Join The Voracious Reader For Tea!

Tuesday June 7 2011At 7:00 pm

To Benefit

Most Holy Trinity

Voracious Reader will donate 10% of the sales for

the evening to Most Holy Trinity!

Hosted by

The Voracious Reader

1997 Palmer Avenue,

Larchmont, NY 10538

Phone: (914) 630-4581

Please RSVP by June 3rd 2011

An evening reminiscent of the classic Victorian Tea party, let

us revisit this charming tradition together!

Craft Activities for 8-12 yr olds

By the time children reach 8 years old, most have a strong sense of what they think ‘looks good’. They enjoy making things they can actually use, and have the motor skills and co-ordination to start creating quite complicated projects.

When you’re thinking about arts and crafts for children in this age group, think of projects which provide a practical use once the creative part is over. Give your kids the ideas and materials, and then let them explore and experiment on their own. While art and craft techniques can be taught, the only way your child will truly learn is to try it out for themselves.

 Cool Clipboard

It’s about this age that children start to really take ownership of their room, so they will enjoy making this clipboard to hang on their wall or door. The clipboard is like a mini notice board where you can leave them messages, or clip on important notes and things to remember. They can also use it to clip on certificates, photographs, and reminders of their own.

You will need:

• A Plain Wooden A4 Clipboard (from a stationery store) 
• Masking Tape
• Blackboard Paint (Available from hardware stores)
• An empty film cannister or other small container
• Patterned Paper (Scrapbooking and wrapping paper works well)
• Double Sided Tape
• Clothes Pegs or Bulldog Clips
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun
• Ribbons, Stickers, and Embellishments for decoration
• Small Notepad

1. Use the masking tape to run a line across the clipboard about 2/3 of the way down.
   
    
2. Paint the bottom 1/3 of the clipboard with blackboard paint. (Blackboard paint comes in either brush on or spray on versions, and both types will require at least 2 coats).
   
    
3. Once the blackboard paint is dry, remove the masking tape to reveal a nice straight line. Make a chalk holder by gluing a film canister to the side of the clipboard using hot glue.
   
    
4. Using double sided tape, stick the patterned paper over the remaining part of the clipboard, and decorate down each side using ribbons, stickers and embellishments.
   
    
5. Using hot glue, stick clothes pegs or bulldog clips across the bottom of the clipboard. If you like, you can also glue pegs or clips down each side.
   
    
6. Secure the notepad under the clip and your child has a ‘cool’ clipboard for their room.

‘Do Not Disturb’ Signs

Every child goes through a stage of wanting to keep everybody out of their room, so this sign will definitely come in handy. Simply download our door hanger template (see below), glue it on to heavy card, and then cut it out. Let your child decorate it and add their own words - depending on the message they are trying to get across, and what you think is appropriate. They could make several signs, so they have one for every circumstance (or mood!).

Popular messages are:

• No Boys Allowed
• No Girls Allowed
• Homework in Progress
• Sleep in Progress
• Please let me Sleep-In
• Call Me for Dinner
• Knock Before Entering
• Please Knock
• Tidying My Room – Do Not Disturb
• Tidying My Room – Help Wanted
• Booby Trap Set – Enter at Own Risk

Junk Jewellery

Jewellery Making is undoubtedly popular with girls at this age, but even some boys like to make surfie styled bracelets or charms for their bags. There are great jewellery making kits available to get you started, but you can make some interesting jewellery using everyday items from around the home. These ideas are a great place to start.

• Stitch or thread buttons on to a piece of narrow elastic, and tie the ends together to form a bracelet. Collect up your loose or spare buttons from home, or rummage through second hand shops to find ones that are really interesting.
  
   
• Make your own charms for a charm bracelet by simply drilling a hole, and attaching a jump ring (from a craft store) to everyday items. Old 5c pieces, board game counters, puzzle pieces, keys, shells and bottle tops all make fun looking charms. If you don’t have a charm bracelet to attach them to, you can buy a blank bracelet from any good craft store or bead shop for about $5.
  
   
• Create paper beads for jewellery making by ripping long strips of coloured paper or magazine pages, and rolling them around a skewer. Paint a layer of PVA glue around the outside to hold everything in place, remove the skewer, and it’s ready to thread.
  
