Buzzzzz! Want to know a sure sign of late summer? Houseflies. Every time we open our doors an army of flies enters our home. Our flyswatter is in constant use, waging a seemingly unending battle against the pesky invaders. Honestly, if I was going to pick a creature to write a children's book about, the common housefly would be on the bottom of my list. But Tedd Arnold has managed to create a humorous and very popular early reader series about a special fly, a pet fly -- Fly Guy!
"A boy had a pet fly. The fly was named Fly Guy. Fly Guy could say the boy's name -- BUZZ!"
Despite the shiny, flashy covers, when I first saw the Fly Guy books I just could not understand the appeal. That bug-eyed, hairy Fly Guy character is anything but cute and cuddly. In fact, he borders on disgusting. But the disgusting, yucky aspect is part of his appeal. See, kids love him, particularly boys (even my girly-girl has been charmed by the flying pet). But, it took a recommendation from one of my friends for me to even crack one of the Fly Guy covers open. I'm so glad I gave Fly Guy a chance. The duo of the little boy named Buzz and his pet fly make a rather amusing team and both my kids are now devoted fans.
The first book in the series, Hi, Fly Guy! came out in 2005 and received the prestigious ALA Theodore Geisel Honor Award the next year. Tedd Arnold received the award again in 2010 for another book in the series, I Spy Fly Guy! The Fly Guy series is still going strong. This month, Scholastic released the tenth book in the series, Fly Guy vs. the Flyswatter! We're looking forward to reading that one soon.
Fly Guy Series List:
Hi! Fly Guy (Fly Guy, Book # 1)
Super Fly Guy (Fly Guy, Book # 2)
Shoo, Fly Guy! (Fly Guy, Book # 3)
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy (Fly Guy, Book # 4)
Fly High, Fly Guy! (Fly Guy, Book # 5)
Hooray for Fly Guy! (Fly Guy, Book # 6)
I Spy Fly Guy! (Fly Guy, Book # 7)
Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl (Fly Guy, Book # 8)
Buzz Boy and Fly Guy (Fly Guy, Book # 9)
Fly Guy vs. the Flyswatter! (Fly Guy, Book # 10)
I'd love to review all the books in the series but I just don't have the time. Because we're in back-to-school mode, we picked Super Fly Guy (the second book in the series) to review this week.
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By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 8/25/2011
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JacketFlap tags: Easy Readers, Early Reading Skills, Book Review, Award Winner, Beginning Readers, Series, Scholastic, Early Readers, Outdoor Activities, Insects, Add a tag
By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 7/7/2011
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JacketFlap tags: DVD Review, Educational Resources, Early Reading Skills, Team Mom, Nursery Rhymes, Product Review, Add a tag
I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit that I haven't spent a lot of time teaching my preschooler son all the familiar nursery rhymes. For some reason I read the rhymes more often to my daughter when she was younger. Of course, given my love of Mother Goose, we've read Mother Goose books but not repeatedly. Sometimes I sing the rhymes for my children, but we haven't really listened to many of the nursery rhyme melodies on CD or on DVD either. In my childhood I learned and memorized many nursery rhyme melodies and there's no doubt in my mind that this early exposure to nursery rhymes helped accelerate my reading and rhyming skills. 
Team Mom recently introduced my family to a nursery rhyme inspired, educational live-action children's TV series called Mother Goose Club. The series is aimed at the toddler / preschooler age group and currently airs on various PBS stations (though I don't think we've seen it on our local station). Produced by Sockeye Media, the program has received 14 Midsouth Emmy® award nominations. Just recently the company released a DVD called Nursery Rhyme Singing Time with Mother Goose Club. Here's a clip of the song "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" from the DVD:
The DVD includes 15 familiar nursery rhyme songs and five Mother Goose Club episodes.
Songs:Jack Be Nimble • Itsy Bitsy Spider • Hickory Dickory Dock • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe • Rig a Jig Jig • Where is Thumbkin • Little Bo Peep • Clap Your Hands • Baa Baa Baa Sheep • Mary Mary Quite Contrary • Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear • Humpty Dumpty • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star • Pat-a-Cake • Little Boy Blue
Episodes:
Baa Baa's Rhyme Time Bonanza • Hickory Dickory Dock Rocks • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Eep Counts to Ten • Itsy Bitsy Spider Time • Teddy Bear Boogie Woogie
The Mother Goose Club characters are certainly zany! The six characters -- Teddy Bear, Jack B. Nimble, Little Bo Peep, Baa Baa Sheep, Mary Quite Contrary, and Eep Mouse -- are actual adults and kids dressed up in brightly colored costumes. The characters sing and dance, all the while teaching young viewers about rhyming words. The characters remind me a little of those from the Doodlebops series, a PBS show we watched for a short period when my daughter was younger. Perhaps that explains her fascination with the Mother Goose Club characters' showy wigs and costumes.
