Activity: Shaped Notebooks

Make special shaped notebooks to inspire writing and drawing.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you would get the cool new notepad with the brightly illustrated cover? Mine had rainbows and unicorns on it, but yours may have been different. I was so inspired to write and draw in it! Taking that source of writing inspiration, I have been making special notebooks for Isadora to "write" and draw in. Here is one I did in the shape of a butterfly that we created after re-reading the Fancy Nancy book Bonjour Butterfly. Isadora noticed that one of the main characters has a very fancy notebook in the shape of a butterfly. So with a little bit of typing paper and a neon pink cover, voila! Butterfly notebook. (Notice how I label her drawings underneath. Picture of the left: Fog. Picture to the right: Lincoln is sick.)

Book Review: Fancy Nancy

Fancy Nancy is a series that exposes children to complex vocabulary in an appealing fashion.
We were at Costco last weekend and they had tons of the Fancy Nancy books, so I bought one for Isadora. I got the original Fancy Nancy book, although I will go back for more. :) Not only does she love the book because it has lots of fun illustrations that appeal to her girly side, but I love it because it introduces the idea of using more sophisticated vocabulary in a fun way. Bouquet is fancy for a bunch of flowers, says Fancy Nancy. Fuchsia is fancy for purple. I love it! I've used it to introduce other words to her over the last week - I can't remember all of them - but I do remember talking about how crimson was fancy for red.
But apart from the vocabulary, it has a great storyline that is very appealing to me as a parent. A rare thing with a lot of the books I have to read aloud in the evening (snooorre!!). Click here to see some of the other books in the series.