The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School with discussion questions and activities

I had a lot of fun with The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray.  I used this book for a children's book club book, and found so much that could be talked about and activities that could be done around this adventurous story.

First let me tell you about the book.

I learned that this was Mrs. Murray's first book!  She had been a teacher and this book was an activity she had done with her class at the beginning of each school year!  This is a great book that you can use on the first day of school to start off the year or read it and have fun at any point in the year.

In the book a class bakes a gingerbread man and then they leave for recess, the gingerbread man then explores the school trying to find his class.  He meets the gym teacher, nurse, art teacher and the principle.  I love how the book is an introduction to school and different rooms of the school, and a twist on the original gingerbread man story.  When I presented this book to preschoolers I retold the original story first with puppets, that way they can make guesses about what they think will happen in the book and compare the two stories.

Puppets I made for retelling the original story (condensed) 

Laura does a great job in rhyming and using some great vocabulary words in the rhymes.  I don't think I would have thought to rhyme with "complete" or "explore."  I thought this was very clever and Murray does add in many great vocab words to share and discuss.

The lay out of the book is another point worth sharing.  Unlike most picture books that have one photo per page or page spread, Mike Lowery has done the illustrations for The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School in a comic book style, where there are a typically two to four boxes with illustrations on each page.  I like this layout.  I love that each page isn't in the same format, some pages have three illustrations, some have only one and the timing of each set lets you ask your readers to predict what they think will happen next.

My favorite thing about this book is all the opportunity there is to have open ended discussion with your readers.  There are also many crafts and activities you can do around this book and gingerbread men in general.  Let me dive into sharing some discussion questions I used while reading this book.

Pre-Reading...Before you even open the book here are some questions to get the mind working and predicting:

What do you think will happen in this book?  This is a question that you can ask before reading any book.  Look at the cover, what clues does it give you for what this book is about?  What does the title say about what might happen or who might be in this book?  

Who is the author?  Illustrator?  This allows you to teach the kids what an author does and what the illustrator's job is.

Where do you think a gingerbread man would have the most fun at school?  I loved asking this question and listening to the different responses.  Don't be afraid to ask the kids Why they chose the room they did.  My oldest daughter answered with, "A gingerbread man would have the most fun in the gym and art room. Because they are my favorite places. He'd make a mess and play with the stuff and create portraits and paper-mache" While my youngest chose the playground because he'd have fun playing there.  Let you're child's imagination run wild here.  For teachers you can turn this into a writing assignment for older kids.  Not only where would he have the most fun but describe what the gingerbread man would do.

While Reading Questions:  As I said earlier the layout of the book offers many areas not only areas to ask "What will happen next" questions but many chances for other discussion as well. These questions you can choose some to ask during the reading of the book or save other to ask when you've finished reading and go back to the page you're referring to if you want.

What other ingredients might you need to make gingerbread cookies?     What would you use to decorate a gingerbread man?

The Gingerbread Man broke his toe!  Have you ever broken a bone?  Where can he go to get his toe fixed?  Who could help him?  How will the nurse fix his toe?

Is using the handrail as a slide safe?  What could happen to the gingerbread man by sliding down the handrail?  In my online group I asked the adults to admit to having done this, I never had the guts to and when I read the book to preschoolers I remind them that it's not safe and if Miss Fawn were to try it I'd probably fall and get hurt, but since this is a cookie and he's in a book he can try it and anything can happen.

When he lands in the lunch bag you can ask Do you like cookies with your lunch?  What is your favorite type of cookie?

Post-Reading-Questions: 

Which gingerbread man story did you like better, the original where the fox eats the gingerbread man, or the school one where he becomes part of the class?

What would you do if your gingerbread man came to life?  This was a favorite question of mine to ask because it's completely open ended with no wrong answer.  Asking this in a group setting was interesting to see how many different answers there were.


How would you feel if your gingerbread man ran away?

What was your favorite part of the book?  Why?

What did you think of the illustrations?  This is a good question to ask for any book because you're showing them that they can have their own artist style.

Would you recommend this book to other people?  Why or Why not?

There are a lot of directions in the book, are you good with finding your way around new places?

For comprehension:

Who did the gingerbread man meet?

What happened in the book?  Go over the sequence of events.

Activities!!  

Be your own illustrator!  Create your own gingerbread man.  As the adult you can decide what materials you want used or let your kids decide how they want to make their gingerbread man.

