stART: I'd Choose You

This book by John Trent was written way back in 1994. We own this book because it was actually a gift from me to my husband (then boyfriend) in college. I gave it to him either right before summer break or right before that Christmas break. (We had been friends for 2 years before we started dating, and we were both elementary education majors - so it wasn't really as weird of a gift as it may sound.)

It is about Norbert the Elephant who is having a bad day at school. He is feeling left out by his friends (except for Heidi the Hippo who apparently has a crush on him, but he doesn't notice) when he doesn't get picked by a team and nobody wants to sit by him. He goes home, and his mom comforts him. She asks him questions like, "If I could use my arms to hug only one child, guess which one would I choose?"

Norbert's response is, "You'd choose Panda...he's soooo soft, everyone likes to him."

She asks more questions like, "If I could give a You're Someone Special medal to only one child, guess which one I'd choose?" etc. With each question, Norbert guesses someone else in his school he deems worthy of that recognition. After it builds up for awhile, with his mother naming many wonderful qualities and gifts from God, she finally announces,

"I'd choose YOU!"

His father agrees, then they say, "Guess who else would choose you?"

Tornado had a friend over to play today. We also made elephants. I printed these patterns off from First-School. The kids colored them, cut them out, and glued them together. We also added googly eyes for fun.

This is a really good activity for a child like Sissy, who is learning her shapes. There are only clear shapes involved. The site also suggests talking about counting, sorting, and sizing when doing this activity.

Tornado and his friend...He only wanted to add one tusk. He was very adamant about this. When he was telling Daddy about that tonight, Daddy told him that was fine because sometimes elephants lose one of their tusks accidentally or in battle. And that's okay because everyone and everything is different, and just because he only has one tusk doesn't mean he's less than any another elephant. :)

Sissy, with her elephant

Dash declined this activity. He was too busy, showing off for our house guest. :) He dressed up the dogs to show her, and he kept pulling things out for her to see. "Look, we've got this," and "Look what the dogs can do," etc.

A few of the giveaways I'm mentioning:

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice is having a giveaway for the language program, Little Pim; this looks really cute and fun.

The Ramblings and Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom is having a giveaway for a $60 CSN gift certificate.

Adventures of the Domesticated Mama is having a giveaway for a $25 gift certificate to Photacular.