The Book Blab Episode 14: Summer Reading Programs Plus Two Books With Settings We'd Love to Visit

With summer in full swing, I'm sure many of you are participating in summer reading programs. Last summer, I became so disenchanted with my library's summer "reading" program that I created my own for my kids. It was a huge success, and we're doing it again this year. So on this episode of The Book Blab, Suzanne and I discussed how to start your own summer reading program and why external motivation can be a good thing (and I even convinced Maxwell to come chat with us for a bit).

Before we jump into the episode, I'd like you to think about three questions, and answer them in the comments if you feel so inclined:

1. What does your ideal summer reading program look like?
2. What incentives would motivate YOU?
3. What topic would you like Suzanne and I to discuss on a future episode?

And now, on with the show!

0:20 - Suzanne's busy summer
0:57 - Today's topic: summer reading programs
1:42 - Suzanne's experience with summer reading programs
4:10 - Amy's experience with summer reading programs
7:15 - The summer reading program Amy created for her kids
9:47 - Special guest appearance by Amy's 7-year-old, Max

• 10:54 - Max's favorite prize
• 11:53 - Max's thoughts on being rewarded for reading
• 12:48 - The number of hours Max reads every day
• 13:53 - Becoming an adventurous reader
• 14:33 - One of Max's favorite books this summer

15:52 - The good and bad of incentive programs and external motivation
21:30 - What would a summer reading program look like for adults?
24:40 - Tips for tracking time
25:40 - Two books with settings we'd love to visit

• 26:15 - Suzanne's recommendation
• 28:24 - Amy's recommendation

30:25 - Conclusion

Books and links mentioned in the show:

Sunlit Pages: Raising Readers: Summer Reading Program
Sunlit Pages: A Summer Reading Program You Can Do at Home
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodges Burnett (Amy's review)
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall (Amy's review)

He's Done!

We're celebrating over here today because Max finished the last lesson in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

We've been looking towards this day for a long time (we did the first lesson in August 2013, a year and a half ago!). We took our time and worked slowly and steadily, taking breaks when needed and supplementing with other books.

That poor book is battered and bruised. Well loved and well used.

Max is celebrating his accomplishment in a big way . . . with a ring pop. :-)

As if on cue, Bradley has spent the last couple of weeks asking me constantly, "what's this word . . . and this word . . . and this word?" It's like he knows his turn is just around the corner.

Speaking of which, as much as I have loved Teach Your Child . . . , after going through the entire book twice, I'm getting a little bored with it and might want to try out another method. I'm looking into Phonics Pathways or The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Any thoughts?

Overall, it's been a joyful process of discovering and learning with Max. I've enjoyed (almost) every moment. This marks an ending of sorts. But now the real fun of reading will begin . . .

P.S. I remember when Aaron was at this stage. It was exciting then, too.

Raising Readers: Taking Turns

Maxwell is at such a fun place right now with learning to read. We are at Lesson 80 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. For those who might not be familiar with this method, Teach Your Child uses an altered orthography for the first 73 lessons, meaning that the words look something like this:

In our experience, this altered orthography has worked really well as it helps the new reader see which sounds go together and which ones don't say anything at all while still helping them see all of the letters that make up the word.

Beginning at Lesson 74, they transition to a traditional orthography, which looks like this:

Reaching that milestone of 74 is always really exciting because it opens up the world of reading to them (and in our limited experience--two readers so far--the transition has always gone smoothly). By the time they get to Lesson 74, they are ready for it.

Before we reached this important lesson, Maxwell was doing a little outside reading. Now he is doing a lot. I find him trying to read things that are far above his level, and it is so exciting to see his confidence increasing as he has success reading "real" books.

I've said before that I teach my kids to read for purely selfish reasons; it's because I don't want to miss that moment where they suddenly spread those reading wings and take flight. It is absolutely thrilling to behold.

Besides continuing his reading lessons, we've been doing a lot of supplementary reading (I'll share our favorite easy early readers next month), and I've found myself falling back on a practice I used all the time when Aaron was at this stage: the technique of taking turns.

It's as simple as it sounds: he reads a page and then I read a page. Back and forth, back and forth. There are several reasons for doing this:

• It increases the flow.
• It aids comprehension (even if he's going too slow on his page to really catch what's happening, he can piece it together when I read my page).
• It makes a longer book seem less daunting.
• It's way more fun.