Baking!  Obviously the book opens with cooking and is a clear activity to go along with the book.  Break out the aprons, dust off that gingerbread cookie recipe and create your own man or girl.  You don't have to stick with gingerbread, have your kids help bake their favorite cookie.

Rhyme Time!  The book is full of rhyming words.  I took a poster-board and wrote down several different rhyming sequence that were in the book then had kids match up the rhyming words.  You could ask further this by having them write their own rhyming word to go on the board or list.

Two different games I designed were for preschool and kindergarten and you can customize this to fit your own grade level.  I did numbers for preschool and had kids take turns rolling a die and coloring in the number they rolled.  They had to count the number of dots on the die and find the corresponding number on their picture and color that in.  In small groups they took turns and helped each other.  For kindergarten I used sight words and flash cards.  You can draw up your own outline and do multiplication, addition, or whatever you want to practice with your kids.  If you want some that are already done I'd recommend the lovely Pinterest.

Fill the gingerbread man with descriptive words. This gets kids working on their vocabulary, and is a fun way to introduce adjectives to the class.  Even with kids who haven't learned what an adjective is or are unsure what "descriptive words" are I found you can coach the kids with asking them to tell me what their gingerbread man would look like, or how the cookie taste.  While doing this with a group add your own words as an adult. I had fun doing this activity in my literacy group and sharing the answers of kids and getting various parents and teachers comments their own descriptions.  Doing this and putting all the words together for everyone to see and hear gets creativity flowing and leads to more thoughtful answers.  So while at first we had words like hot, sweet, amazing, yummy, soft we then started to dig deeper and then words like spunky, animated, fancy, sassy, and squishy were added to the list.  Getting adults to participate in activities like this enhances learning for kids because they see the excitement of adding another word and their vocabulary grows as well.  This could also lead to a deeper discussion: What about the word "gullible" Would you say the gingerbread man in the original story was gullible to believe the fox was going to help him?

One last activity I did with the kid's book club and online was:

I love word games! Boggle has long been a favorite of mine and it's great for kids to have fun spelling and changing letters around without the pressure of a test or grading.

Do you want more activities?  Laura Murray has a wonderful website where she shares some more activities and teaching tools you can use to go with her book and check out all the other adventures her gingerbread man goes on!

Want some other gingerbread books?  Check out these:

Stay warm, have fun, and as always enjoy a good book!

Snow in the forecast?

With the weather cold and fall long gone my kids have started asking, "When will it snow?!"  Personally I have so much going on this month the snow can hold off, but I don't control Mother Nature and snow is said to be in our forecast.  With the kids asking when the snow is coming and the weatherman saying it'll be here soon, I've started collecting some books that address this exact issue and then added a couple for activities once the snow is here and one to thaw out to.

Mama, Will It Snow Tonight?
Written by Nancy White Carlstrom
Illustrated by Paul Tong



Mama, Will It Snow Tonight? addresses the change from fall to winter and waiting snow.  The wind turns cold, the trees are bare and the kids are wondering if there's snow in the air.  The story is poetic.  As we hear the same question being asked and the changes that are seen between the seasons.  Fur on animals becomes thick and changes colors, the harvest is in, and still the little ones wonder when the snow will come.

I like this book so much more because of the illustrations.  The illustrations allow you to see that the children aren't all people wondering this same question; a fox and her pup, a bunny and her kit, and then the little girl and her mom.  "Mama, will it snow tonight?" is asked 12 times in this short book, and if the illustrations didn't show the different mothers and show that they were all wondering and looking for the same thing I would have been a bit frustrated with the redundancy, however knowing that it's from different views allows you to have more pauses while reading, and change your voice with the change of character if you can.

The illustrations are sweet and warm.  You feel the love between the parent and child and the excitement grow and feel the calming effect of watching it snow overnight.

When I read this book to my girls, aged 9 and 5, they did complain and carry on at bedtime; "Dad can you read us a book?  Mom's book was too short it doesn't count as a real book."  I have to say my heart was so proud that that was their complaint, that they wanted another book to follow this one.  I will say this book while it's not a board book, I could see it reprinted as a board book and be wonderful for babies.  The redundancy is perfect for little ones (0-5 years old) especially those who are talking because they can repeat after you or predict what will be said next.


Here Comes the SNOW
Written by Angela Shelf Medearis
Illustrated by Maxie Chambliss



I have read this book several times over the last two weeks at the preschool.  The kids love it and so do I.

