Wednesday, May 26, 2010

stART: Crictor (the snake)

stART is hosted by Michelle at A Mommy's Adventures...Visit her site for more literature-based activities.

My Mom and Dad bought this book for the kids while they were on vacation last week. Crictor is a Reading Rainbow book, written by Tomi Ungerer. The story takes place in France. Madame Bodot is given a boa constrictor, and she keeps it as a pet. She takes him everywhere she goes and even knits a sweater for him. At the end, he saves her from a burglar, and the town makes a statue in his honor.

When I told Sissy that we were going to read a snake book and do snake activities, she looked at me with "No, we are NOT" eyes and gave me a simple, "No." It wasn't so much a disrespectful "no" - more like a "You've got to be kidding me. Do you know me at all?" However, she did like the book and was quickly won over by making BEJEWELED snake BRACELETS.
I printed this pattern from Danielle's Place onto green cardstock. She decorated them with markers and glued on jewels. We taped the ends together.

Beyond the art project, we also...
made snakes with Play-doh. I introduced them to the ruler, and we measured our snakes because Crictor "grew longer and longer and stronger and stronger," and Madame Bodot measured him.

I like the simple illustrations.
They even put their snakes in their own beds.
Crictor goes to school and learns how to shape the alphabet on the previous pages, then learns how to count, too.
The kids tried making a few letter shapes of their own.
I printed off this snake shapes worksheet from Danielle's Place. The plan was to have Dash make the shapes from the pipe cleaners and have Sissy match them up. However, there was a little meltdown in the Dash department, and he was no longer involved. I made the pipe cleaner shapes (it's harder than it looks!), and Sissy matched them up while we said the names over and over.



Dash had gotten mad about something earlier, and he ended up ripping up his snake bracelets in anger. Then he was upset he didn't have a snake bracelet anymore, and he was crying because he wanted one. I told him it was too late. Hysterically, he was trying to pour out more glue to decorate a snake (which is in shreds). I put the glue up in a high cabinet so he couldn't reach it. This is what I caught him doing, trying to find a way to get up there.

I've got my work cut out for me.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like how the bracelets turned out and all the other go along activities. Consequences are hard to live with sometimes, but he sure does have determination!

Annette W. said...

HAHA! This was a favorite of mine when I was little and I still have it. I think I need to copy you!

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Great activities! I totally forgot about that book, but your pictures of it are totally bringing back the memory. I think I liked it. :)

April said...

Oooh bejeweled snake bracelets, perfect for little girls :). The book looks interesting, especially the part about showing them how to construct the letters/numbers.

Unknown said...

I love all the crafts. The bracelet is beautiful.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I've never heard of this book, but I didn't grow up here. Too funny about how this activity ended for Dash - we have those moments here too from time to time.

Charlene Juliani said...

Rotflol....Love that last pic!

Cute bracelets and snakes. I love Danielle's Place (there are some really great ideas on there).

Sounds like a great book! Dropping by via stART!

shannonmarie said...

That looks like so much fun. Jacob is excited that we have a real snake in our backyard at the moment. I'm not quite as enthusiastic about it.

Brimful Curiosities said...

Oohh, a snake bracelet! Perfect way to get little girls excited about snakes.

MaDonna Maurer said...

Loved the activities! Also, love that you take pics of everything...including the son that is not happy, that cracked me up. I too have a daughter (or 2) just like that. =)
I never told you this, but thanks for introducing me to stART; I plan to use that in my curr. next fall.

The Davidson Den said...

All I've got to say is...

Noah.