Greening Sam and Avery

lorax

Have you seen The Lorax? The new movie came out about a month ago and we got the chance to see it last week with Sam. Avery is still a bit too young for movies in the theatre so she had to stay home. 

I have three copies of this book and the Lorax stuffed animal. So when this movie was first advertised I was very excited. I was a bit nervous that they wouldn't be able to do this awesome book justice, but they did pretty good. There were parts that I didn't love but overall they took a tough book, a tough concept and handled it in a super fun way!  Sam may have been a bit too young, at least for her, because she was pretty much terrified through the whole thing! 

BUT we are loving the music now!!  And the message behind the songs is so fun. 

I can't find a link to the music on You Tube, but you can find our two favorite songs on iTunes; "Let it Grow" and "I Love Nature".  So, check them out and then sing and dance with your little ones!

 

Yup, super short post today! We were out of town this weekend and I spent all day today either preparing to teach an awesome bird lesson for tomorrow or working on my strawberry bed (pictures to come soon). So, I am exhausted and now have to stay up to make sure that Kentucky wins the NCAA Championship!

Happy Monday!

back to birding

We took some time off from stocking the bird feeders (bird seed is expensive, even when buying it in bulk!) but now that the temps are dropping and moves are starting to come and go more we have once again got our bird feeding station up and running. The girls had a blast this morning watching the birds while they ate breakfast. Sam actually asked if she could take her plate to the floor right by the back door to eat and have a better view!

It is perfect timing that the folks at my work (Aldo Leopold Nature Center) have been passing around (through email) links to these really cool bird videos.

This first one if of a goshawk doing some really cool flying tricks. The tricks that the bird is doing are not things a bird wouldn't normally do in the wild, as the narrator describes, these "tests" are simulating real life flying scenarios that birds of prey do all the time. Some of the things that I talked to/asked Sam and Avery about while we watched this video are

• Pointing out all the different parts of the bird's body; beak, feet, wings, eyes
• Did you see how the bird pulled her wings in to be so small?
• Did you see how she grabbed the tube with her feet and pushed off?
• Did you see how her back feathers spread out so quickly?
• What else do you notice about the bird?
• Do you see how big the birds wings are?

 

This second video is of an eagle owl that is flying straight at a camera (there is some kind of prey or meat that the owl is trying to get). This video is pretty slow at the beginning but if you just keep encouraging your child to watch the end is well worth the wait! Some of the things I pointed out to Sam and Avery in this one,

• Look at how flat the owl's wings are.
• Do you think your arms are as long as the owl's wings?
• Do you see how the owl moves his wings down and then back up?
• Do you see the legs hanging down?
• Look at how the owl's wings bend just like our arms can bend at the elbow.
• Can you see all the stripes and lines on the owl's feathers?
• What color are the owl's eyes?
• Do you see how the owl is spreading is talons out to grab something just like we use our fingers to grab things?

 

I am sure there are tons of great bird videos on YouTube these were just brought to my attention this week because of emails going around at work and the girls enjoyed them so much I thought I would share.

Watch them with your kids and leave me a comment letting me know what they thought!

Happy Birding!

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

Here are some classroom/home extensions that you could do to go along with these videos -

For the first video you could set up some tunnels and other obstacles for your kids to climb through and talk to them about how they can move their bodies in different ways to move through things. For older kids you could keep making the tunnels smaller and smaller to see how much they can adjust and change their body to fit through something.

For the second video you can measure out 6 feet on the ground or wall with tape. The eagle owl has a 6 foot wing span. Have the children compare their arms to the wing span of the owl. Who is bigger? You could also have the children try to pick up different sized and shaped objects with their toes. Are we able to use our toes as well as the owl can? Why does the owl need to have such strong toes (which are really called talons)?

Day 234: stranger in the woods - review and giveaway

The last Carl R. Sam and Jean Stoick book based movie review is coming at ya!

But first...

Check out the In the Woods blog they posted bits of my first review over there.

This may have been my favorite of the three movies.

The photography is just amazing!  And there are talking snow banks that are real snow banks that look like faces. Hard to explain but let me try. It is just when you look up at the clouds and you can see shapes in the clouds. The photographers found snowbanks or other snow masses that looked like faces and bodies of people. Then made those faces come to life with voices, conversation, music and jokes. I loved looking at the formations and trying to see what they saw. Sam may have been a bit young to see all the faces but I was fascinated. This book really came to life through this movie for me and was just incredible.

