Book Box Thursday + Giveaway: Rainbow Bear's Dinosaur Discovery

Last year, you might have come across our review and giveaway of Julia Gabriel's An Alphabet Zoo phonics books, or even read her interview on visual literacy. Today, we continue with our sharing of awesome phonics books, by reviewing another of her creations - Rainbow Bear's Dinosaur Discovery: An Adventure in Blends and Digraphs.

As the title suggests, the book is a continuation of An Alphabet Zoo. A book two, if you will. This book, CD and songbook set tracks a new journey in Rainbow Bear's alphabet adventure. This time, he meets with dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes, which have strange names that coincidentally start with blends and digraphs, such as Flora Flaparaptor and Theo Thecocoelurus. 

So what are blends and digraphs, you ask? A blend, also known as a consonant blends, is when two or more consonants are blended together and each sound can be heard distinctly, such as cr, dr, fr sl and st. A digraph, also known as consonant digraph, is when two or more consonants come together to make a single sound, such as ch, wh and sh.

Dinosaur Discovery deals with 24 of these blends and digraphs, specifically two-letter ones. I like the way how the construction of the blends and digraphs are worked into the songs' lyrics. For example. The blend 'SL'. The lyrics goes like this: 'S and L make sl sl Slippy Sliporaptor', while for the digraph 'WH', the lyrics goes 'W and H make wh wh Whoopee Whalonodon'. The formation of the blends and digraphs are explained and sounded out, in addition to a catchy name, all accomplished in a few words. We found out that the musical brains behind the tunes is Matt Grey, who was also responsible for the music in An Alphabet Zoo. Ahh.. that explains why the music in this version worked for EV and AA.

Like in An Alphabet Zoo, each dinosaur character has its own dedicated page and illustration in Dinosaur Discovery, both of which is illustrated by Kathy Creamer, a published British children’s book author and illustrator. In this way, even though it was a new book, it was easy to introduce it to EV and AA, since they are so familiar with the format and drawing style. One difference is the tongue twisters for each character, such as 'Plato Platyceratops plays with plump plums'. Even adults will have fun trying to say these amusing twisters, making it so much more fun to read together as a family.

What makes this book even more interesting is the Dinosaur Fact Page at the end, where characteristics of each dinosaur are listed. Now before you think that some of the dinosaurs, like Chindesaurus, Fruitadens and Smilodon, are figments of the creators' imagination, let me assure you that these three dinosaurs I have named were real. Their names may sound quirky and funny, but they did exist, millions and millions of years ago, according to the online search that I did. There are imaginary dinosaurs in Dinosaur Discovery though, like Snidopteryx and Swotodon, and the fact page identifies them as exactly that.

Rainbow Bear's Dinosaur Discovery: An Adventure in Blends and Digraphs retails at $29.95. You can also dramatise the fun, catchy tunes with the Rainbow Bear hand puppet, that is sold separately at $32.05.

Giveaway!!

Here’s your chance to win a copy of Rainbow Bear's Dinosaur Discovery: An Adventure in Blends and Digraphs. There are five copies to be given away, sponsored by Julia Gabriel Education. Just follow the intructions below to enter. Good luck!

Terms and conditions:

- Entries that do not fulfill the requirements stated will be disqualified without notice.

- Winners will be notified by email, through the email address provided in the Rafflecopter widget.

- Winners must confirm by reply email, within three days. Otherwise, a new winner will be picked.

- This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only.

- No repeat winners will be allowed.

- Giveaway starts on 27 February and ends on 13 March (inclusive) at midnight.

- Winners will be announced on this post and my Facebook page by 19 March.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: This review was done with our own copy of Rainbow Bear's Dinosaur Discovery: An Adventure in Blends and Digraphs. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

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Play Learning Tuesday: Chinese word ladder with washi tape

Think washi tape is just for crafts? Think again. These versatile tapes can be quite useful in home decorating, erm... home learning I mean.

In reality. I had run out of masking tape, and was thinking of an alternative instead of having to go to the shops, buy the masking tape, stick it on the floor and adding colour to it so it is visible against my white flooring. Such a hassle!!

Washi tape made it so much simpler, and then kids were attracted to the colours too, since they both love blue. They helped to stick the tape to the floor, practicing their finger motor skills in the process.

I also prepared some homemade cards using drawing board and some markers. I wrote the Chinese words that EV is currently learning. Then I placed the cards on the 'rungs' of the ladder. EV started from the first rung, read the word correctly and advanced to the next rung. This went on till she reached the top, then she started all over again.