   
• Make an earthly treasures necklace by threading shells, dried or plastic flowers, feathers, and small pieces of driftwood onto a piece of leather.

For more information about Jewellery Making and how to get started, check out the Jewellery Making article in our Activities section.

Paper Mache Pencil Case

This project will suit both boys and girls, and with a little bit of imagination, they’ll create something truly cool.

You will need:

• A clean plastic container with a screw on lid.
  The best kind are the ones that health shakes come in, but if you look in your pantry, you are bound to find something that will work.
• Newspaper
• Wallpaper Paste (Available from hardware stores)
• 2-3 sheets of plain white paper
• Paints and Brushes

1. Make up the wallpaper paste using the instructions on the packet, and set it aside to gel. If you don’t have wallpaper paste, you can use a mixture of flour and water, but be aware that your paper mache will eventually go mouldy unless you add a preservative.
   
    
2. Dip the strips of newspaper into the glue, and begin covering the whole container and the lid. Make sure the strips of paper overlap each other.
   
    
3. Once the first layer of paper mache is on, your child can start adding 3D bumps and decorations. Simply roll, bend, or squash up pieces of newspaper to form the desired shapes, and then stick them onto the side of the case using long strips of gluey newspaper, just like you would a piece of tape.
   
    
4. Once all the 3D decorations are ‘taped’ on, continue layering strips of paper all over the pencil case, until it is covered in several layers.
   
    
5. Use your white paper to do a final layer of paper mache, and set the pencil case aside to dry.
   
    
6. After 24 hours, the pencil case can be painted and decorated using whatever you choose.

Giant Game Mat

This activity can be as simple or as elaborate as you choose, and it can keep getting added to as time goes by. All you need is an old tarpaulin, some permanent markers, and lots of imagination.

Lay the tarpaulin out on the floor, and ask your child to draw out their very own NZ city. They can mark in the roads, parks, schools, shopping centres, farms, orchards, amusement parks, lakes, rivers, beaches … you get the picture!

Once everything is mapped out, they can begin building all the bits and pieces using cardboard and collage materials. They’ll need to make things like buildings, fences, bridges, playgrounds, road signs and traffic lights. Finally they get to add their own toys to the mat, like cars, farm animals and play-people, and the game mat is ready to use.

Getting Started

At this age, all your child needs to do arts and crafts is some basic materials and the freedom to use their imagination. Gather a box of card, ribbon, fabric, glue, scissors, wrapping paper, and all sorts of recycled scraps, then let them go to it. You’ll be amazed by what they create, and chances are you’ll wish you thought of it first.

~Happy Crafting!~

Bee a Buddy, not a bully!

 

Alice’s Pawfect Tea-Party ™ teaches

Bee a Buddy, not a bully!

 

Storybook Tea Kit Company  is aware of the epidemic of children being bullied by their peers. Just as manners were taught to Alice, so too, our children must be taught how to be inclusive with their classmates. Exclusion is a behavior which should have zero tolerance in our schools —     Bee a buddy, not a bully!

 

When reading Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, there are numerous bullies throughout the story. Alice comes in contact with several of them at the Mad tea-party. When Alice approached the table the guests all cried out, “No Room, No Room!”  This is the very essence of a bully — to exclude, and Alice’s Pawfect Tea-Party, shuns this behavior.

 

Alice, in this story of Alice’s Pawfect Tea-Party lovingly explains to all tea guests, that there is plenty of room for everyone. She teaches this lesson very cleverly. She states the word mad is exactly the same word as paw. All you do is turn mad upside down, reverse the letter a, and it becomes paw.

 

Alice goes on to explain that the letter P stands for peers or friends; A is for always; W is for welcome. Your peers, friends, classmates are always welcome; which to Alice is truly a “pawfect” tea-party.

 

This is the moral that children learn in Alice’s Pawfect Tea-Party; a moral that Storybook Tea Kit Company embraces for each and every child.

 

There is room for everyone!

 

Storybook Tea Kit Company will donate $1.00 on every purchase of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to the National Bullying Prevention Center™ A project for PACER — A Champion for Children in the United States.

