Little Critter from @MercerMayer

Last night for John's reading homework I brought him three books to choose from his bookcase. Much to my delight (since it's been a favorite of mine since I was little) he chose a Little Critter book by Mercer Mayer! They've been in his possession for his entire life and now he's thrilled that he can finally read them all by himself. He had a Little Critter lunch in kindergarten but it didn't mean that much to him. Now that he's reading the books it's a whole different story and Little Critter is back in lunch!

I drew Little Critter onto a ham & cheese on wheat sandwich using the Gourmet Food Writer Edible Color Markers by AmeriColor. Underneath the sandwich are his veggie sticks. On the right are grapes, fruit snacks, and his Omega 3 gummies .... and a spider pick since Little Critter always has his spider buddy tagging along! He's also getting a yogurt cup but it's not pictured because it's still in the freezer and, well, isn't overly photogenic anyway.
 

Scholastic's Noodles - I Love Christmas!

This was actually one of two books we read for homework reading last night. The other book was a bit too hard for him to read all on his own and that tends to frustrate him so I pulled out Noodles which I knew he'd be able to breeze through and enjoy -- and I was right! He loved it and now, of course, wants all of the Noodles books.

 The lunch is pb&j, grapes, fruit snacks and cheese (and an unpictured yogurt tube):

That cute little card on the bottom? It's a FREE Lunchbox Love Elf Joke I got just by visiting SayPlease! The link takes you to a sign-up page for their weekly e-mails but that isn't necessary to get their free printables. It does, however, keep you in the loop and gives you 10% off so I would highly recommend doing it ;)

@Storia_eBooks Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? (and Giveaway Reminder!!!)

John reading Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? on the Storia app!

PB&J sleigh, provolone kangaroo & "hop"s, chocolate Santa, orange slices & cherry yogurt with sprinkles all packed in an EasyLunchbox with the yogurt in ELB's Mini Dipper.

Tonight the amazing Storia eBooks Giveaway ends!

Click HERE to go enter while you still can!

Scholastic @Storia_eBooks Giveaway!

John with his lunch for Monday and the Storia eBook it's based on: Learn About Weather: Snow

 Unless this is the first time you've been here I'm sure you already know what HUGE fans John and I both are of Scholastic's new eBook service, Storia. When I was growing up I would always get excited when the Scholastic Book Fair happened at school or those Book Club order forms would get sent home to my folks. John started to get those same order forms sent home with him when he was in preschool and I always try and make sure that he has at least one item with his name on it when the orders come in.

Now we don't have to wait!

With Storia eBooks I have 24-hour access to their online store where I can always find a great book to add to his "bookshelf." And he loves them. The app download is free and comes with five books of varying reading levels. This isn't just a beginning reader app ... this goes from 3 up to 14! (And even older if, like me, you still enjoy a well-written "young adult" novel from time to time.) Some of the books are even enhanced with added bells and whistles and activities for the kids to click on!

From Scholastic's online press kit:

 You can also check out the far more complete "About Storia" page!

(Not sure if you're device is compatible? Give them a call at 1-855-STORIA1 -- they have AMAZING Customer Service reps and I'm sure they could tell you!)

Now a cute pic of John and some of his Storia-inspired lunches:

And NOW the big huge exciting news!

I contacted the good folks at Storia via Twitter not too long ago and asked if they would be willing to sponsor a giveaway here at What's In Our Lunch Bags? 

I was thinking maybe a couple of books ....

They're giving 20!!! 

That's right, boys and girls. One extremely lucky reader will be receiving their choice of TWENTY Storia eBooks to load onto their virtual bookshelves! Perfect timing for the holiday season, too! 

Have more than one kid? No problem. You can set up multiple bookshelves within the app easy peasy lemon squeezey (as John would say)!  

 

Storia will be providing a list with over 100 titles to choose from. I must admit, I'm more than a little jealous of whoever wins. I would probably stock up on books John would enjoy reading now and grab a handful for when he advances in his reading skills a bit more!

Entering the contest is as easy as a couple of comments. They are both mandatory entries. If you don't do them, you don't win.

MANDATORY ENTRY #1: Follow Storia eBooks on Pinterest and leave a comment here with your Pinterest username so I can check.

MANDATORY ENTRY #2: Follow Storia eBooks on Twitter and leave a comment here with your Twitter username so I can continue to stalk you.

That's it! No need to share (although that would be nice) or to like or follow me (although those would be nice, too). 

Leave those two comments any time between now and 11:59 PM ET on DECEMBER 10, 2012 (which happens to be my birthday -- I like giving stuff away on my birthday) and on December 11th I will notify the winner of their awesomeness. (Which means that I need some way to contact you. If your email isn't linked to your profile or I don't somehow already talk you on a regular basis, I need to now how to get you.)

