I Love Chocolate

By Davide Cali


I Love Chocolate is a very cute and simple story. The story is told through the eyes of a child as he tells all the ways he likes to eat chocolate and also how chocolate can make you feel so much better.

I know that most of us can relate to this book (I know I sure can!) It was a fun book that we enjoyed as a family.




Activity: Truffles

When Cool Daddy offered to do Story Time Blast this week I was over the moon! He wanted to make Truffles with them so we got busy finding the perfect book for this activity. He chose I Love Chocolate which I think is totally appropriate because I LOVED the Truffles that they made. Sweetie Pie really enjoyed making these with her Daddy and we all got to enjoy the end result!


I am not going to write the recipe on here but here is the link if you are interested in making these yourself -

Perfect Chocolate Truffles Link

Smooth and silky

A glorious mess!

Rolling the chocolate into balls

The final product

Licking the bowl was irresistible!

Cook-A-Doodle-Doo

by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens

Cook-A-Doodle-Doo had me smiling from beginning to end. It was a delightful story about Big Brown Rooster (who happens to be a descendant of the one and only Little Red Hen) and he is sick of eating chicken feed every single day. He sets out to make a delicious Strawberry Shortcake with the help of some of his friends Turtle, Iguana and Pig.

This was an entertaining story about how each character has a part to play and each has something different to contribute but when you work together you can achieve great things.

I liked how the sidebars of some of the pages contain additional information about baking terms and procedures and the back page of the book contains a recipe for Strawberry Shortcake.



Activity: Strawberry Shortcake

We had to make the recipe for Strawberry Shortcake that was at the back of the book.


I am not going to post the recipe because I want to encourage you to get the book :)


Ingredients needed


A chef in the making



The end result


Yum!

The Grouchy Ladybug

by Eric Carle

The Grouchy Ladybug was a fun book to read. It is about a boy ladybug that starts the day off by not being willing to share and wanting to pick a fight with a friend. He then decides that this other ladybug is not big enough to fight and his grumpy mood takes him off in search of bigger competitors until he eventually goes back to his friend who is still willing to share the food with him. At first it might have been over food but eventually his reason for wanting to fight other animals was 'just because'. It is about one of those days where you want to fight the whole world and not necessarily knowing why.

I love Eric Carle books. They are always so visually pleasing to the eye, his books are also entertaining and have a message which can be a great discussion. It teaches a message that children can relate to.

Since Sweetie Pie is currently learning how to tell the time, I felt that this book was completely appropriate. We were able to watch the clock on each page as we followed the events of the Ladybug's day. This book would also a great resource to use along with a unit on feelings.



Activity: Ladybug Cookies

For this activity we decided to make up some "Yummy Ladybugs" instead of "Grouchy Ladybugs".


Supplies:

Sugar cookie dough (divided)
Red food coloring
Baking cocoa powder
Chocolate chips


I made up a batch of sugar cookies from the night before and split it into 2 sections. I mixed in 1/4 of the batch with some baking cocoa power and 3/4 of the mixture with some red food coloring. Sweetie Pie was happy rolling the balls of dough into the sizes that she wanted her ladybugs to be.


Putting on the black spots


Cut into half the ladybug so after it has baked you can see the outline of the wings.


The delicious end result


Sonny Boy's contribution



Thanks for the inspiration - Almost Unschooling