 

The best children's books: 8-12 year-olds

 From the small genius of The Borrowers to the giants of children's books, the Narnia stories, Lucy Mangan and Imogen Russell-Williams pick their must-reads for 8-12 year-olds

Stig of the Dump: Clive King

This was the first original Puffin published in 1963. The story of eight-year-old loner Barney who befriends Stig, a remnant of the Stone Age hidden in the local chalk pit, has not been out of print since. The two boys grow to appreciate each other's eras and skills as they contrive ingenious solutions to Stig's various problems living out of the junk that is thrown into the pit. A modern classic.

Charlotte's Web: EB White

"'Where's Papa going with that ax?' said Fern to her mother" is probably the most famous opening line of any children's book. He is going to dispatch Wilbur, the runt of the litter, until Fern pleads for clemency. With the help of Wilbur's wise and devoted friend, Charlotte, the spider is able to live out the rest of his days in safety. You may feel like warning your child that Charlotte dies "as spiders do" at the end of the summer. You should resist. It's a book that teaches you that characters can be made to live for ever simply by turning back to the first page and starting again.

The Family from One End Street: Eve Garnett

This episodic collection of the adventures (in the late 1930s) of the multitudinous Ruggles family (seven children, two parents) was one of the first books for this age group to take working-class life as its central theme and to depict it with charm and without condescension. They remain as fresh as the day they were penned.

The Story of Tracy Beaker: Jacqueline Wilson

One End Street was Wilson's favourite book as a child and its influence can be seen in all her wildly popular books, which speak just as directly and unpatronisingly to and about the kind of children underrepresented in young fiction. Tracy Beaker is their totem, an irrepressibly imaginative child (though the staff in her care home say she has "behavioural problems") who writes the story of her life while waiting for her mother to come and get her back.

Matilda: Roald Dahl

It's almost impossible to choose between Dahls but Matilda is one of the most borrowed by children so let us pick her – especially as it helps refute the charges of misogyny occasionally aimed at Dahl. Matilda is the superbright daughter of horrible parents who helps free her schoolmates and her lovely teacher Miss Honey from the tyranny of Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress. All of Dahl's exuberance and cartoon brutality is on display here, just the way kids like it.

Tom's Midnight Garden: Philippa Pearce

Exquisitely written, perfectly pitched and suffused with a gentle yearning, the story of lonely Tom – who discovers that the gardenless flat in which he is staying returns at midnight to its days of Victorian splendour – is Pearce's masterpiece. And if you don't cry at the final scene, well, you'll know you're dead inside.

The Phantom Tollbooth: Norton Juster

Bored, disaffected young Milo receives a mysterious present – a purple tollbooth – and sets off on a journey through Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, cities at war in the Kingdom of Wisdom which has banished the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason. It dazzled, discomfited, enmeshed and then enraptured me.

The Narnia books: CS Lewis

Yes, they're very much of their time and place, an oak-panelled room in the oak-panelled 1950s – and maybe you'll want to drop The Last Battle, where the whole Christian allegory thing becomes crudely explicit, behind the sofa – but until then it's a riot of fauns, talking beavers and dancing dryad in a cracking set of stories.

Harry Potter: JK Rowling

No, they're not great literature. But, like Enid Blyton, they give new readers quick and convincing proof that reading can be fun. For that alone – although I'd argue they achieve more than that – Rowling's boy has earned his Z-shaped stripes.

The Borrowers: Mary Norton

The Borrowers – tiny people, living secretly in the houses of "human beans" and scavenging therein – are a wonderful idea. The story of young Arrietty's growing frustration with life under the floorboards speaks forever to children's irritation with their own circumscribed world. If only we could all pole vault with a hatpin out of here.

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror: Chris Priestly

Mesmerising, understated, and convincingly Victorian in tone, these grisly ghost stories are beautifully framed by the mysterious Uncle Montague, telling tales of his sinister knick-knacks to his nephew Edgar over tea and cake. A book for children who enjoy being frightened – and a perfect introduction to Saki and Edgar Allan Poe.

The Lionboy Trilogy: Zizou Corder

This riproaring trilogy crams in everything – dystopian oppression, passionate conservationism, villainous relatives, shipboard circuses and a boy who can speak to cats, all set in a petrol-poor, corporation-controlled future. Charlie Ashanti discovers his scientist parents have been kidnapped by the corporation because they're on the verge of discovering a breakthrough cure for asthma. Charlie must travel to Paris, Venice, Morocco and Haiti, in the company of the lions he has freed from a drug-administering tamer, to set the world to rights. Joyous.

