Go Go Bookworm: Holly Spangler

Showing posts with label Holly Spangler. Show all posts

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Day 10: Big Red Barn

Day 10 of "30 Days of Farm Kid Stories"

Our family barn was once red. Through the years it was painted white. Today it stands without paint, a weathered gray color.

Today’s farm story is the board book Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.

The book displays whimsy with a puppy dog pail upside down near stacks of hay and a golden weather vane mounted on the barn.

The last eight pages show the sun gradually setting and the animals heading toward the barn, An overall charcoal gray tone represents darkness, with the last pages of the book showing the animals sleeping with the moon reflected in the metal tub filled with water.

Remember me talking about how hard the sleep routine feels at our household? This book is our family’s favorite read right before bedtime because it gradually leads us into the right mood.

Speaking of sleep, it’s time for a bedtime story. What are you reading tonight at your home?

Lauren

My Library List:

Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4: Pasta Fistful
Day 5: One Fast Grower
Day 6: Farmer Seuss
Day 7: Just One Cookie?
Day 8: Frowns Turn into Smiles
Day 9: BOO-HA

Friday, November 9, 2012

Day 9: BOO-HA

Day 9 of "30 Days of Farm Kid Stories"

Boo. It was one of G’s first words. Right after “Bah Bah Bah” and “Momma." (Sorry, Dadda)

“Boo” referring to “Moo” referring to “Cow." G was Boo crazy. He loved cows at the early age of 8 months. He still loves them Boos, although now he can pronounce them correctly (most of the time.)

Today’s farm story features a cow who struggles with words.

The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most tells the story of a cow that is sad because he is not like other animals. He is made fun of and hears a pasture full of “MOO-HA’s” from fellow cattle.

The author emphasizes cow’s words in purple conversation bubbles. Whether it is an “OINK” or a “MOINK” it’s in purple which helps the reader navigate the barnyard squawk.

Zigzag squiggle lines represent rows of crops, heads of wheat and leaves on trees. I chuckle when cow meets a pig who says “Moo”, especially when cow and pig help each other with vocabulary.

This book emphasizes it’s ok to be different. It’s an advantage many times.

And it’s a keeper. This book labels more than a dozen animals and the associated noises they make. G and I will practice our “Bow-Wow-Ha’s” and “Hee-Haw-Ha’s” tonight.

What is your little one’s favorite animal noise?

Our blogging host Holly Spangler writes “30 Days on a Prairie Farm” this month on her blog: My Generation.

It’s a group party, of sorts! Please join fellow bloggers as they tell their agricultural stories:

Beyer Beware: 30 Days, 30 Things You Never Knew About Food
Black Ink: Beef’s a Trip – 30 Days from Gate to Plate
Confessions of a Farm Wife: Life on Our Farm
Go Beyond the Barn: 30 Days of Farm Life Blessings
Kelly McCormick Photography: 30 Days of Thankfulness
Le Jardin da ma Vie: 30 Reasons Why I Love Being a Farmer’s Wife
Pinke Post: 30 Days of North Dakota November
Rural Route 2: 30 Days of the Not-So-Glamorous Life of This Farm Wife

Our party has expanded! Please be sure to also check out the below writers:

Touching Families: 30 Days of a Town Girl Touched by the Farming Life
This Land, This Life, This Farmer's Wife: 30 Days of Thankfulness on a Family Farm
Farmgirldays: 30 Days of Farm Kids Trapped in the City
My Cows and Pigs: 30 Days of "What's that?"
Dennis Olmstead: 30 Days in a Row
White House on the Prairie: 30 Days, 30 Posts
A Colorful Adventure: 30 Days of JP

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Day 8: Frowns turn into smiles

Day 8 of "30 Days of Farm Kid Stories"

I’ve seen this look on a face before. Perhaps you have, too?

I love to see my son smile. To see his I’m-up-to-no-good grin, melts my heart. But I really like the frowns because eventually G comes back around and gives me a hug.

I love this next book too: Who Grew My Soup by Tom Darbyshire.

Phineus doesn’t want to eat his mother’s soup. Similar to my G, he prefers deep-fried sweets. Mr. Matoo drops down from the sky in a hot air tomato and takes Phin on farm visits to see where the soup veggies come from.

“Farm to farm,
field to field, ,
whiz! whiz! whiz!
through the sky.
From onions so fine they could make a man cry,
to potatoes,
to peas,
in the blink of an eye.
They stalked the best celery
they got to know beans,
and met growers who know how to grow greener greens.”

Illustrator C.F. Payne draws our main character Phin with caricature facial expressions. Exaggerated grimaces on the first half of the book change to happy “this-food-tastes-good” smiles in the second half.

The rhythm and rhymes inside this book make me look forward to each page. As the book says, “It’s souper-duper.”

What’s for dinner at your home tonight?