Of course you can use this technique with any book (I remember even using it when Aaron read his first Magic Tree House book), but nowhere is it more fun than with the Elephant & Piggie series by Mo Willems.

I've written about these books before (here are three of our favorites), and if you have a preschooler in your house, then I'm sure I'm not introducing anything new to you.

But in the last few weeks, we've been revisiting them with enthusiasm, and once again, I've been reminded with how perfect they are for this technique of taking turns. Before Max and I begin reading, we divide up the parts. Max likes to be Gerald, so usually I'm Piggie. Aside from the back-and-forth dialogue, there isn't any other text, which makes it so we're never confused about whose turn it is to read.

As an added bonus, these books are also great for teaching kids how to read with expression. Gerald and Piggie express so many emotions (fear, excitement, joy, frustration, sadness, etc.), and it's so fun to change our inflections to match what they're feeling.

As we've made our way through almost the entire series once again, I can tell you that these books are just as funny as the first time I read them. Max and I can't help laughing and laughing as each story unfolds.

Because we've been enjoying them so much, a few days ago I asked our librarian if she knew of any other books that were like Elephant & Piggie (with the speech bubbles and the back-and-forth dialogue and the small cast of characters). Unfortunately, she couldn't think of any, and the only ones I could think of were Geoffrey Hayes' books, but they're still too advanced for Max. (Incidentally, while we were searching the shelves for similar books, the librarian also told me that some parents don't like Elephant & Piggie for new readers because the speech bubbles confuse kids and make it difficult for them to learn to read from left to right. This info definitely surprised me.)

So now, as part of this taking turns post, it's your turn to share your favorite easy readers (whether or not they're similar to Elephant & Piggie) or even just your favorite Elephant & Piggie adventure. I can't wait to get more great ideas from all of you!

For more Raising Readers posts, click here.

Max's First Book

We hit a milestone last week: Maxwell read his first official book. All by himself.

I say "official" because he's done plenty of reading prior to this: lots of lessons in his reading book, quite a few Bob books, and bits and pieces of other books.

But this book was more than five pages long, was funny and entertaining (no "Pat sat" here), and was checked out from the library. Yep, definitely official.

Erica at What Do We Do All Day recently posted a list of Easy Reader Books That Are Actually Easy. One of the books she mentioned was See Me Run by Paul Meisel. I wasn't familiar with it but judging from her description ("very simple words and lots of repetition"), I thought it might be one Max would be able to read on his own.

So I checked it out. And a few days later, I said, "Max, how would you like to read a real book?" He was eager and willing.

He read. He sounded out words. He looked at the pictures. He giggled. And when he turned the last page and closed the book, he beamed with pride.

That evening, when Mike got home from work, Max rushed to find the book. And then, with that same adorable smile, asked, "Dad, would you like me to read it to you?"

There's no comparison for this kind of confidence. It is its own reward.

P.S. You can probably guess that I'm pretty happy to see that Paul Meisel wrote another similar book called See Me Dig.

P.P.S. When I was taking these pictures to document Max's first real book, Aaron asked, "What was my first book?" I couldn't remember! It made me so sad that I hadn't thought to write it down.

P.P.P.S. What was your child's first book?

Raising Readers: Using a Whiteboard

When Aaron started kindergarten last fall, Maxwell thought it was his turn for reading lessons. I wasn't feeling as intense of a desire to push him as I did Aaron (second child and all that). But since he expressed the desire, I was more than happy to oblige.

I had such great success with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Aaron (see my post: The Boy Can Read) that I naturally turned to it again. We made him a chart, just like Aaron's. We did lessons in the mornings, just like Aaron.

But, shocker. Maxwell is NOT Aaron.

I thought Aaron had a short attention span, but Max cannot even make it through the first three words before he is complaining about being "too tired."

We made it to Lesson 40-something before it became pure torture, and I thought to myself, Seriously?! Why am I doing this? He's four years old! He doesn't need to know how to read yet.

But he was still asking to do reading lessons. He still liked the one-on-one attention. He liked feeling like a big kid. And he really does want to unlock the secret code of reading.

But I had to think of some other way.

Enter the gigantic whiteboard.

