Hullabaloo Stories Design Blog
Welcome to Hullabaloo Stories! Create your own family stories with memorable books, projects, printables and more.
A fun post for today…it’s “Leap Day” so let’s leap into reading for this year. Inspired by Dr. Seuss’ quotes, check out our printable bookmarks in fun Dr. Seuss patterns. Click on the link below to see all the books marks we have created (the quote should be printed on the backside to create a two-sided bookmark and, if possible, we recommend you laminate the bookmarks)
Download these bookmarks in celebration of Read Across America Week
Check back on Friday for a fun post after we deliver these bookmarks to one lucky local elementary school with a lot of ideas about how to encourage a love for reading in your children.
Source: 30 Dr. Seuss Quotes to Live By
So here is the idea. Get a copy of the book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” and each year, at the end of the school year, have your child’s teacher write them a little note inside the book (think of how someone signs a high school yearbook). This activity would take place every year, K-12. On the day of your child’s high school graduation, give it to them as one of their gifts. It will also add some nostalgia to the occasion reading through some of the comments made by past teachers.
Sounds pretty simple right…well we want to make it even simpler by having your very own copy shipped directly to your house!
Hullabaloo Stories is giving away TWO copies of Dr. Seuss’ book Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
How to qualify for the giveaway is really easy.
- Go to our Facebook page and “Like” our page.
- Tell us how you have shared this post in the comments below, here, on the Hullabloo Stories blog.
- Some examples include a post on your own Facebook account as a status update, a blog post on a blog that you own/contribute to or comment on another blog, providing a link back to this post, a "pin" on Pinterest, or even a post on a forum; and
- If possible, please provide the link of the location where you shared this blog post with others in your comment below.
- A winner will be chosen at random on Sunday, March 4, 2012 at 12:00 PM PST and we will post the winners name/user name on both Facebook on the Hullabaloo Stories Fan Page wall and here on the Hullabaloo Stories blog as a comment on this blog post by 6:00 PM on that same day, Sunday, March 4, 2012.
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Good luck and thanks for helping to spread the word about this giveaway.
Use modern technology to engage your children in reading? Yes you read that right. Reading with your child can incorporate modern technology, these varied formats can help to engage them in the process of reading and help them to understand the idea of the book.
Since we are celebrating Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’ birthday lets look at the world of Dr. Seuss and all the ways to read his books. Besides the traditional hardcover books there are so many ways to engage your children in the world of Dr. Seuss.
This is the first in a series of blog posts about various formats of multimedia.
Today we will look at movies, in recent years there have been several Dr. Seuss books made into movies (Dr. Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat and Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas), the most recent movie was Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who and this Friday The Lorax is being released nationwide. This movie is based on the story The Lorax , a story largely about ecological awareness, even though it was written in the early 1970’s the message still rings true today and is an important message of taking care of our environment. The story is engaging and as always, Dr. Seuss’ books are entertaining and imaginative. The movie will likely be just as entertaining, especially considering the cast of stars lending their voices to Dr. Seuss’ characters.
Taking young children to the movie theater can be really fun, but also overwhelming if they do not have a concept of the story before seeing it. One strategy to help your children understand a movie is to sit down with them and read the story. But instead of simply reading cover to cover, ask them questions. Have them predict what is going on based on the pictures and pick out what ideas seem important to them. This will give your children confidence in their own reading (pre-reading) skills and some ownership in the story.
Once the movie is over you can continue to engage them in the story by re-reading the book and asking some of those same questions you asked them before, have them discuss what they learned, create a project, a drawing or some other way for them to show you what they have learned with the story. With a story that has a message like The Lorax does you can have your child take action, check out these coloring pages we made for our kids, the Read Across America site has some ideas for doing just that. Several associated sites are offering various activities for parents and teachers to share with children, including online games. These techniques of pre and post reading can be used for any book, reading the same book or going over the same story several times can be very helpful for children to learn how to read and what the process of reading includes. For some more tips, check out this great blog post here on I Can Teach My Child
Below are some coloring book pages (in full color) click on the link above to download the coloring book pages.
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Disclaimer: The Lorax and other Dr. Seuss books are copyrighted by Random House, Inc. Dr. Seuss properties ™ & © 1937-2011. These books are available at Amazon.com and many other booksellers. The purpose of this post is to encourage parental/child interaction with these literary works and pre-reading skills and not to seek gain in the form profit by mentioning them here.
Hullabaloo Stories is celebrating Read Across America as well, with a week long set of posts that focus on children’s books, literacy strategies and some free printables. We will culminate the week with a fun give away.
This coming Friday (March 2, 2012) is Read Across America day, sponsored by the National Education Association This day not only celebrates reading but the birthday of Theodore S. Geisel (aka Dr. Suess). Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, and community centers participate by bringing together kids, teens, and books, and you can too!
Check out tons of great activities, printables and lesson plan ideas here on Suessville
and for now…take a moment to read a book to your child…let us know in the comments below, what is your favorite book to read to your child?
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I found these little tin mail boxes for our kids and wanted to leave them little notes in the weeks before Valentine’s Day. About a week before Valentine’s Day I will be starting a new job and will likely be leaving the house before they even wake up, so these will be a nice little way for them to wake up each morning. We have two children, one girl and one boy, so I wanted to make a mixture of boyish and girly love notes. I also plan to laminate these little notes before I put them in their boxes, with one child teething its best to protect these little notes so they at least last through the day.
below you will find 28 love notes that you can also use for your children. I have seen some other great ideas for home made Valentine’s Day cards your child can give their classmates or friends and also 14 days of love notes for your spouse. I will link to all those great ideas on the bottom of this post as well as my Pinterest Valentine’s Day Board. Feel free to right click on each file or click here to download them.