PLEASE NOTE: At this time, Storia is available to be downloaded by anyone in the United States and those with APO/FPO addresses only.  Sorry my international peeps!

Give Thanks For Each Day (@Storia_eBooks)

Although I grabbed Give Thanks For Each Day for John thinking it would be a great Thanksgiving read, it really is an every day book ... and will probably be read and re-read throughout the year!

 I had John pick out which page he wanted, of course, and got all warm and fuzzy when he picked out the one of the Mommy bear with her cubs.

 PB&J on wheat, grapes, colby jack cheese stick and Teddy Grahams. It's his last day of school before Thanksgiving and they'll be getting a special treat for snack time so I didn't want to give him a very heavy lunch!

The Littlest Pilgrim (from @Storia_eBooks)

Thank goodness yet again for Storia! I realized that John only has one Thanksgiving book in his collection so I hopped over to Storia and grabbed a few more for him -- one of which was The Littlest Pilgrim. It's a sweet story that little ones can relate to so well. John loved it when he read it last night so today it's lunch!

 PB&J sandwiches on colby jack leaves & pepperoni slices with grapes and Indian Corn.

Wednesday afternoon we had his first Parent-Teacher Conference of the year and one of the things talked about was how they would like him to improve with how he writes about stories that he has read or heard. I decided to expand his normal reading log for his homework (date, title, read alone or with a parent and then level of difficulty) to include a spot on what the book was about. He didn't even complain about the change! (And yes, I know he misspelled "said." I was so impressed that he just went to town writing that I wasn't going to nitpick -- although I did tell him the correct spelling after the fact.)

In case you're curious, this is the new log. I added lines after he was finished doing the one for The Littlest Pilgrim since the end of his lines went a bit haywire ;)

Smash! Crash!

One of the first books I ever ordered for John through a Scholastic Book Club form was Smash! Crash! from Jon Scieszka's Trucktown. It's the book that went to bed with him the most often -- as evidenced by the fact that the cover is taped on and the corners are all curled and crinkly. He still loves it, though, and last night he discovered that he can finally read it almost all by himself!

Izzy the Ice Cream Truck is pb&j with a cheese ice cream cone and Mini Oreo wheels. He also has Craisins, pretzel sticks, pepperoni slices and will have a yogurt tube or cup on the side.

The Spooky Wheels On The Bus (a @jemills1 book on @Storia_eBooks)

John reread J. Elizabeth Mills' The Spooky Wheels on the Bus on his Storia app last night for part of his nightly reading homework. I'm absolutely blown away with how much better he's getting at reading. He still needed help with a couple of words but not nearly as many as he did when we first got the book a few weeks back. My boy is back to being excited about every new book that comes into his possession and that thrills me beyond belief! (He's NOT a big fan of having to return library books, though. Once he gets one he loves he wants to keep it!)
For lunch he's got a ham & cheese spooky bus, pretzel sticks, grapes and fruit snacks. He's also getting a yogurt tube and juice.

Max Spaniel: Dinosaur Hunt

When John came home from school today he had two new Storia eBooks waiting for him on my iPad. The pick of the night (and, therefore, tomorrow's lunch): Max Spaniel: Dinosaur Hunt!

(Can you tell I was having fun playing with my new Nikon COOLPIX S4300 with Eye-Fi card?)

Max is pb&j on wheat holding a football head pick. The flower bed is SnaPea Crisps with fruit snack flowers. There are also grapes, veggie cream cheese for dipping, and alphabet cookies spelling out Max.

The Mixed-Up Alphabet (@Scholastic - Metzger & Ho)

No school today because of Columbus Day or some such ridiculousness so John got to have a little more input than he usual for his Tuesday lunch. His first decision: the book had to be The Mixed-Up Alphabet which he read last night on his Scholastic Storia app!

Packing in the Lock & Lock box made things super-easy. Each of the four sections has 3 layers: a side, a quarter of a bologna sandwich, and then a colby jack letter (accessorized as closely as I could to how they are in the book).  Clockwise from top left the bottom layers are: grapes, alphabet cookies, Totally Ranch Munchies, and yogurt raisins.

John is thrilled with it! He loved the book and it's great for a beginning reader. There were quite a few words that he didn't know but when some of them were repeated later in the story he nailed them without hesitation. One of John's big issues has been retention. He can be told what a word is on one page and two pages later have to be told again. He pays such great attention with fun books like this and the others that we've read on Storia so far that even the hard words don't discourage him as much as they used to. He'll either ask, click, or work on sounding them out because he cares that much about getting to the next part of the tale! (Can you tell I'm thrilled???)

