The Book to go with the Latest PBE

If you're looking for the book to go with the latest Picture Book Explorers guide, look no further :)
You can buy a copy of The Best Christmas Present in the World by Michael Morpurgo from The Works for £4.99.

Even if you're not planning on exploring the book right now, it's still worth buying a copy and reading it this year as we approach the centenary of the event depicted in the story - the Christmas day truce and famous football match on no-man's land in 1914.

The words of Michael Morpurgo work well with the pictures of Michael Foreman. Together, they tell the story with a sensitivity that is both heartwarming and heartrending in equal measure.

If you spend £10 at The Works, you can get free delivery and 20% off with the code 

SAVE20.

New! Picture Book Explorers ~ The Best Christmas Present in the World

The new Picture Book explorers pack accompanies the book The Best Christmas Present in the World by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman. It is a moving story that involves secret drawers, hidden letters, burnt down houses and an elderly lady. The book tells the tale of the Christmas day truce of 1914 in the words of a British soldier.  The book is sensitively illustrated and the combination of words and pictures brings me to tears every time I read it.

There is also a stage show/book reading performance which fills in a little more of Jim Macpherson's story including where he was stationed and when he died. It is read by Michael Morpurgo and Virginia Mckenna and has musical accompaniment.  It will be next performed at St Martin's Cathedral at Ypres on Monday 22nd December 2014.

Whilst researching the Christmas day truce story to write Picture Book Explorers ~ The Best Christmas Present in the World, I have read so many letters and seen so many photographs of the soldiers who were part of this amazing piece of history that the characters in the book feel even more alive to me now. It is such a poignant story of the hope of peace in the midst of war. Some of this information is in the pack but there are also winter weather science experiments, art activities, creative writing prompts, discussion starters and role play opportunities in this hands-on learning pack that includes maps, flags and timelines and recipes.

The first time I remember hearing of the Christmas day truce was in the Paul McCartney music video to his song "The Pipes of Peace" way back in the1980s. Now I'm showing my age ;)

Happy Exploring!

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Make Snowflakes

Every year my children spend the first few days of Advent making snowflakes. Each year they have got more complex as well as more numerous. They like to string them across the room instead of paper chains or tinsel.

This year they have been watching snowflake tutorials on Youtube. These are two of their favourites. They like this one because it is fun...



...and they like the second one because it is a more serious tutorial on how to make six-pointed snowflakes which are much more tricky.


For a less messy, less permanent snowflake, you can visit this virtual snowflake maker :) 

Happy Exploring!

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Christmas is Coming

I'm very busy preparing the next Picture Book Explorers study pack which will be out by the end of the month. It will have a Christmas theme and will be particularly significant to this year. More news to follow :)

I'm going to be running a Christmas Activity Advent calendar on this blog with links to crafts and activities relevant to the season, so please remember to come back each day from 1st December. You might want to start saving toilet roll tubes and digging out last year's Christmas cards now ;)

One of our family traditions is to make an "Advent Calendar of Books" which is essentially a pile of 24 books with a Christmas theme :) Many people use this idea and some even wrap the books individually, one parcel to be opened each day during advent. We don't go quite that far. My daughter decides on  the order, numbers them and puts them in a basket. If I have any activities to accompany the book, they go in the basket too.

Some of our favourites are How the Grinch Stole Christmas! , The Gift of the Magi and Twas the Night Before Christmas which we always read on Christmas Eve as well as revisiting the lapbook we made for it years ago. I like to add a few new books to the selection every year. This helps to ensure that they still have age appropriate as they get older, as well as being able to read old favourites that rekindle the sense of wonder from when they were younger. This Advent, we are also reading A Christmas Carol for our book group, so I'll ask my daughter to put that book at the beginning of the Advent pile :)

My children are starting to get pretty excited about Christmas, even though I think it is still a little early yet. Mind you, tomorrow is Stir Up Sunday, so I think I'd better start getting  my head round it quickly.

I'd love some new suggestions of titles to add to our book Advent Calendar. What are your family's favourite Christmas books?

Lake Windermere Song :)

Here's a little something to add to your home-learning  journey with Picture Book Explorers ~ The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck.