Hooray! It’s finally here. Today is the first ever Poppins Book Nook Blog Hop. On the last Monday of every month we will be sharing a variety of book-inspired activities on a specific topic. This month’s topic is Knights, Princesses, and Castles.
Our Book
If you read my introductory post this month, you already know that we chose to read The Queen of France by Tim Wadham.
Rose, the main character of this story, is feeling royal as she wakes up one morning, so she embarks on a day of imaginative play. Her mother and father play along as Rose pretends to be the Queen of France.
When the “Queen of France” first visits, Rose’s mother is planting “bumpy sticks.” The Queen scoffs at the ugly sticks, but Rose’s mother explains that soon those sticks will grow into a beautiful green plant with pink flowers, a rose bush. She says that she named Rose after this flower. The story goes on with more of Rose’s pretend play, but Lovey was so fixated on the roses that we chose to use this part of the story as our inspiration.
Book-Inspired Activities
Rose Hunt
The first thing we did after reading this story was go on a hunt for roses. There are many rose bushes in our neighborhood, so we thought we could find some beautiful roses. However, none of them were blooming yet, and instead we found a bunch of “bumpy sticks” like Rose’s mother was planting in the story. It was wonderful for Lovey to stop and take notice of them, because we usually only stop to look more closely at them when they are in bloom. I love that this book inspired us to look a little more closely.
Then we started looking for roses as we were out and about during our regular activities. We found this beautiful rose on our way to a family dinner one night, and we just had to stop and take a closer look at it.
We didn’t have an opportunity yet, but I also think it would be fun to visit a rose garden after reading this book.
Crown of Roses Craft
With the memory of the beautiful pink rose still fresh in our minds, we decided to make a Queen’s crown…full of pink roses. We used an egg carton, pipe cleaners, paint, and glitter. Visit Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas to see a full egg carton floral wreath tutorial and an adorable variation of this craft.
Dress-Up
One of the best parts of this book is seeing how Rose gets so engaged in dramatic play, so we simply had to play dress-up to go along with this story. Lovey and Tinker both dress up like princesses and queens regularly, so this wasn’t a stretch. However, I did love to see Lovey incorporating some of the story elements into their play.
Writing
At the end of dinner Rose decides she feels scary, so she heads to her bedroom to put on a new costume. Younger kids could draw a picture about what they think will happen next.Older kids could write a sequel to this book and tell a story about what Rose chooses as her new costume.
Have you read this story? What other activities would you do to go along with the plot?
Rebecca
What a lovely activity – such a beautiful crown.
Thanks for linking to the Sunday Showcase. I’ve pinned it to our board.
Shaunna
Thanks! She’s been proudly wearing her crown around the house for a while now 🙂
Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum
First off you are so lucky to have roses in bloom (we’re a long way away from that happening in the UK). The rose crown is fab.
Thank you for linking up to Tuesday Tots and letting you know I’ve featured this on Rainy Day Mum this week.
Shaunna
Good point! I do love that we have flowers already. 🙂 Thanks so much for featuring the idea!
Reshama
What a great find.. pretend play + queens + pink roses! :))
LOVE the crown!!
-Reshama
http://www.stackingbooks.com
Shaunna
Thanks 🙂 My daughter really appreciated the equation, too…hard to go wrong with those elements.
Karyn
That rose crown is so cute & my little princess would love it!
Shaunna
It is a versatile little crown…since making it Lovey has been a queen, a princess, and a fairy.
Jodie @ Growing Book by Book
I love the rose hunt. I look forward to all the spring flowers in our area soon!
Shaunna
I know what you mean! Since doing this activity my daughter has been on the look out for roses everywhere. I love that it has encouraged her to think beyond “flowers.” Now she is very interested in the specific kinds of flowers we are seeing.
Jill
LOVE the crown of roses craft! How beautiful! My daughter loves that storybook.
Shaunna
Thanks! We really liked the book, too!
Play Create Explore
What a lovely book and Ohhh I love that crown!
Shaunna
Thanks! Lovey really enjoyed painting the crown, and the book was definitely a great discovery.
Ashley
Adorable crown! I hope our library has this book; I think my girls would enjoy it!
Shaunna
I was excited to find the book. It wasn’t what I expected at all, but we loved it…perfect for encouraging pretend play.
Erin - The Usual Mayhem
I love that crown! You did some great activities and I love how you were looking at stems as well as for blooms!
Are there any botanical gardens near your house, or public greenhouses? You can probably find some there. You might also be able to do that experiment here you put a cut white flower into water with food colouring and it takes on the colour; I think you’d have to split the rose stem a little at the bottom for that one.
Shaunna
Thank you! I love your suggestions. We don’t have a public greenhouse, but there are definitely some wonderful garden that we could explore. It might also be neat to make a real crown of roses with the colored flowers from the experiment. Fun ideas!