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves

John has his first First Grade field trip tomorrow to a pumpkin farm! He instantly knew what he wanted -- the last page from There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves which we have on the iPad thanks to the oh-so-awesome Storia app from Scholastic. He's read it twice now and I'm sure it'll be re-read many more times until he can do it without any help from me or the app itself (he can click on the word he's having trouble with and it'll read it for him).
It's a "snacky" lunch since I'm sure the kids will all be distracted by the excitement of eating at the farm. He has cheese cracker "sandwiches," the pumpkin scarecrow is cheddar on a toothpick pole, a couple of Brach's pumpkins and the alphabet cookies (only had to open two packs to get the right letters!) are sitting on Mini Slim Jims and some Indian Corn. He'll also get a frozen yogurt tube in his bag and his box of juice and an apple.

Jack's House (a @Scholastic book by Karen Magnuson Beil)

Now that John is in the first grade every night he has to read as part of his homework and keep a log of it to turn in each Friday. Wednesday night he read the book Jack's House and loved it so much he asked to have it for lunch on Friday!

Max is actually the main character in Jack's House and was made using the amazing new CuteZCute Animal Friends Food Deco Cutter and Stamp Kit! The main head cutter was flipped upside down and became his peanut butter & jelly head. It was also used for his construction helmet. The panda nose and mouth became his nose and mouth, the eyes became his floppy ears and the ears became his eyebrows. The holes from the pig snout ended up being the perfect size for Max's eyes. John absolutely loved how it turned out!

(also included are grapes, pretzel sticks and Veggie Straws)

"Henry and Mudge and the Long Weekend"

When my Great-Great-Grandfather came to America from Germany with his brother their last name was Motsch. Whoever did their intake apparently couldn't understand Motsch so wrote down the closest English name they knew -- and my family became Mudge. Not surprising, then, was my delight when John came home with his latest book gift from Reading is Fundamental : Henry and Mudge and The Long Weekend!

This week's Story Time Friday lunch only features Mudge. I don't have anything against Henry ... Mudge just ended up being larger than I had originally anticipated and rather than reprint the picture I was using, decided to just go with it!

Mudge is a bologna and cheese sandwich on whole wheat. With him are grapes and Nilla Wafers (one with a bone drawn on it). John will also get a yogurt tube on the side but I didn't bother pulling it out of the freezer for the picture :)



Mooseltoe (Palatini/Cole) @Scholastic

Friday's Story Time lunch is another favorite thanks to the Scholastic orders from school -- Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini & illustrated by Henry Cole.

I have to admit I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but I think it came out pretty well!

Mooseltoe is pickle loaf & cheese on wheat with food gel decorations 

and a star-shaped cheese cracker on top (thank you, CVS!).

The number "9" was written on the cracker for the Countdown.

Also more star crackers, Gummy Life Savers Collisions, & an Andes Peppermint Candy.

<Lunch got repacked in a new KlipIt Sandwich Box with some added grapes!>

Mercer Mayer's Little Critter

John is a big fan of the Little Critter books just like I was when I was little. He has at least half a dozen of the books at this point with more on the way!

LC is a turkey sandwich.
The spider & mouse  (& heart) are Nilla Wafers.
The small container has carrots & ranch dressing.

Corduroy

One of my favorites growing up was Don Freeman's Corduroy. I loved that silly little bear and his missing button! Of course, I had to get John a copy and he loves it, too.

Corduroy is a sandwich made with pumpkin cream cheese. On the side are cheese buttons, teddy grahams, turkey bites and an apple.

Oh. This must be lunch. I think I may have always wanted a Corduroy lunch.

;)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

John absolutely adores CCBB so now he'll have it in lunch form!

The coconut tree and grass are SunButter & Jelly sandwiches. The A, B & C are cheese. On the side are Scrabble Jr Cheezits and grapes!

Clifford's Halloween Howl

I knew I wanted to do a lunch based on one of John's favorite books - one of his very first Scholastic Book Club orders back when he was in preschool. Of course, when I went to go find the book it wasn't on his bookshelf. It was in his bed! Some kids can't go to sleep at night without a favorite teddy... MY boy can't go to sleep at night without a book :)

Emily Elizabeth is a cheese sandwich. Clifford is a turkey sandwich. The jack o'lantern is a Nilla wafer & there are a few more of those with some Twizzler Nibs in the small container. Add a Clifford juice box and fruit (which I have to run to the store for now), and we have lunch!