If you would like any or all of the Love Notes posted below, simply right click on the picture you want, save it and print it. All of these were made to be 2″x3″ to fit perfectly into their little mail boxes, you could also make little felt envelopes for the back of their dining room chairs or play table chairs, as seen at PBKids or here on the Crafting Chics Blog
Some other fantastic blog posts from great Mama Bloggers:
- Mommy by day; Crafter by Night posts 14 great ideas for your spouse, a super cute way to show your spouse a little love this time of year.
- Mud Pie Studio posts about 101 Valentine’s Day Ideas, this is a fantastic collection of various ideas from all over the net.
- Kristen Duke Photography has 10 lunch box jokes for Valentine’s Day, even though my kids aren’t in school right now I think I will print these for my husband to leave in their mail boxes since the love notes are really from me. So cute.
- Sprik Space posts 15 free Valentine’s Day printables, these are great for decorating your house, classroom or even office.
- And last but not least my collection of Valentine’s Day ideas on Pinterest, I plan to continue adding to this so please be sure to bookmark it.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to share my absolute favorite books about the amazing love between parent and child. These are the books I love to read to my children.
This first book was a book I fell in love with when I was in 2nd grade, my teacher even cried when she read it, back then I had no idea why but when I became a parent I understood why. I used to read this book to both of my kids when they were in my belly. I wanted them to come into this world knowing they were loved and would be forever.
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
This book goes through a child’s life span and explains how a mother’s love know no limits, no matter how hard the day was, no matter how bad the temper tantrums were and no matter how much the house got messy or things got broken, at the end of the day, parents love their children unconditionally.
“Love you forever, like you for always” is my favorite quote of the book.
You Are My I Love You, by Maryann Cusimano Love
This book is pure poetry to me, the love between a parent and child is unique. This story goes through the ways parents love their children and children love their parents.
“I am your way home; you are my new path.” is my favorite quote from this book, as it describes new parenthood so well, a new path for the parent but homebase for the whole family.
I Love You Through and Through, by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak
This book is not only about loving your child and everything about them but its a teaching book. While ready this book you can teach your child about emotions, body parts, and motions.
My favorite line is the last two pages of the book, “I love you through and through…yesterday, today and, tomorrow, too”. I tend to get a little teary when I read that line to my children.
I Love You More, by Laura Duksta
This is a fun book because it shows both sides of the love story of mother and child, the book itself has two stories in it, the author writes that its a “flip-side book…like love it never ends” I think that is my favorite, because like my favorite children’s book, Love You Forever, the love between parents and children never ends.
Inside the book the mother tries to explain her love for her child and on the flip side the child attempts to do the same thing in words that a child would use to explain things.
Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney
In this book the little bunny is trying to tell his dad how much he loves him but in return the daddy bunny expands on that to show the love he has for his child is limitless. A very cute story.
So there you go, my favorite books about loving your children. I love to read these books to my children and I hope that you will enjoy them as well.
Have you joined Pinterest yet? If not you really should, its such a great way to catalog all the things you find on the internet and find even more fun stuff, especially for your kiddos. I have found so many things to keep my 3 year old occupied and have also been inspired by new recipes and projects for myself. I want to share a few Valentine’s Day ideas that mainly came from Pinterest.
This week, we worked on a project with our 3 year old. A Valentine’s Day Wreath, it was pretty simple and only took us a few minutes. We purchased some burlap and a foam wreath from our local arts and crafts store, as well as the heart. We already had the ribbon but you could also pick this up at the store while you are purchasing your other supplies.
Our 3 year old painted the heart with her washable kids paints and helped to wrap the burlap and ribbon. The only part she really couldn’t do was use the hot glue gun to secure everything into place. It was really that simple and she is very proud of it.
Another little project I am going to be doing from now until the 14th is using these little mail boxes I picked up at the arts and crafts store, one for each of the kids. I wrote on the side of each one in a paint pen, “Ainsleigh’s Love Notes” on a light purple box and “Nolan’s Love Notes” on a red box. Each morning before I head off to work I am planning to leave them a little love note for the day. To help them with their pre-reading skills I will use pictures and words to leave them with a little note each day .
This craft is all over the web, I even saw it on the Today show, here is my pin on Pinterest, these would make really fun gifts with a custom coloring book or coloring page.
The last craft I want to share are thumbprint bookmarks from Sweet and Lovely Crafts. These are so cute and would be so much better than giving out candy or those little cards from the store that wind up getting tossed. These can be altered depending on the age of your child and can give them an opportunity to be involved with their Valentine’s gift to friends or classmates.
I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day with your family.
Things have been pretty busy in the world of Hullabaloo Stories over the past year, we have moved across the country and then moved again, been working on some new designs and new full time jobs so needless to say this poor blog has really been neglected. One of my new years resolutions was to blog more, and not just about our designs but about kid friendly ideas. I recently started “pinning” its a minor obsession actually. Pinterest is a super fun virtual pin board site, if you haven’t joined you definitely should.
Check out our site for new books we have made over the past few months and hopefully some great new ideas for kid friendly ideas. We have several new items in our Etsy Store.
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