Sorry for the poor quality pictures (that's a basement for you), but I had to show the size of this thing. It came from the conference room at the place where my brother-in-law works. When it sold for $12 at a company auction, he bought it, but he ended up not being able to fit it down his stairs. So we took it (much to the dismay of my seven-year-old niece who was in tears at the loss of her art canvas).

Anyway, I'm kind of surprised, but Max loves to do reading sessions on this board.

Here is how I've used it so far:

Have him read something short and simple. Max just needs something that's not daunting, so I've used the BOB books, Dick and Jane, and some of the simple books Aaron brought home from school during the first couple of months.

Use words from the book to explore with on the board. One day, there were a lot of words that ended with -er. So I started with the root word, asked him what it was, added -er to it, and then asked him what it was again.

(I'm not a trained educator, so I'm probably introducing combinations and word families at all the wrong times, but Max loves it, so I don't really care.)

Change one letter. Max really likes seeing the transformation of words and how, just by changing one letter or adding another, you can make an entirely new word.

Have fun with rhymes. Some days I will just choose a word and see how many rhymes we can come up with. Many of the words are nonsense, but it still shows Max how the letters work in combination with each other.

Keep a list of sight words. The box on the right side holds a list of five sight words we encountered in our reading. I just keep them up there and at random times during the day, I'll point to one of the words and ask him what it is.

Put sight words into a sentence. The other day, I wrote a few sentences on the board. Each one contained at least one of his most recent sight words. First I asked him to find one of the words . . .  "was," for example. Then I asked him to read the entire sentence.

Don't erase the words. After our short little lesson is over, I don't erase what I've written. I just leave it there for him to look over at his leisure as he is building with Legos or doing puzzles or whatever. Sometimes Aaron will come along and ask him about it. I like that he can just figure things out and remember them on his own without me hovering over him.

I'm sure we will come up with other ways to use this board. The possibilities are endless. And of course you don't need a whiteboard that's 8'x4' to do any of these activities. Paper or a chalkboard or even fridge magnets would work just as well.

But I have to admit, the whiteboard IS pretty fun.

For more Raising Readers posts, click here.

The Christmas That Keeps On Giving

It's been more than a month since Christmas. The presents are all broken, lost, or forgotten about, right?

Not at our house.

For the first time in my life, I scored with my kids' presents. I've had many failures in the past (let's not even talk about the marble track from 2012 . . . ), and certainly not every present from this year reached "favorite status."

But two of the presents have just kept on giving and giving and giving: Perler Beads and Magformers

Perler beads have been around for a long, long time. I never actually owned any pegboards or beads as a child, but many of my friends did.

Aaron made his first Perler creation at his cousin's house a few months ago, and it was the one gift he consistently asked for through the month of December (aside from the infamous "bullet gun.") He is my kid who would happily do crafts all day long if I let him, so I was sold on the Perler bead idea from the beginning.

I had to laugh when, a few weeks before Christmas, I was at a toy exchange and one of the moms (without knowing about my Christmas gift-giving plans) said: "Whatever you do, do NOT give your child Perler beads. Those things are awful! You'll be sweeping them up for the rest of your life, and every time someone bumps the table before he's done, his creation will get scattered all over, and he'll be crying his eyes out."

I'm so glad I didn't follow her advice because I don't know if Aaron has ever received a better present (maybe his bike, but it's been hibernating in the garage for the last three months). I'm not lying when I say he has made at least one thing from Perler beads almost every day since Christmas. This proves it:

He received a few kits for Christmas, but we've also printed off a bunch of patterns from the Perler bead website. He has also come up with his own ideas, like this toothbrush and pencil:

Maxwell has also joined in, although not with quite the same obsessive fervor as Aaron. At this point, the only thing I can see stopping them is if they run out of beads. And then I will happily buy more.

And then Magformers.

Do you know about these things? They come in a variety of shapes (squares, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, etc.) and are magnetized on all sides. I first saw them at the Children's Museum a couple of years ago and wanted to buy a set right then and there at the over-priced gift store. I didn't, but I've wanted to invest in a set ever since.

Sadly, they're really expensive (like almost $1/piece), and so every time I thought of getting a set, I realized I could only afford the smallest ones, and it just seemed like it wouldn't be that much fun with only 15 pieces to work with.

Anyway, this year I felt like the time had finally come to splurge and buy a big set. But it was kind of a leap of faith because, in spite of my hints and prodding, none of the boys actually asked for them (but then, Maxwell didn't really ask for anything).

