SPRING READS

SPRING READS

I don't know what it's like in your area, but in ours it is rainy and windy and just down right blustery today. March is right around the corner and this has me in mind of lions and lambs. One of my early elementary memories is of Mrs. Wells, my first grade teacher, teaching us about March roaring in like a lion and quietly stepping out like a lamb. We made paper plate lion and lamb faces to decorate the classroom walls. I loved every minute of that lesson, because I was an outdoorsy girl and after that I would imagine the lion blowing all around me.

So today I am putting up some great "windy," "rainy," and down right March oriented books to get us in the spirit!

-Thunder Cake by Patricia Polocco - if you have not read this one yet, grab it! A little girl is afraid of thunderstorms, so her grandmother helps to make the time special by baking a "thunder cake." Polocco is just down right magical in her story telling abilities.

-In Like a Lion Out Like a Lamb by Marian Dane Bauer is so fun to see the lion prancing around growling and strutting his stuff as March comes rushing in. As flowers start to appear, the lion sneezes and out comes the dainty little lamb.

-Jeanne Birdsall's Flora's Very Windy Day is the story of a strong wind that picks Flora and her brother up and carries them away. It does have some fall leaves/colors in the artwork. However, there is a rainbow with a mention of a pot of gold, so still very Marchy.

Delightful to read especially if you have a sibling set where the older finds the younger very bothersome.

ALONGSIDE ACTIVITIES- Make a weather calendar for the month of March. Each day draw a picture of a sun, clouds, rain, etc on the calendar.

-Learn the difference between breezes, gusts, and gales.

-Fly a kite on a warm windy day

-Make the thunder cake recipe from Polocco's book

-Make a fun puppet craft of the lion and the lamb at www.kidscraftroom.com/march-lion-and-lamb-pupper-craft/

-Lots of great poetry for March at discoverypoetry.com/poems/march-poems/