Lauren

My Library List:
Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4: Pasta Fistful
Day 5: One Fast Grower
Day 6: Farmer Seuss
Day 7: Just One Cookie?

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Day 7: Just One Cookie?

Day 7 of "30 Days of Farm Kid Stories"

Thunk. The sound of cold, packaged butter quarters as they land on our kitchen countertop. It’s an anticipated sound. Soon to be followed by the hum of a Kitchen aid mixer.

I’ve been baking a lot this fall. We bring munchies into my workplace often, and then I have a husband with a sweet tooth. Make that….two men in the household who like cookies. Better include me too.

In our next farm kid story, Grandma prepares a batch of made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookies. In All in Just One Cookie Susan E. Goodman describes each baking step and includes detailed info about where the ingredients come from.

On the Flour pages she writes:

“Grandma adds and blends, making sure each speck of white disappear into the mix. When the last of the flour hits the whirring beaters, a cloud puffs out of the bowl.”

The author goes on to describe a Kansas wheat farmer and a flour mill.

On the same page a studious fact-reading cat says, “One bushel of wheat makes enough flour for 75 batches of chocolate chip cookies.” To which the wise-talking hungry dog says: “Better tell Grandma to keep the oven on!”

Illustrator Timothy Bush uses warm browns, grays and creams in his scrapbook-like layouts. Hand lettered ingredient titles and carved oak shapes decorate the pages.

By the end of this book I can almost smell the warm brown sugar smell coming from the kitchen.

Ding. Ding.

My oven timer says it’s ready to check on my dessert. I’ll share my favorite family recipe with you tonight:

Chocolate Chip Blonde Brownies

Measure 2 cups flour. Add 1 tsp. baking powder, ¼ tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. salt. Set aside. Melt 2/3 cup real butter in saucepan; remove from heat. Add 2 cups brown sugar and mix well. Cool slightly. Add 2 slightly beaten eggs and 2 tsp. vanilla; blend. Then add flour mixture, a small amount at a time, mixing well after each addition. Spread in greased 9 by 13 inch pan. Sprinkle 1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips over top. Bake at 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool in pan.

What are you baking in your home tonight?

Lauren

My Library List:
Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4: Pasta Fistful
Day 5: One Fast Grower
Day 6: Farmer Seuss

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Day 6: Farmer Seuss

Day 6 of "30 Days of Farm Kid Stories"

By the time bedtime story rolls around tonight it’s very likely G will be toddling around with two “I voted” stickers attached to his pajamas. Wayne and I will pretend that G’s favorite red furry candidate received two write-in nominations (votes for Elmo.)

It’s November 6: Election Day. I believe nothing makes one feel as strong and bold as the privilege to enter the polls and vote for your candidates of choice. Go vote!

Now on to today’s farm kid story….

I’ll say it again. I love Seuss. Only in a Seuss book can you hop into a Shrink-Upper to see photosynthesis up close. And only there can you makes definitions such as Oxygen and Embryo rhyme with others words.

Bonnie Worth takes us on a seed adventure in her book Oh Say Can You Seed: All About Flowering Plants. It’s a book from The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library.

Pages 28 and 29 describe how a plant makes its own energy.

“The leaf takes in carbon dioxide
through a stoma, or pore.
It works like a mouth,
and that’s what it’s for.

Then the air gets mixed in
with the water and sun.
And that’s how the
food-making factory is run!”

Illustrator Aristides Ruiz exaggerates details and helps show us “the small things” going on around and inside a seed. On Page 16 a smiling earthworm travels beneath the soil leaving a trailing passageway. Further on in the book the characters wear lighted-helmets and examine “twisty and hairy” orange roots which anchor plants in the ground.

At the end of the book a glossary, index and a suggested reading list give the reader potential for further exploration of how plants grow.

Based on G’s current fascination with Dr. Seuss (“Dodtor” as he calls him) this book is a keeper come biology time.

What’s your favorite Cat in the Hat book?

Lauren

My Library List:
Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4: Pasta Fistful
Day 5: One Fast Grower

Monday, November 5, 2012

Day 5: One fast grower

Day 5 of "30 Days of Farm Kid Stories"

When the weather turns cold this fall, G and I will plant flower bulbs. Today I gather paint-mixing sticks and record the flower name in permanent ink in anticipation of pushing the marker in the ground. Pinterest has some really cute make-it-yourself garden markers like this, and this, and this. Maybe when I have some free time (hey we all did just gain an hour on Sunday!) I will create something pretty. Until then, plain sticks it will be.

I look forward to seeing green sprouts emerge in the spring. Can't wait!

In our next farm kid story, One Bean, two kids plant a bean and see quick results. The children soak, plant, water and re-pot a bean. Author Anne Rockwell uses simple, child-focused narrations to describe what happens next. The children watch the bean plant grow, flower and produce pods with more beans inside

Illustrator Megan Hasley highlights characters and objects by outlining them in thin orange and blue lines. Readers watch the bean plant grow on pages with denim blue backgrounds.