This is an early reader so the words are simple and the sentences short for those kids preschool to first grade who are learning to read and starting to read on their own.  I like to have early readers even if they can't read yet, but have read the book before, to tell me what's happening in the picture and sometimes the kids like to repeat after me.

my dog enjoying the snow

This early reader is a cute story about being ready for the snow and it's not snowing yet.  I always like to read and act out the first few pages dramatically.  "Coats on.  Let me see how you put them on. Okay, Boots on." Stomp, stomp.  "But no snow!  Oh man.  Did you wear your coats and boots today?  Yeah, me too, but do we have snow?  Not yet.  What else do we need?"  Small kids really love when they feel involved with the story.  They absolutely love when they can answer questions.  It makes them feel special to get to say "I wore a pink coat today!"  Let them have that interaction and come back to the book.

Then it does snow in the book and Angela goes on to tell of activities that the kids get to do in the snow and this again leaves the ability to keep reading uninterrupted or to take a small break and ask the child if they've make a snow angel before.

The end of the book is my favorite part.  Playtime is over and the kids have to go back inside, but they are rewarded with hot cocoa!  Yum!
Reading this book while yes it's short and simple it does get you in the mood for a nice snow day and all the fun that can be had.

Wonderful Winter: All Kinds of Winter Facts and Fun
by Bruce Goldstone

This book is a must have in your library, classroom, or to check out and have at home for several winter lessons.  Bruce has done a wonderful job in delivering many interesting facts that you can use to add to your lessons.  For older kids you can read the book cover to cover, but for preschool and kindergarten I'd only take out sections to share with the class.  Talk about hibernation and refer to the six pages where he tells how different animals survive the winter and how the animals living in colder climate are built different from those in warmer areas.  Bruce has this book full of information but the way he has it delivered it's easy and fun to read.  I love it when I learn something new from children's books and this one had a lot of information that was new to me.  Did you know...

By the time a snowflake lands, it usually contains about 200 ice crystals.  

Be sure to break this book out for older kids in science class when you learn about the colors of light!  Goldstone explains why snow is white, but really when you look at it up close a snowflake is clear or sometimes blue.

There is something in the book for all ages!  There are simple parts of what shapes, tastes, and how winter feels and sounds for younger kids.  Then there are in depth parts of the book that go into how a snowflake is formed and why you can see your breath when it's cold for older kids or children who will sit and listen.

The photographs in the book are beautiful and capture the large and small, microscopic, details of winter.

Where does the "Fun" part of the title come in?  At the end of the book there are six fun filled crafts and activities to do.  These can be done at home, or for fun art and science projects in the classroom.  There are instructions to make your own fake snow!  This is wonderful for the kids asking and being disappointed about when it's going to snow, or for those who live in warm climates who don't get or see snow in their area!  Make your own snow globe, ice spikes, and pine cone bird feeder are just a couple of the other crafts.  I think we will be doing some of these this weekend while we are snowed in!

With how much I love Wonderful Winter I'm going to be sure to check out Goldstone's other books as well!


  Snow, Snow  Winter Poems for Children by Jane Yolen
Photographs by Jason Stemple



Being a collection of Poems this is different because it's not so much a story line to follow.  I love some of the poems in here deeply tho and I think it's worth the share.  Have fun with your kids or your class and read one of the poems each day or one a week.  They are beautifully written and capture the feeling of snow and winter.  Jane's note from herself I have to share this quote:

"This is a book for snow lovers and for those who might love snow if only it weren't so cold and wet and sometimes inconvenient."

That right there is me!  I love pictures of snow, I love it in movies where it's always so romantic, and I like it when it's not an inconvenience of the schedule.  I will happily watch it snow with a cup of hot tea and a book in my hand curled up with the kids and pets, but when it comes to being out in the snow and shoveling and having to cancel plans I've been looking forward to and the cold...so cold and wet, really why do I live where there's winter?  Because it makes us appreciate the colors of spring and warm temps so much more!

This was published in 1998 back before there were digital cameras with high resolution and megapixels so the photo quality was good for it's time but the photos are aged and not near today's standards, but it's important to remember the advances in photography over the last 20 years!  We have come a long way.  If you have a class of older children or high school age kids even, a fun project would be to give them one of the poems and have them take a photo to go with that chosen poem.

Now once the snow is here and winter is dragging it's feet and you're tired of the short days and long nights and how frigid it feels, it's time to bring out this cute book:

The Thing About Yetis
by Vin Vogel



Have you ever wondered about yetis? What they like to do in the winter?  What do they do in the summer?  How do they stand it when it's so, so, very cold?  Well, if you have asked any of those questions then, this is the book for you!