It was totally worth the investment! The Magformers have been played with daily. They are durable and versatile. Even two-year-old Bradley can make fun things. Plus, I didn't realize it when we originally decided to get them, but these things clean up easier than any other toy we own. They basically clean themselves up because they all bind together, so then you just pick up a gigantic clump of them and throw them in the bin. As much as I love Legos, these things take the cake when it comes to picking them up.

Seriously, I thought they were expensive at the time, but now the price seems well worth it in comparison with the product I got. I have been so amazed with all the 3-D shapes the boys have made. And it has definitely been the popular toy when we've had people over (both children and adults).

So yes, I'm patting myself on the back a little bit. At this rate, we won't even have to think about Christmas presents for next year.

And the infamous "bullet gun"? It can't even begin to compete in popularity.

P.S. And just to be perfectly clear, this is not a sponsored post. I don't think Perler beads or Magformers need my help endorsing them, but I'll do it just the same.

Maxwell's Preschool: Walter the Baker

Maxwell is part of a preschool co-op this school year. The group consists of five children, two girls and three boys. We do a weekly number, letter, color, and theme. For more of our preschool lesson plans, click here.

It was my turn to teach preschool last week. The theme was cooking and baking along with the number 19, the letter R, and the color brown.

When I saw I would be teaching about baking, I immediately thought of Walter the Baker by Eric Carle. 

Our family loves this story about Walter's invention of the pretzel. Every morning, Walter bakes a batch of sweet rolls for the Duke and Duchess. But one morning, the cat spills the milk, and Walter substitutes water in the rolls instead. The rolls turn out like rocks, and the Duke is ready to banish Walter from the Duchy. But then he realizes he will miss Walter's sweet rolls, so he gives him a difficult challenge instead: "Invent a roll through which the rising sun can shine three times. It must be made from one piece of dough, and most of all, it must taste good." Walter works all through the night, and at last, quite by accident, comes up with the pretzel.

Although the story is not based on fact, it turned out to be the perfect way for our little group of preschoolers to learn more about baking.

On the first day, I arranged for a tour at our nearby Great Harvest. I don't know if all Great Harvests offer preschool tours, but this one was fabulous.

Our tour guide, Sarah, was so nice. She was great with the kids and made sure they all had a fun time.

First she read them a book about baking bread. 

She showed them the ingredients (whole wheat flour, water, salt, honey, and yeast) that go into a regular batch of bread.

Then the kids donned aprons so they'd be ready to head into the kitchen and meet the bakers.

 
The rule was, Keep your arms folded so you stay safe next to the hot oven.

The kitchen was brightly lit and warm. Sarah showed everyone the big work table where the bakers get the dough ready.

Then we saw a batch of bread come out of the ginormous oven. I couldn't believe how many loaves were in this oven at the same time. There were several racks just like the one you see, and they have a big timer to let them know which batch of bread is ready to come out when.

Then we got to see the large wheat grinder where they grind the grain into flour, and also the huge bowls and mixer that they knead the dough in. They said that over the holidays, all of their bowls were full all the time. Each bowl had an extender going up the sides so that it could accommodate enough ingredients for 100 loaves of bread. Pretty crazy.

Then we left the kitchen and went back to the table where Sarah gave each of the kids a small ball of dough.

They pounded and twisted and molded and shaped their dough until it was exactly like they wanted it.

Then they went back to the kitchen to politely ask the bakers if they would please bake their creations for them.

Besides their own hand-crafted rolls, the kids also each got a little goodie-bag filled with a large half-loaf of honey whole wheat bread, a chocolate chip cookie, and a coupon for another free loaf. Great Harvest was very generous, and the children loved the tour (although when I asked all of the them what their favorite part was, one of the little girls said, "The drive going there.")

On Thursday, I had all of the children at my house where we experimented more with baking.

After our usual opening activities (calendar, pledge, weather, etc.), we talked about our field trip to the bakery. I asked them if they remembered the ingredients that went into a loaf of bread. When they mentioned water as one of the ingredients, I told them we were going to read a story about one baker who tried to use water in place of milk for his rolls. We then read Walter the Baker.

At the end of the story, we talked about how different ingredients are good for different things. For a loaf of bread, water is essential. For sweet rolls, it doesn't work as well. Ingredients work in combination with other ingredients, and sometimes you have to experiment for quite awhile before you find a combination that works.

