good selection since Kia was hers. Also, there is a cute little lizard on the cover as well which is appropriate since my son will soon be getting a pet lizard. The gecko has been given a name that starts with 'N' too. She will be named 'Nyla' which means 'Champion' in Hebrew and 'Winner' in Greek. The Poky Little Puppy is a story of a curious lit...

  Today is just a quick list of what comes to mind for the theme of "The Night Sky."   Activities Connected to the Night Sky. Make white or yellow chalk drawings on black paper Try Splatter Painting to make it look like all the stars in the universe Add sparkly star stickers on a circle of construction paper Draw 5 pt and 6pt stars Recite or Sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" Practice the letter 'S'.  Ss. Ss. Ss. Star. Star. Star Paint and arrange styrofoam balls to create a mobile of planets around the sun Dip halved lemons in paints and use as stampers to make a design of planets or use starfruit halves. Study the constellations and find them in the night sky Make a magic star wand with aluminum foil star and ribbons on a dowel Complete a dot-to-dot picture of a star. Additional Night-Based Activities Research night animals Define what is nocturnal Use night lights, glow-in-the-dark bracelets, or flashlights when it is dark to light up the way. Make shadow...

A narrator is a person who tells the entire story or 'narrative.'  In verb form, "I am going to narrate the story," means to read or tell the events from start to finish.  When it comes to a play or a story with dialogue in it, the parts assigned to the narrator are more specific. They are the one who tell the facts of the story and answer the questions like which character is entering the room with a scowl on their face.  They are the one who share the mood for the comments about to be spoken.  They tell facts like "It was a bright and sunny morning when Franklin met Beaver." The narrator is a key player who supports the characters in a story and connects the events for the audience. If you want a child to narrate well, you need to make story telling fun so they put in the necessary practice to hone their skill set.  Here are FIFTEEN IDEAS. CAMPFIRE STORIES : As it is summer, you can have a campfire (real or pretend) and tell stories around the campfire. Th...

COOKIE MAKING!  A great book to go with this fun activity!  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie asks an important question.  What would happen if you gave your cookie to a mouse?  What would happen if you gave it to Cookie Monster?  What would happen if you gave it to your grandmother or your neighbout?  How can you use making cookies as a way to find opportunities to a) bless others and b) build your imagination and life experiences regarding how different people can provide different responses?  Other ideas include: Use the experiences of sharing your cookies to write stories about who received them and why.  An example would be.  "I gave my gandmother a cookie because she helped me bake them." Make cards for the people you are giving them to. Write out the recipe for your own collection or to share with others when you give them cookies. Do an experiment.  Of all the people you offered a cookie to, how many said yes? no?  How many ate ...

The first book I thought of for M was " If you give a Mouse a Cookie " and so I made my theme day based on Mice.  However, when I came to write this, I didn't know what to say so I brainstormed other 'M' words like messy, me, monkey, meerkat, mountain, magic and maze but then thought of many famous mice, like Mickey and Minnie, Mighty Mouse, Jerry (Tom and Jerry), Speedy Gonzales (The Looney Tunes), Miss Bianca (The Rescuers), Gus and Jaq (Cinderella), Roquefort (The Aristocats), and Stuart Little.  What came next? The nursery rhyme Hickory, Dickory, Dock, the mouse ran up the clock and books like  The Lion and the Mouse, Mouse Moves House and  Country Mouse and City Mouse as well as those based on the characters listed above. Other than retelling and dramatizing the stories of these mice, what other activities connect to mice?  Try some of these activities or add to the list with ideas of your own! 1.  Have a Disney Tea Party with our Disney Mouse friends...

 🐘   Some people have excellent memories and can recall words spoken, actions taken and gifts given years later.  Others forget what they are doing in the middle of doing it!  There are pros and cons to both types of memories but if you are hoping to improve yours, there are ways to help build up this skill, some of which are outlined here. Association: There are a lot of well known methods to help you with your memory.  Try making a connection between two items to help you remember.  For example: Benjamin has Blue Eyes -B E are the first two letters of the name BEnjamin so next time you see those blue eyes you are now more likely to recall his name begins with BE. Connecting what you did when you sprained your ankle to the steps being taught to you in your first aid class is another way to personalize and memorize new information as it is associated with the memory of another life experience. The more unusual or funny the connection is, the better! ...