Inside the book’s back cover, the author lists suggested activities including: placing dried beans in a paper towel tube and closing the ends with tape to make a musical instrument. I can picture G shaking a maraca to a Carlos Santana song, or perhaps Elmo's potty time song (yup this topic is on our minds lately...)

I remember planting bean seeds in grade school. A perfect school project.

What will you plant in your garden this spring?

Lauren

My Library List:
Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4: Pasta Fistful

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Day 4: Pasta Fistful

Day 4 of "30 Days of Farm Kid Stories"

I fell in book-love with the first two pages of today’s farm kid story.

“Pasta! Scoop it up…

….or slurp it down.”

Eating spaghetti is a funny thing to watch. G imitates me by turning his miniature fork around clockwise in his plate full of noodles. He gives up in 5 seconds and grabs a fistful. Little does G notice momma cuts up his noodles with a knife beforehand.

In From Wheat to Pasta, a photo essay by Robert Egan, we follow how pasta is made starting at a wheat field.

I enjoy pages 22 and 23 where detailed photos of long, folded dough hint at the final pasta product you and I purchase at the grocery store.

At the end of the book the author labels pasta types and gives phonetic spellings.

“rah dee a TOR eh” means radiator in Italian… and wouldn’t you know that little pasta shape looks like an old-fashioned heating element.

Have you made home-made pasta? I haven’t. I do have memories of visiting my friend’s grandma when made-from-scratch ham and noodles sat on her dinner table. They didn’t last long!

What’s your favorite pasta shape?

Lauren

My Library List:
Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2: Perfect Pizza
Day 3: Our Heartland
Day 4:

Our blogging host Holly Spangler writes “30 Days on a Prairie Farm” this month on her blog: My Generation.

It’s a group party, of sorts! Please join fellow bloggers as they tell their agricultural stories:

Beyer Beware: 30 Days, 30 Things You Never Knew About Food
Black Ink: Beef’s a Trip – 30 Days from Gate to Plate
Confessions of a Farm Wife: Life on Our Farm
Go Beyond the Barn: 30 Days of Farm Life Blessings
Kelly McCormick Photography: 30 Days of Thankfulness
Le Jardin da ma Vie: 30 Reasons Why I Love Being a Farmer’s Wife
Pinke Post: 30 Days of North Dakota November
Rural Route 2: 30 Days of the Not-So-Glamorous Life of This Farm Wife

Friday, November 2, 2012

Day 2: Perfect Pizza

Living here in the country we drive 40 miles roundtrip to visit the nearest pizzeria. And we have a thing for pizza.

“Pea-za. PEA-ZA,” my hungry G says.

Needless to say I am perfecting my pizza-making skills. Each pizza pie doesn’t turn out the same. Maybe since I can’t remember how many cups of flour I plop into the mixer for the dough. Or I might sprinkle a dump-truck full of red pepper into the tomato sauce. Opps again.

I do get one thing right, every time. At least 3 cups of mozzarella cheese cover the sausage, green pepper and pepperoni.

Like the next farm story says: “pizza isn’t pizza without cheese.”

In Cris Peterson’s book Extra Cheese, Please: Mozzarella’s Journey from Cow to Pizza step by step photographs follow cheese making from the udder to the factory. And those photographs show crisp and well-lit scenes, even inside a cheese factory. Photographer Alvis Upitis documents how the milkman pulls samples of milk before he hauls and how the cheesemaker separates the curds from the whey.

Author Peterson has a knack for bringing the numbers to life.

“Annabelle is quite a cow. In one year she produces 40,000 glasses of milk, enough to make cheese for 1,800 pizzas. If your family ate one pizza a day, it would take you nearly five years to eat that many pizzas.”

One pizza a day, for 5 years? I know a family up for the challenge. But don’t expect me to turn the oven on every night. A road trip to the local DiMaggios Pizza will be a must.

What do you like on your pizza?

Lauren

My Library List:

Preview Day: 30 Days of Farm Kid Stories
Day 1: One Moment
Day 2:
Day 3:
Day 4:
And so on

Our blogging host Holly Spangler writes “30 Days on a Prairie Farm” this month on her blog: My Generation.

It’s a group party, of sorts! Please join fellow bloggers as they tell their agricultural stories:

Beyer Beware: 30 Days, 30 Things You Never Knew About Food
Black Ink: Beef's a Trip - 30 Days from Gate to Plate
Confessions of a Farm Wife: Life on our Farm
Go Beyond the Barn: 30 Days of Farm Life Blessings
Kelly McCormick Photography: 30 Days of Thankfulness
Le Jardin da ma Vie: 30 Reasons Why I Love Being a Farmer's Wife
Pinke Post: 30 Days of a North Dakota November
Rural Route 2: 30 Days of the Not-So-Glamorous Life of This Farm Wife