With those ideas going around in their minds, I did something very brave: I let the children create their own recipe.  I first saw this idea on Tinkerlab, and I tweaked her suggestions to work with our group of four-year-olds.

In spite of my fears, this activity was a huge success. Here are a few of the things I did (either accidentally or on purpose) that I think helped it turn out so well: 

Tip #1: Choose complementary ingredients
No, I didn't give five children free reign in the kitchen (maybe if you were only doing this with one child, you could allow a little more freedom). I pre-selected ingredients, but I tried to give them enough choices that the end result was still wide open and they felt like they were in control of the decisions. I went with flour, sugar, cocoa powder, applesauce, butter, eggs, water, milk, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, blueberries, chocolate chips and raisins.

Tip #2: Give some basic guidelines
I told them the measuring cups were for the flour, sugar, blueberries, etc.; the glass measuring cup was for the liquids; and the measuring spoons were for the spices, baking powder, etc. I just wasn't prepared to let anyone choose to add a cup of salt. We wanted to experiment, but even experimentation calls for a few boundaries.

Tip #3: Take turns
Each child got a turn to choose an ingredient/amount and a turn to stir. Then we added a few more ingredients by voting.



Tip #4: Give a few gentle nudges
I tried very hard to keep my mouth shut. But when one of the children chose to add a tablespoon of salt, well, I may or may not have filled it up only partway. However, in my defense, when another child chose two cups of water, I pressed my lips together and didn't say a word. As we neared the end, I just asked them about a few of the ingredients they hadn't considered yet and let them decide (by raise of hand) if they thought we should add them or not.

Given that the batter was on the significantly runny side, I didn't quite know what to expect.

But they actually baked up rather nicely and resembled a muffin when I took them out of the pan.

All of the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom, and they were on the spongy side, but the kids still ate them up. And some of them even asked for seconds. I think they were just so proud of their own creation, they overlooked some of the obvious faults. (Although there was one little girl who was adamant that there was too much salt (and I had to agree with her). But even that was a good lesson.)

And just in case you're interested in seeing what all went into these scrumptious muffins, I happened to write it all down:

Salty-Sweet Chocolate Muffins (salted chocolate is all the rage right now, right?)
Add ingredients in the order listed below. For authentic results, stir after each addition:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 cups water
2 tsp. salt
1 T. cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa 
1/2 cup butter

Pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Because I wasn't sure if their baked creation would turn out edible or not, I also made a batch of pretzel dough the night before. (Plus, how can you talk about Walter the Baker and not make pretzels? That would be very, very wrong.)

I gave each child a ball of dough. (I adore this recipe. It's quick to mix up, it can wait in the fridge overnight, and it is very forgiving of too much flour.)

The children stretched and rolled and stretched and rolled, and then we twisted each one into a tricky pretzel shape. We talked about the function of yeast and how it helps bread and pretzels to be light and fluffy on the inside. We baked them up, and then I brushed them with butter and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar when they came out of the oven.

(Confession: I actually made two batches of pretzels the night before, and after all the kids left, my own kids and I twisted up the second batch, baked them all right then, and ate them for lunch. Yeah, we love these pretzels.)

The letter of the day was "R," so since we'd been talking about yeast and bread, we talked about other things that RISE. The children mentioned the sun and balloons. Water also rises during flooding or when the tide comes in.

We made a cute little craft to show some of the things that rise. I gave the kids a piece of cardstock with pictures of bread, balloons, and the sun. 

 

They colored and cut them out. Then I attached a brad in the middle of each one and poked it through a precut slit in the black cardstock. Then the children could slide up the brad to make the sun (or the bread) (or the balloons) rise.

Then we made a thank-you card for Sarah, who gave us a tour of Great Harvest earlier in the week.

Finally, we were supposed to play a game with the number 19, but we were completely out of time. But this is what I'd planned for us to do:

I made up this little gameboard with 19 squares. At the beginning of the game, I was going to have each child choose which number they thought would be the last one chosen. Then we would begin drawing cards. If they chose the number 5, they would put a pretzel on it. Then if they chose the number 14, they'd put a pretzel on it, etc. The last number drawn would be the winning number, and whoever made the closest guess to the winning number was, obviously, the winner. I know, not the most creative or exciting game, but I thought it would help them reinforce their number recognition.