Lizard from the Park by Mark Pett                                                                              Page by page first thoughts Leonard was walking home alone.  The first picture is quite empty.  Where are Leonard's friends?  Do you think he felt lonely? Do you think he was enjoying the spring day as he walked?  What might he see while walking through the park?  A bird? A butterfly? A boy on the bench?  A leaf? A cloud? A ladybug on a lady's lap? The deepest, darkest part of the park suggests a game with the lights out.  Maybe hide and seek?  Maybe hand puppet silhouettes? Maybe a game of reach inside a deep, dark bag and guessing what item is inside. Leonard found an egg.  Can you draw an egg and mak...

My youngest son is getting a lizard!  For those who know geckos, it is a tangerine tornado and black knight mix. He is still working on the name.  Jupiter, Astrid and Nyla are the current top contenders.  While I am not a lizard person myself, I never objected to them running on the walls of the house I lived in while I was in India so I have a positive perspective as the foundation to accepting this new pet.  The bonus is that she can stay contained in his room and in his care.  He gets all the joy and I don't have to take on any of the responsibility (I hope). Pets are wonderful additions to the family but it is important to find the right one.  My son did a lot of research and carefully chose this specific species.  For example, I would have thought all geckos could walk up walls but this species does not!  And, their colours change from birth to adulthood.  They get darker as they mature. The girl above should become a darker orange and b...

The alphabet is the foundation of written communication.  Each language creates symbols that represent the sounds they use to vocalize their oral communication.  The Tamil language uses 247 letters whereas English uses only 26!  In English, we make up a wide variety of combinations and incorporate combinations and sounds from other languages as well which makes English more challenging to master.   However, as a child learning their letters for the first time, we keep everything simple and build a strong foundation on which we can add the exceptions to their repertoire later on.  For example, C says /s/ when followed by an e or i but says /k/ when followed by an a, o or u.  We start out saying c says /k/.  Simple.    Infants usually have the same first sounds. ma/da/ba/pa.  The L, S and R sounds typically come much later.  So what do we do?  We make our earliest words the ones with simple sounds...mama, dada, baby, An...

"The Kissing Hand" has a text to text connection to the book "Guess How Much I Love You?"  Recognizing the importance of the security that comes from knowing you are loved can see a child through tough days and give them confidence to try things they would otherwise avoid, such as venturing off to school or to bed on one's own. Summary:  "The Kissing Hand" is written by Audrey Penn and is about a little raccoon who doesn't want to go to school and prefers to stay with his. home, friends, toys, books and swing.  His mother teaches him to do things we don't want to do even if strange and scary at first.  She shares a secret to make it all smooth. She opened his left hand, spread open his tiny fingers into a fan and kissed his palm, making sure he felt it and saying it was a reminder that mommy loves him which should fill him with toasty warm thoughts. She wrapped his fingers in a kiss and promised it would stick when he washed his hands. He gave ...

Kindness was my original theme....So please complete an act of kindness today with that in mind.  It makes the world a brighter place and lights up the lives of the recipient and the giver alike. However, the theme of Kings, Queens, Knights and Castles ....lots of /K/ sounds!...cannot be kept for another day!  So let's see what kinds of concepts we can creatively come up with! STORY DRAMA :  Dramatic dress up or puppet play based on life in a castle.  It can be completely their own ideas or can be a dramatization of a story such as Cinderella, Snow White, Frozen, The King and I or the Snow Queen or of a short story like The Princess and the Pea or The Monkey King. SOCIAL : Court with the Queen.  Have a tea party with the family or stuffed animals. FINE MOTOR : Build a castle using sand or lego or blocks. Create a moat, a moving drawbridge and a rock path and garden too if you want to go all out on this project!  For summer, you can make the castle out of i...

 I know it is a silent K word but it does start with K!! I chose this word because I have learned in tutoring children the importance of building up their general knowledge in order for them to be successful learners.  For example, if you read a book based on Ancient Egyptian culture but know nothing about it, you will not understand the context of the story and will miss out on many of the key details.   Many authors put in a lot of research as they prepare their storyline to create authentic characters and settings.  The speech must match the time era and locale of the speaker.  A Japanese American in 1955 would be unlikely to talk about French cuisine and a little girl on the prairies at the turn of the century would not know about Disney princesses.  However, many children cannot imagine a world other than the one they know so they need to learn a lot in order to understand the story to its fullest extent. Playing a game of "Did you know?" would be...