SO, now that you have heard all about this amazing movies that are based on three of our FAVORITE books you absolutely MUST enter to win them or head on over to their site to buy them!

Head here to enter to win!

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

This giveaway will be over tomorrow at NOON (central time) and a winner will be drawn in the afternoon by random.org.

BUT keep your eyes out next week for TWO MORE giveaways. I am honored to be in the process of reviewing two great books that I cannot wait to tell you more about. Both of which will be up for grabs.

First review and giveaway - "Nature Smart: A Family Guide to Nature" by Stan Tekiela and Karen Shanberg

Second review and giveaway - "Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids: A Guide to Getting Your Kids Active in the Great Outdoors" by Eugene Buchanan

So be sure to check back and enter those giveaways as well!!

Day 229: first snow in the woods

Avery, Sam and I enjoyed another one of the Carl R. Sams movies today, First Snow in the Woods. Sam likes reading the books first and then watching the movies.

So we read. Then we watched. This movie was quite different from the book, which was not the case with the first movie that we watched, Lost in the Woods. The first one had other features and certainly more involved than the book but it also had the whole book. The additional parts of the First Snow in the Woods movie are the parts that held Sam and Avery's attention the best. Dancing and singing scarecrows! Avery especially thought these were great. She was captivated.

One thing that I really wanted to emphasis about these movies is that I am not afraid to let Avery watch them. Unlike many typical children's movies that have a lot of colors, fast paced images and fantasy these movie have real life images, less movement and are slower paced. They are wonderful for keeping kids entertained but not forcing their little eyes and brains to work too hard trying to focus on too many things.

As always the images and stories are just incredible.

Want to see more from this amazing author? Check out their website, Stranger in the Woods and to see more of Carl Sams and Jean Stoick's AMAZING nature photography check them out here.

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

To see my first review and to enter the GIVEAWAY just click back over to the first post!

Day 226: carl r. sams movies giveaway

You may know that we LOVE the Carl R. Sams books. I have blogged about them here and here. But we had never seen the movies. When a colleague of mine recommended the movies I knew I had to check them out.

I am SO excited to be doing a review and GIVEAWAY of all THREE of the Carl R. Sams movies!

Stranger in the Woods, First Snow in the Woods and Stranger in the Woods 

 

So we started this morning out with Lost in the Woods. The book, in case you haven't read it, is a photographic fantasy about a little fawn that is all alone in the woods waiting for his mom. The pictures are absolutely amazing and the story is adorable. The movie is equally as incredible!

There are songs, tons of video photage of wild animals, hilarious characters and great information about the woods and the animals that live there. The wildlife photage alone is to make this movie a win but then the songs, story and characters just make it even more endearing. Even I was cracking up from the jokes told by a hilarious racoon and some very silly frogs. The narrator of the story is a turtle and all of the animals have adorably funny voices.

One of my favorite parts of these movies is that the movement is slow or in real time and because of all the real life photage even Avery can watch these. She loved them. They are short too, just about 30 minutes each, so the shorter attention span of a two year old is still held for the whole thing. I love the idea of something both girls can watch and both equally love!

Sam and Avery were both captivated by this movie! And so was I.

We are headed on a little road trip today so no time to watch and review the other two (those will be coming later this week!) but the GIVEAWAY starts TODAY for all three movies. One lucky reader will win ALL THREE MOVIES!

And here are all the ways you can enter -

1. MANDATORY ENTRY - Leave a comment with your email telling me who you would like to watch these movies with. (1 entry)
2. Follow publicly through Google Friend Connect (2 entries).
3. Like Greening Sam and Avery on Facebook (2 entries).
4. Follow me on Twitter (2 entries).
5. Follow me on Networked Blogs, see sidebar (2 entries).
6. Blog about this giveaway (3 entries).
7. Tweet this giveaway, once a day (1 entry).
8. Share on Facebook, once a day (1 entry).
9. NEW ENTRY METHOD - Get a friend to submit a comment and mention YOUR name in their comment. (1 entry) Got this clever idea from this great giveaway!

Okay, I think that is enough!!  For ways to win that have multiple entries be sure to leave multiple comments. Random.org will pick a winner on February 21st. The winner will be emailed and given 48 hours to respond and claim their win before another winner is selected.