For AA, I made cards for the first 5 letters of the alphabet. He's still learning, but he had a ball following his older sister around.

This activity gets the kids moving, hopping and jumping, and allows parents to infuse heaps of learning too. And since the washi tape is so pretty, we’ve decided to leave it on the floor and remove it at a later date. For now, the ladder demarcates the ‘stage’ where the kids will dance and put up their little performances.

Learning Points

a. Chinese character & word recognition

b. Letter learning & recognition

c. Learning words

d. Numbers & mathematical concepts

What play learning activities are you doing today?

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What is Play Learning Tuesday?

Play Learning Tuesday is a bi-weekly linky hosted by Toddly Mummy where bloggers are invited to share their child-friendly play, learning and craft activities. Taking part for the first time? You might like to read the guidelines here first.

<div align="center"> <a href="http://toddlymummy.blogspot.com" title="Toddly Mummy"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvmAIvfzuQ4fpIwb3NE3KhW-h23oHXpTc_Tk7XyKs6CTKJHWqjaX0s0lBW4YGV5lMi0mtMGp8MfteBNa2ChGu4UQ5GCHJ_ZAtK1rOoZroYwbJzmi9J9g9Fjjip504Ls3C7JVabXYcLwRfD/s288/Play-Learning-Tuesday.gif" alt="Toddly Mummy" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Linking up with:

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Giveaway: 2 copies of Jim Trelease's The Read Aloud Handbook up for grabs!

Previously in one of our Book Box Thursday posts, we shared about an awesome book by Jim Trelease.

Here's your chance to win one copy of The Read Aloud Handbook (the latest edition). Just follow the instructions below to enter. Good luck!

Terms and conditions:
- Entries that do not fulfill the requirements stated will be disqualified without notice.
- Winners will be notified by email, through the email address provided in the Rafflecopter widget.
- Winners must confirm by reply email, within three days. Otherwise, a new winner will be picked.
- This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only.
- Giveaway starts on 14 February and ends on 28 February (inclusive) at midnight.
- Winners will be announced on this post and my Facebook page by 5 March.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: My Imagination Kingdom sponsored two copies of The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease for the giveaway. No monetary compensation was received. All images are my own.

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Thank you for reading. If you like this post, please do connect with me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, so I can share our fun adventures, thoughts and exploits with you. 

Book Box Thursday: New York Times Parents's Guide To The Best Books for Children

This has to be the most definitive guide of children's books for parents. And one supported by the reputable The New York Times, and authored by its very own.

The New York Times Books Review's children's book editor for more than fifteen years, Eden Ross Lipson lends her expertise to this very comprehensive book of more than 1700 titles. 

That's right! Your eyes are not fooling you. It's a whopping 1700 recommended book titles for children of all ages, including some of the best-loved classics, such as The Runaway Bunny, Curious George, or The Rainbow Fish. 

So, with 1700 titles, how does one know where to start? This Guide is systematically categorized into six sections according to reading level and age: Wordless books, Picture books, Story books, Early reading books, Middle reading books and Young Adult books. Each entry does not just include the title and summary of the book, but also includes important bibliographic information about author and/or illustrator, the publisher, publication year, awards and related titles, if any. It even tells you whether the book is a hardcover or paperback. 

What I really like about this book is the series of special indexes that come at the back. Instead of just an alphabetical index to all the tiles, this Guide also has an index of authors and illustrators, so if you have one name in mind, you can easily do a search to find the relevant books. Want a title that is suitable for your toddler and another for your lower primary kid? The Guide's age-appropriate index caters to that. There is even a read aloud index, recommending books that are best for reading aloud to your children.

This Guide's massive title list is also nicely categorized into various interests under its special subject indexes. From cats and dinosaurs to growing up and manners, to even history, music, science and sports, there are at least 50 indexes to cater to many hobbies and interests that a kid may have.

The inclusion of these indexes demonstrates the thoughtfulness of the folks at The New York Times, and the understanding that parents do not just need a list, they need a list that's practical and informative, a quick guide to meet their needs.

Indeed, I think that this Parents' Guide is a saviour to any parent, I must say, who can sometimes be lost as to which books to expose their children to and when. This Parents' Guide has put the power of searching for suitable books for their children in their hands.

Disclaimer: My Imagination Kingdom sponsored a copy of The New York Times Parents' Guide To The Best Books for Children for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions and images are my own.

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Thank you for reading. If you like this post, please do connect with me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, so I can share our fun adventures, thoughts and exploits with you.