And that was our week of baking and cooking!

Maxwell's Preschool: S is for Snake

Note: Last year, I participated in two different preschool co-ops--one for Aaron and one for Maxwell, and both of them were fabulous. I'm trying to be optimistic that this year's co-op will measure up, but we'll see. I've been slowly writing up my lesson plans from the past year. This is one that I did with Maxwell's group last March. For more of my preschool posts, click here.

When I found out that my week to teach would fall on the letter S, I immediately gravitated toward snakes. Not because I have any immediate fondness for the creatures (I definitely do not) but because it is so easy to talk about what sound the letter S makes when in reference to snakes.

One of our favorite books is The Splendid Spotted Snake by Betty Schwartz and Alex Wilensky. 

I talked about it in greater detail here, but I had a feeling that with its colorful snake that magically grows and its catchy rhymes, it would be the perfect book to begin our lesson with. The children loved it, and after we read it, we met around the table to make our own colorful snakes.

The night before, I cut out a snake-shaped head for each child and also a big stack of red, blue, yellow, green, and black rectangles.

First, they drew faces on the heads:

For the body sections, I told them they could try writing the letter S or just decorate them any way they wanted to.

They glued on tongues, and then I used a small hole punch to make holes in each end of the rectangles.

Then we put brads through the holes to join all the pieces together.

(Incidentally, this has been one of our longer lasting preschool projects. Usually I throw them away after a month or so, but I didn't want to throw away all those brads (and I also didn't want to disassemble the whole thing), so we've hung onto them. I just put them down in our animal bin in the playroom, and they have continued to hold up, even after months of playing.)

The other book I decided to use with this unit was Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh. 

It's about a hungry snake who goes looking for some lunch. Ten little mice, all fast asleep, turn out to be easy prey, and soon he has collected all of them in a jar. He is just about ready to begin his feast when one of the mice points out a big "mouse" (i.e., a rock) in the distance. Although ten mice should have been plenty, the snake is greedy, and while he is gone, the mice manage to escape.

Besides being a great story, it also focuses on counting (although, I have to admit, I find the counting to be a little confusing to kids since it's broken up with text).

I thought this would make a great flannelboard of sorts (without the flannelboard). I found a picture of a mouse that I liked, copied it ten times, and laminated it. I also gathered a snake, a jar, and a rock.

After reading the story, we acted it out. I hid the ten mice around the room, and then the children got to take turns being the snake and putting the mice in the jar. At the end, we tricked the snake and all tumbled out of the jar and ran away to safety. The kids loved this story . . . both listening to it and acting it out.

Then we talked about how snakes use their tongues to smell. Even though our tongues can't smell, we decided to use them to try and identify different flavors.

 

I made three different kinds of pudding: vanilla, lemon, and chocolate (above is just the vanilla).

The idea was for them to dip their tongues in the pudding and try to figure out what they were tasting. Some of the kids didn't want to be blindfolded, which was totally fine, so they just closed their eyes (or, let's be honest, used some of their other senses to aid them in figuring it out).

But a couple of them were adventurous and tried the blindfold.

  

 It was fun to watch them put their minds to work and think about what they were tasting.

 

One thing I was surprised to discover is that kids (at least these kids) don't like pudding nearly as much as I thought they would. Chocolate was pretty much the only flavor that was even a little bit tolerated.

Besides the letter S, the number of the week was 19. I realized that making 19 that much different from 18 or 20 is a real challenge!

I decided that I wanted them to be able to get a visual picture of just how many 19 is. I cut up a bunch of straws (I chose straws because they start with the letter S). I gave each child a little bag of 19 of them and then told them they could use those 19 straws to create whatever sort of picture they wanted, but I did want them to try and use all of them.

Some of the pictures were orderly (I just squeezed out the glue in the shape of a house).

Others were more random. (This little girl actually wanted me to draw Ariel with the glue, but I had to confess that that was probably beyond my artistic abilities.)

For our last activity, we played a little game with straws. Each child got a straw and a pom-pom. They had to place their pom-poms at the starting line . . .

. . . and then use their straws blow their pom-poms across the table. The person whose pom-pom fell off the table first was the winner.

Try as I might, I couldn't figure out what pom-poms or straws had to do with snakes, but it was still fun.