Vin Vogel has created a cute and funny story about yetis and winter and how even these creatures who love snow and winter get tired of it and become crabby.  He then tells of how they ease their winter woes by remembering days of summer and creating their own summer day inside their home!

Vogel's illustrations of yetis are adorable!  I want one for a pet!! He creates the mood of a winter wonderland of fun, to the frozen tundra, and the brightest of summer days and all the warmth to go with them.

This winter if you are looking for a book to curl up with this is the one.  Then follow it up with some hot chocolate and watch Small Foot to get a different story on yetis.

Some more Yeti books I found while searching around on Amazon that I'm putting on my to read list:



No matter which book you pick to read, or weather you're preparing for a winter storm, wondering where winter is, or shoveling the snow I hope that you make reading a part of your favorite winter activities and find joy between the pages of a good book!  

Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep

If you want to take your children on a journey about fleece from sheep to yarn for a sweater then this book is PERFECT!  Or if you are just looking for a fun book to read I recommend this one.

The Details:

Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep: A Yarn About Wool

Written by: Teri Sloat

Illustrated by: Nadine Bernard Westcott

Copyright: 2000

Teri Sloat has put together a fun, comical, fast pace adventure that tells of the process of where wool comes from, how it becomes yarn, and how it is used.  The book follows the sheep as they get sheared, and all their fleece is removed. They become cold and follow their wool on it's journey with the farmer from shop to shop in it's process of cleaning, combing, spinning, dying, and finally being knit into sweaters.  Sloat has delivered all this information in a short rhyming story that flows so easily from one page to the next.  At the end of each short stance you are eager to turn the page to find out what is happening next.

One of the things I like most about the book, aside from the lesson on wool, is that it breaks down sexist barriers and shows that we need to eliminate labels on jobs, hobbies, and likes.  Typically many people associate knitting with old ladies "my grandma knits." Why?  I love that the farmer (male) is the one who knits, who enjoys knitting.  I recently saw a short video of a young man that started his own knitting business and another one where men share how they were introduced to knitting and how they enjoy it.  If this book inspires you to try knitting here are a couple kits for beginners along with a video to help you out.
For children:
For Adults :
The main focus throughout the book are the sheep and the process of the fleece going from them to all the shops.  I love how much you learn about wool.  This book would be great to read before going to see sheep in person, or a place like Quiet Valley where children can actually feel fleece, and comb the it, and see how much work goes into the process.  You might be able to reach out to see if there are any local sheep farms in your area and see if they will give you a tour!

I love when you can take a book that is well written and fun, and then can go and do something from the book and be hands on, I think that balance completes the learning cycle and graphs all that the children have learned into their memory.  Unfortunately I have not done either of the hands on lessons with my children (yet!) but I plan to try knitting with my oldest this fall/winter.

Nadine Bernard Westcott did the illustration in watercolor.  (hint you can find that info in the credits on the same page with the copyright and publication information.  Take a minute to show your children what they can learn on that page)  The illustrations are vibrant, and full of funny sheep and characters that we met along the journey.  With the help of these wonderful images the child doesn't need you to look up what shearing is, how wool is combed, and what knitting is.  Westcott did a beautiful job telling the story through her art.

I hope you take the time to check this book out, maybe even try a new craft.

 

Rainbow Books

Who doesn't get super excited when they see a rainbow? Kids jump out of their seat, and everyone just takes a minute to admire this art in the sky.  Why not turn your living room, or classroom into a rainbow for an afternoon?  These books, crafts, songs, and activities can help you and your early learners discover all about the colors of the rainbow, plus how to spot one, and enjoy a couple fictional stories that include rainbows.

I'm going to start with what's probably my favorite (so far) non fiction book that has a rainbow in it:

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

Copyright 1966

This book is from 1966 but it's timeless.  I think every child can relate to the main character. The boy runs outside to try to capture the rainbow just to find it was gone, then as he's wishing for one of his very own, what should come up behind him but a rainbow ready to play! Then when it's time the rainbow leaves and he goes home to find in his room a rainbow on his wall!

This book keeps the sentences simple so it's great for reading to a group, to small children and on their own for independent reading.  The illustrations are fun, colorful, and entertaining. The yellow rain boot, hat and raincoat are classic.

