Reading Fun Time with The Magic Tree House

I'm sure I am like other moms who would rather see her children read a good book instead of sitting in front of a T.V all day. Since  Minnie(me) and Super Boy are at a great age to instil this, I try my hardest to make reading more fun. I do this by finding books that really get their attention and also apply some fun activities to go with the story.

I may be a little behind, but the kids and I have discovered The Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne. They are great books about a brother and sister who find a magic tree house and go on these wonderful adventures together. I thought this would be great because the kids can see themselves going on these adventures themselves.  Anything to boost their imaginations right?

The books are only about 10 chapters, which I love because we read about 2 chapters a day. The kids take turns by each reading a page and then after the chapter, we do a little review about what they just read. We do this out loud so that I can help them if needed and the other child knows what is going on in the story as well.

Last week we finished the first book called "Dinosaurs Before Dark." The kids loved it! Super Boy really enjoyed it because he loves dinosaurs!

 After we finished each chapter, the kids had to answer questions about what they just read. They had a Magic Tree House folder where they kept all the activities that we did that went along with the book.  After we finished the book, they also had to complete a lap book. This required some research from some dinosaur books we have. It was great to see them work together and also help each other if there was a hard question.

Since they are still a little young for book reports, I had them do a bag report.  They had some questions they had to answer about the story, draw some pictures of things that happened in the story, and then collect items that reminded them of the story. Since they read about dinosaurs, they put in some dinosaur toys in their bags. They also put in some plastic eggs because the characters in the story came across a dinosaur nest. They also put some sticks in their bags to remind them of the tree house. They put some other neat things in there too!

For our special snack, we made Duck-Bill dinosaurs nests.  They're so easy to make! 

First you melt some peanut butter.

When it's all melted and creamy, you add some pretzels sticks. Stir to make sure that the pretzels sticks are all well coated.

They take clumps and put it on parchment paper to cool. 

When cooled, add candy eggs or jelly beans to look like dino eggs.  Then enjoy!  They were a hit with the kids!

 

Today we just began reading book #2 A Knight At Dawn.  We'll be finished with it on Friday and then we're looking forward to reading more from this fun series!