Skellig: David Almond

Michael, worried because his baby sister has been born prematurely, finds a curious creature in the garage of his family's new home. Unethereal in its tastes – which include brown ale and Chinese takeaway – the being nevertheless seems to have wings. Skellig celebrates children's unfiltered, Technicolor perceptions of the exciting world in which they live. A bookshelf essential.

Engagement & Discussion

Families Can Talk About

• Families can talk about Alice's nonconformist attitude. How does she buck cultural expecations? In what ways does her adventure in "Underland" change Alice?

• What do you think about Mr. Kingsleigh, and later Alice's adage that "all the best people" are a bit "mad"? What do you think the Mad Hatter means that things are only impossible if you believe them to be?

• The Red Queen is cruel but sad. What are some reasons she's so mean? Are there compelling reasons to be angry at her younger sister, the White Queen?

Benefits of Story Time

Did you know that by attending storytime, you’re getting much more than just a fun activity? Storytime is a wonderful way for your child to acquire the six early literacy skills researchers identify as laying important groundwork for learning to read.
The skills are:

Print Motivation
Print motivation is the enjoyment of reading and books. Encourage print motivation by keeping reading time fun – have your child participate in the story and read books on subjects of interest to her. If your child isn’t enjoying it, take a break.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary is knowing the names of things, concepts, and feelings. Practice vocabulary with your child by naming the things you see during your day, asking him to point out shapes in the books you’re reading together, and spending time just talking and reading with your child. He’ll learn a lot of words just by hearing you speak!

Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is being able to hear smaller sounds in bigger words and being able to manipulate those sounds. This will make it easier to sound out words when your child is learning to read. Encourage phonological awareness by playing word games with your child, singing rhyming songs, and reciting nursery rhymes and poems.

Letter Knowledge
Letter knowledge is just what you’d guess – knowing letters! It also includes knowing what sounds the letters make and that letters are different from each other. Learning letters doesn’t have to be a trial. Point out letters in books, on street signs, look for things that have the shape of a certain letter, or make letter shapes out of clay.

Print Awareness
Print awareness is knowing how to hold and manipulate a book, knowing that we read from left to right and top to bottom, and knowing that words and print are all around us. Encourage print awareness by pointing out words on signs, reading books where writing is part of the story, or running your finger along the words as you read.

Narrative Skills
Narrative skills include being able to tell or retell a story, recount events, and give descriptions. Encourage narrative skills by having your child say repeated phrases with you as you read a book or do a motion for certain words or phrases in the story (arms out for “the great big bear”, for example). Also, ask your child questions about the book you’re reading. For example, ask “What kind of animal is this? What is this truck doing? What do you think will happen next?”

THE MAKING OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND

About the Author: Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, third of eleven children of an Anglican priest, was a mathematician and a logician who was a lecturer at Oxford for some 26 years. He was also an accomplished photographer, and a Church Deacon. Dodgson's pen name, (and the name by which you will undoubtedly know him best), was Lewis Carroll. He is best known for his whimsical tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Alice
                                      Pleasance
                                     Liddell

In Carroll's original (1862-1864) manuscript for the story, Alice's Adventures Underground, which he personally illustrated, Alice was not the little blonde girl in a pinafore we have come to know from subsequent illustrations.

Instead, she was originally a winsome, dark haired child, whose likeness had been patterned after ten year old Alice Liddell, the child of a church colleague, for whom the Alice stories had been originally created.

Dodgson wrote four versions of "Alice".
Dodgson first told the story during a pleasant summer outing with friends. Reverend Dodgson, along with a Christ Church colleague, Robinson Duckworth, and the three young daughters of the Dean of Christ Church at Oxford, (Alice, Lorina, and Edith Liddell), in a rowing boat hired from Salter's boatyard, near Folly Bridgehad all set out on a lazy, 2½ hour rowing trip down the river Isis to Godstow, that July 4th in 1862.
Dodgson entertained his fellow passengers with a story he created on the spur of the moment for 10 year old Alice. Alice and her sisters were enchanted with the tale, and Alice later pleaded with Carroll to commit the story to paper, which he did, but he did not complete it until until the following February.

