Children's Books and DVDS With a Space Theme

The next week for our MOMS Camp is "Blast Off!" It's a week about space, rockets, planets, and the moon and stars. I'm hoping to make a trip to our city's Planetarium this week, along with an amusement park so we can go on a rocket ride! Each day we will read books and watch DVD's having to do with space.

Here's a list of some space-themed children's books to read:

The Planets by Martha E. H. Rustad
Rockets and Spaceships by Karen Wallace (beginning reader)
National Geographic Kids: Planets by Elizabeth Carney (beginning reader)
Space Shuttles by Colleen Sexton
Glow In The Dark Constellations by C.E. Thompson (This one has more print than I would normally read to my own kids, ages 4 and 7, but the glow in the dark pictures are great!)
Stars and Constellations by Nick Hunter (this one about constellations is a little more readable)
Zoom, Rocket, Zoom! by Margaret Mayo
A Trip Into Space by Lori Haskins Houran (love this rhyming book!)
Stars by Mary Lyn Ray (not what you'd expect!)
Green Wilma Frog In Space by Tedd Arnold
The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson, pictures by Tracey Campbell Pearson
and of course, Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown!

Here's a list of some space-themed DVD's to watch, listed with movies first:

Wall-E
Muppets in Space
Escape From Planet Earth
Fly Me To The Moon (this one was really cute and showed some very realistic stuff from NASA!)
Megamind
Space Buddies
Star Wars Saga
VeggieTales: Veggies in Space
Backyardigans: Mission to Mars
Tom and Jerry In Space
Cat in the Hat: Space is the Place!
Curious George: Rocket Ride and Other Adventures!

Finally, a fun CD to listen to with your kids is Rocketship Run by the Laurie Berkner Band

Childrens Books and Movies for a Weather Theme

Summer Vacation is here and MOMS Camp 2014 has begun! MOMS Camp is something I came up with several years ago to make the most of my time with my kids during the summer. It stands for Make Our Moments Special. I've given each week over the summer a different theme.  Throughout each week we'll explore that theme with activities, crafts, movies, books, and outings. 

First off we have "Weather Week!"... complete with sunshine, clouds, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and ending with rainbows! We are focusing on the weather that we will be experiencing this time of year here in Kansas. This is the one time ALL SUMMER I'll be happy to see thunderstorms in the forecast! haha!

A list of books we will read this week are:

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Freddy The Frogcaster by Janice Dean
Clouds by Marion Dane Bauer
Little Cloud by Eric Carle
The Police Cloud by Christoph Niemann
In Like a Lion Out Like a Lamb by Marion Dane Bauer
Molly and the Storm by Christine Leeson
Stormy Weather by Debi Gliori
Extreme Weather: Tornadoes by Anne Wendorff
Over the Rainbow by Eric Puybaret
A Fairy Ballet by Daisy Meadows
Rainbow Magic: The Weather Fairies Set by  Daisy Meadows
Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee


DVD's I've checked out from the library for this week include:

Sid the Science Kid: Weather Kid Sid
Sid the Science Kid: What is a Rainbow?
Elmos's World: The Great Outdoors (includes an episode called Weather)
Sesame Street: Elmo's Rainbow and Other Spring Stories
Dora the Explorer: Shy Rainbow
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (1 and 2!)
The Wizard of Oz