Don Freeman was a creative mind and opens a doorway between reality to imagination back to reality seamlessly.  This doorway in the book, we can pull from it so many opportunities with our own children:

Where and When do you find a rainbow?

If you had a rainbow for your own what would you do together? (This can be used for all ages: Draw a picture. Tell a story. Write a paragraph of what you'd do together.)

Where would a rainbow hide?

How can you make a rainbow of your own?

These are all questions for fiction and non-fiction learning!  I love this book.  This one book out of all you can do a whole rainbow lesson on.  So if you had to pick only one A Rainbow of My Own would be the one, but to enhance your story-time, or lesson add a couple of the other books I have listed here.

Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee

Elmer has many books (Elmer 12 Book Set Here ) and if your child already knows this patchwork elephant than this is a book to add to your rainbow lesson.  It is another fiction book.

In this adventure Elmer and his friends notice an odd thing in the sky, a colorless rainbow, so Elmer goes off to find the end of the rainbow.  Along the way he asks his jungle friends to help him in his search.  Once the rainbow end is found Elmer goes and gives the rainbow his own colors.

What I love more than anything in this book is this quote:

"Some things you can give and give and not lose any.  Things like happiness or love...."

Brilliant quote about how kindness is free.  Be Kind! 

We all know that there isn't a patchwork elephant, and that's not how rainbows get their colors, but it is a fun imaginative story that can lead to the question of "Well how do rainbows get their color?" (So glad you asked because I have a book to share with you about just that!!)

Elmer has colors on him that aren't in the rainbow.  Point that out!  What colors are on Elmer that aren't in the rainbow?  What colors are in the rainbow?  This would be a great time to share the song In The Rainbow by Pamela Piersyn.  I love this catchy song that isn't annoying, and is educational!  Good bye ROY-G-BIV. Hello "In the Rainbow" Promise you if you play this song the kids will know all 7 colors of the rainbow!  While I sang and listen to this song with the children I assembled a felt board rainbow.  If you want the children to have a fun rainbow toy so they can use all sight, touch, along with hearing check out this stack-able rainbow toy!  It has all 7 colors so they can build their rainbow with the song as well!!



 Two other books that I used for my All the Colors of the Rainbow lesson were Penguins Love Colors by Sarah Aspinall and Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson

Both of these books are great for helping children learn their colors.  Penguins Love Colors has rainbows throughout the book and each little penguin has their own color, but the downside to this is that there are only 6 penguins instead of 7.  This is quite common in many early learner rainbow books, they don't mention indigo so when the children are older and they are thrown for a surprise that there are really 7 colors.  Don't let this keep your from using this great story because you can ask them what color is missing?

Bear Loves Colors does not have a rainbow anywhere in the whole book!  So why did I put it in my story time?  Simple, it's a FUN book to read aloud with the children.  The rhymes allows you to let the kids yell out what color Bear is going to see next.  It's reinforcing their colors, and allows them to search each page for things of that color.  Bear sees Blue!  Blue berries...and then you can ask "What do you see that's blue?  You can make a scavenger hunt game out of the book for kids to do next time they are outside to see if they can find each thing bear sees, or something in nature of each color.

In my story times after reading these books that reinforce the color names I did a simple song again using all the colors of the rainbow.  I made little finger puppets for each color out of felt and sang:
"Red color. Red Color, Where are you?" and hold up the red puppet "Here I am. Here I am."  I'll admit it came from this video that my daughter watches.
And after you've gone through all seven colors do "rainbow" or "all the colors" for the last verse.


Now that the children know the colors in the rainbow let's go back and answer that question of "how do rainbows get their color?"  The one non fiction book I used was The Rainbow and You by E.C. Krupp

The Rainbow and You is written for an older audience Amazon suggest 6-12 year old. When I used it I had mostly 5-7 age range in my group and so I didn't read it cover to cover but marked a couple pages and read only a few passages to the group.  I love that E.C. Krupp teaches children how to find a rainbow.  He also shares different legends of Rainbows from Native Americans to Greek Gods.  There's also the science and discovery of rainbows in the book.  It's packed full of information.
Robin Rector Krupp illustrated the book and I love how she portrayed Roy. G. Biv as a person! That image will stay will me now every time I think of ROYGBIV.

Since doing my story time I have found other non fiction books about the rainbow that I need to check out and see if any of those will be better suited for the younger children I typically read to. (I've shared them below)  If you are interested or have read these title please let me know what you thought of them in the comments.