Lewis Carroll - 1832-1898

Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

In an article in the New York Times of April 4th 1928 Alice Liddell recalled that
"The beginning of Alice was told to me one summer afternoon when the sun was so hot we landed in the meadows down the river, deserting the boat to take refuge in the only bit of shade to be found, which was under a newly made hayrick. Here from all three of us, my sisters and myself, came the old petition, 'Tell us a story' and Mr. Dodgson began it.

Sometimes to tease us, Mr. Dodgson would stop and say suddenly, 'That's all till next time.' 'Oh,' we would cry, 'it's not bedtime already!' and he would go on. Another time the story would begin in the boat and Mr. Dodgson would pretend to fall asleep in the middle, to our great dismay."
 
Robinson Duckworth also described this trip:
"I rowed stroke and he rowed bow (the three little girls sat in the stern) ... and the story was actually composed over my shoulder for the benefit of Alice Liddell, who was acting as 'cox' of our gig ... I remember turning round and saying, 'Dodgson, is this an extempore romance of yours?' And he replied, 'Yes, I'm inventing it as we go along.' "Charles Dodgson himself also recalled that day and others that followed:
"Many a day we rowed together on that quiet stream - the three little maidens and I - and many a fairy tale had been extemporised for their benefit- .. -yet none of these tales got written down: they lived and died, like summer midges, each in its own golden afternoon until there came a day when, as it chanced, one of the listeners petitioned that the tale might be written down for her."
Quotes Courtesy Christ Church

This first manuscript, which was called Alice's Adventures under Ground is thought to have probably been destroyed in 1864 when, on November 26th 1864, Dodgson presented Alice Liddell with a more elaborate hand-printed second version (shown at right) which included 37 of his own illustrations as a Christmas present.

The manuscript, entitled "Alice's Adventures Underground" was presented to Alice Liddell, inscribed as "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child, in Memory of a Summer Day".
Reverend Dodgson later showed the tale to his family and his friend George Macdonald, who urged him to publish it. He subsequently revised and expanded the tale to almost twice its length and this third version was published by Macmillan and Co. in London, on July 4th, 1865. Sir John Tenniel was the artist who agreed to illustrate the revised and expanded text which was now called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which was published in July was subsequently withdrawn. The illustrator was displeased at the poor quality of printing, which did not do justice to his illustrations. All but about 15 copies were successfully recalled and presumed destroyed. A new edition was published in November (but dated 1866).

Preferring anonymity for this whimsical work, since he had a professional reputation for producing more serious tomes, Dodgson chose to use the nom de plume or "pen name" of Lewis Carroll on his work.

How to Make Story Time Come Alive

You will learn how to capitalize on routine story time and turn it into precious moments that you and your children will cherish forever. Reading stories to young children is an important part of their day. It can be a family activity or a chance to have one on one time with each child.

Some ways to make stories come alive is to:

1. Arrange a special setting: outside under a tree, on the porch, sit on the steps. Gather the family together, make up costumes or special props to highlight your story characters.  Mom or dad who reads the story may be dressed for the occassion.

2. Give a different voice to each character in the story. Family members may be assigned to play the characters' voices. When the story has been read, allow children to roll play the characters and express what emotions they may have felt.

3. Insert children and family's members names in the story. Change the name of the town and characters to a familiar setting. After reading the story, then tell the story and allow children to fill in the blanks or finish the sentences.

4. Using the imagination is very stimulating for young children. Family time can be fun by having each person close their eyes as you sit in a circle. The leader might start by saying, " I see A red, brick house with ten doors and no windows, sitting on a high hill. each person can adds something he sees that pertains to the house. They can take turns opening a new story and imagine something happening. You can add some drama by saying, "Someone is walking toward us; fast (make motions), slow, whistling,(make sounds) singing, laughing. Good family fun!

5. Tell a, "Once upon a time story." It can be a real life story or a story about a favorite character. Allow the child to pick a fairy tale, such as, Little Miss Muffet." Make up a story about Miss Muffet's life after she was frightened away. Encourage children to make up their own story about their favorite character to dramatize