Parents and educators can either pick and choose songs and episodes individually from the menu or play everything at once. If you select "play all," the DVD plays the nursery rhyme songs first and then the episodes. My preschooler son prefers the short and to the point songs and likes to sing along, especially with his favorites, "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider." The episodes concentrate primarily on teaching rhyming skills using various nursery rhymes. I did notice that a few of the songs aren't what I expected. "Where is Thumbkin" is abbreviated and only covers thumbkin and pointer, neglecting the other fingers. The "Baa Baa Black Sheep" song rhyme is actually titled
By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 3/21/2011
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JacketFlap tags: Early Reading Skills, Children's Books, Meme, Literacy, Book Review, Beginning Readers, Carnival, Scholastic, Early Readers, Easy Readers, Add a tag
This month I'm hosting the I Can Read Carnival meme. For more about this monthly meme, visit Scrub-a-Dub-Tub. If you've reviewed easy readers or illustrated chapter books in the past year or have written a post about encouraging beginning readers, please leave a link in the comment section and I'll add it to the end of this post. I'll keep comments open until Friday.
My post focuses on sight words and introduces the first book my daughter read by herself. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll consider joining the March I Can Read Carnival!
"Reads kindergarten sight words." That's one of the reading readiness standards listed on my daughter's performance report for kindergarten. On the first day of kindergarten, she was given a list of 37 words that she needed to learn by the end of the year. I'm sure the list of sight words varies by school, but in case you are a first timer like me, here is the list the students in our area must learn:
a • and • are • come • do • down • for • give • go • good • have • he • here • I • like • little • look • me • my • one • out • see • she • that • the • there • they • this • to • two • up • want • we • what • where • who • you
Even though my daughter's class spends most of their time concentrating on phonics, the sight words are also important because they provide a foundation of sorts for a beginning reader. Sight words are high frequency words and words that a reader cannot sound out. The reader is expected to know them immediately on sight.
My daughter can name all 37 words already and is well on her way to becoming a strong reader. At the beginning of the school year she really didn't have much interest in trying to learn to read because every time she opened up a book and saw all the words, she seemed overwhelmed and was afraid of failure. I didn't push it much and just kept reading aloud to her, pointing out words along the way and sometimes reading more slowly than normal. Knowing some sight words helped boost her confidence. Then right around Christmas things finally clicked with the book, My Dragon and I.
The paperback book, My Dragon and I, by Maria Fleming, tells the story two unlikely friends. A girl and her green dragon do everything together. They swing, slide, hop and hide. They even read books together about knights and dragons. The text focuses mainly on four sight words: my, and, I, like. The four sight words appear in bold throughout the book. The easy to read sentences use lots of repetition and rhyme. Most importantly, at least in my daughter's opinion, the illustrations by Mike Gordon are eye-pleasing and cute, making the book fun to read. The back of the book includes a sight word review and other activities to help the child recognize the sight words.
My Dragon and I (ISBN 9780545016483) is part of the "
By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 1/18/2011
Blog: Brimful Curiosities (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Beginning Readers, Printables, Early Reading Skills, writer's world, Add a tag
When I was searching for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day activities this weekend I stumbled onto the Scholastic's Mini-Books website. It's a nice resource for educators and parents. The website offers a ton of printables to help kids practice reading and writing skills. Most of the printables are available through subscription, however they do offer a few free printables.
Here's a nice one I found for young kids about Martin Luther King, Jr. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream - Mini Book
Nearly all the Folk and Fairy Tale Readers are available for free right now. As a bonus each one also has a free corresponding Lesson Plan & Worksheet.
Titles include:
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Gingerbread Man
The Little Red Hen
Stone Soup
The Princess and the Pea
The Three Little Pigs
The City Mouse and the Country Mouse
The Ugly Duckling
The Nightingale
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Elves and the Shoemaker
The Spider and the Beehive
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Cinderella
For a beginning math multiplication activity try this printable:
Making the Times Table Mini-Book
Plan ahead with this Earth Day Printable:
Every Day Is Earth Day
Need winter activities? This little winter themed printable is great for practicing handwriting as well as reading skills -
My Book of Winter Words: A Mini Book
Here's a simple and cute winter book about mittens:
The Mitten Book
Do you print out mini books for your kids? What online resources do you use?
On a related note ---
Giggles and Crayons is hosting a new link up called Writers World. Swing by to check out all the great ideas for little writers! I'm linking up this post.
By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 8/30/2010
Blog: Brimful Curiosities (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Book Review, Beginning Readers, Series, Early Readers, Simon and Schuster, Atheneum, Easy Readers, Early Reading Skills, Add a tag
My daughter is just in the very beginning stages of reading. She knows all her letter sounds and can identify a few sight words. This past month we started checking out early reader books from the library. Her favorite series so far is the Adventures of Otto Series by David Milgrim. These simple "Ready-to-Read" books are listed as Pre-Level 1 and are for kids that are just starting to learn to read.
The series consists of five books published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (we wish there were more):
See Otto (2002)
Ride Otto Ride! (2002)
See Pip Point (2003)
Swing Otto Swing (2004)
See Santa Nap (2004)
My daughter loves these books because the illustrations are humorous and enormously engaging, unlike some other books meant for beginning readers. The main character, a cute little robot named Otto, goes on various silly adventures sure to generate some laughs. With simple words and sentences, lots of repetition and text written in a large font, this series is perfect for emergent readers. Best of all, the books appeal to both boys and girls. Some of the other "beginning readers" frustrated my daughter because they were too difficult for her reading level, but the books in this series are short and feature only a few words per page. Her favorite is Swing Otto Swing where Otto tries to swing on vines with his monkey friends, Flip and Flop. The books have boosted her confidence level, and I'm sure within a few months she'll be advancing to some of the more difficult early readers. If you have a beginning reader, I highly recommend this series. Sadly, it seem they are currently out-of-print, so you'll need to buy used or look for them at your local library.
Related links:
http://www.davidmilgrim.com/
Inspired by Ott
By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 5/19/2010
Blog: Brimful Curiosities (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Early Reading Skills, Children's Books, Literacy, Wordless Wednesday, Add a tag
One afternoon while I washed the dishes for lunch, my toddler son decided to read books by himself. He ran over to the bookshelf, selected a book and then ran outside to sit on the glider bench to read. When he finished with the first, he tossed it on the floor and ran inside for another. So cute! 
My preschool daughter draws pictures every day. Drawing and creating is one of her favorite things to do. This is one she is very proud of and suitably titled, "A Girl Reading a Book."
We read together often and it shows!
Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom or Seven Clown Circus.
By: Brimful Curiosities,
on 9/13/2009
Blog: Brimful Curiosities (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Website, MomCentral, Early Reading Skills, Food, Literacy, Add a tag
I'm a big fan of Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats. We keep our pantry stocked with the regular, bited size, fiber packed cereal. (I like to buy in bulk!) My son absolutely loves to eat the cereal soaked in a bowl full of milk each morning for breakfast.
School is back in session and Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats wants to assist moms in helping their children succeed in school. They recently teamed up with MSN.com and created Mom's Homeroom, an online resource and community packed full of Scholastic and Encarta articles, printables and several other tools specifically geared toward moms. The website also features four expert moms in unscripted video segments. Topics covered include:
● Writing ● Back to School ● Reading ● Giving Back ● Attentiveness ● Learning ● Memory
I checked out the reading and writing resources and found a number of helpful tips and interesting articles. For instance, the article "Could My Kid Write a Bestseller?" talks about famous kids in publishing like Mary Shelley and Christopher Paolini and discusses how the publishing world works. "The Library Card -- a Parent's Best Friend" is an especially appropriate article for the month of September. (September is Library Card Sign-up Month). One article titled "The Rhyming Game" gives instructions on how to create a neat homemade book of rhymes. I'm always looking for new ideas on how to help my children succeed academically. Though I doubt I'll participate in the community portion myself, Mom's Homeroom is a great way to reach out to all those moms looking for additional information and the articles provided on the site are helpful and diverse. The website is updated twice a month and influenced by users' interests.
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.
I think Anna read one book in these series - I am not exactly sure what she thought of it except that she didn't ask for more. I can see boy appeal though :) A neat idea to use fly swatters as bubble wands!
Yeah, this is the type of book I usually avoid, but you've made it seem a little more appealing. Love the bubble activity, too!
That comment up above? It's mine. :-)
Yep, my son loved these when he first started reading...and my daughter is bringing them home from the library now. Liked your activities to go with them...thanks. I'll probably do the airplane fly with the kiddos. Then they can have a flying contest. =)
JDaniel would love to swat bubbles. What a great idea!
The boooks look great too. We have so many flies here.
Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
The books look wonderfully fun!
And I love your "fly swatter" craft - what a fun way to make bubbles!! brilliant!
And your little plane is super cute!
Thank you for joining in at Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
I haven't read that series yet. What's the age range on them? I love the bubbles with the flyswatter idea.
You're right, this has been a series that unless someone suggested it, I probably wouldn't go looking. Now you have me curious and we'll have to check one out. Great idea about the bubble wand, that looks fun.
I agree with everyone else a bubble wand fly swatter is a great idea.