 Craft time!  There are countless rainbow crafts out there!  These are the crafts I've done with my kids both very similar :

1

2

1. Construction Paper assemble a rainbow from cloud to pot if you want to do this for St.Patty's day cut out some gold chips to add to it.

2. We did this one at my daughter's preschool:
*cut a paper plate in half***to  implement the reduce and reuse from environment mindfulness post instead of wasting paper plates reuse some old cereal boxes and cut out a cloud shape
* Tissue Paper Streamer
*cotton balls to make the cloud puffy (or puffy paint)
Assemble the rainbow with the materials

3. For older children you can do some painted rocks:
* smooth rocks, paint, paint markers, and seal.  You can use rocks from your garden, or the dollar store as well as the ones I've shared here.  Before you use the rocks wash and let them dry.  If you use dollar store rocks boil them to remove the wax on them.  The paint and paint pens that I've shared below are amazing! But feel free to experiment and find what works best for you.

I hope you have a wonderful colorful day today and maybe you will even find a rainbow of your own!

My Cousin MoMo

The 2018 Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child is My Cousin Momo by Zachariah OHora


So what is Pennsylvania One Book?  Direct quote taken off the back cover of my book is a program that "encourages adults to read daily to the young children in their lives and to engage children in conversations and experiences around the story and illustrations."

I love this.  Each year they pick a new book and many of the preschools, and libraries have the book, do story times, meet the author, and have special activities.  The whole point is to bring about more reading to children, get them excited and relating to books.  I know Pennsylvania isn't the only state to do this so check your state to see if they have a "One Book"  if you want more information about this program,  and about the author check out their site www.paonebook.org

Zachariah OHora has gotten the PA One Book before, in 2012 with his book Stop Snoring, Bernard!.  He clearly is a great story teller for small kids. My Cousin MoMo originally came out in 2015 and from talking to librarians it was already a well liked book and everyone was excited to talk about MoMo.

The story is about MoMo who comes for a visit, he's a bit shy at first and has his own way of doing things.  His cousins make him feel weird for being different and feeling like they don't want him there.  Then when they realized how they hurt MoMo's feelings they try things his way and they all have a great time.

Photo take by my 5yr old

The book is super easy to read, each page only has one or two short sentences.  It's easy to keep the attention of younger kids.  Wednesday I got to go into my daughter's Head Start and read this book to two groups of preschoolers.  Now I love curling up and reading to my daughter but it was so much fun reading to a large group of 3-5 year olds.  I had them "help" me read by filling in the blanks, predicting what would happen, and telling me the emotions they saw.  I started off asking them if they liked the book to put their hands on their head.  Then I'd say "My Cousin ...." they all yelled "MoMo." It was adorable.  One little boy even told me the author!  It was so much fun reading to the class.


The illustrations are also my Mr OHora and are colorful, large, and engaging.  They tell just as much of the story as the text does.

Part of the PA One Book program is to engage in conversation and activities about and around the book.  My Cousin MoMo offers so much to talk about as you're reading the book, emotions, where do they live, what did they find while playing hide and seek, have you ever felt like MoMo did, and so on.  But the learning and lessons don't end once the book is finish.  We watched videos about flying squirrels.  Part of my daughter's homework was to make a squirrel out of a paper bag and use whatever we wanted to make it unique.  My older daughter thought that was fun so we made a family night out of this with each of them making their own squirrel and I had my older daughter make up a story to go with hers that we talked about over diner.  It was a neat being in the school and seeing how different each squirrel was.  You can go out and play hide and seek MoMo style (which being a fan of hiking and photography I love MoMo's way!)  You can talk about cousins, how is a cousin related to you? Family tree.  How many cousins do you have, and where are they from?  The best part of these activites? They don't require anything you don't have already.  You can make up your how superhero too!  MoMo was Muffin Man.  What does Muffin Man do? Have kids tell a story about Muffin Man.

While at the school I also joined in a game with the kids. The game taught them to take turns, collect different color acorns and try to be the first to fill their log.  It was cute and would make a cute additional game to go with this book if you're interested you can find it here:

The Bottom Line: 

The Story: Was simple, engaging, and had depth.

The Illustrations:  Colorful, and aided the text.

The Lesson: Be Kind to one another, try new things, and it's okay to be different

In the comments tell me something you and your kids tried after reading My 

Cousin MoMo.

On a side note, my daughter dressed up as a superhero and I had to share.  She is Aqua Girl, with the power to make rain for grass to grow, and shoot rainbows from her eyes.