5 Mischievous Fictional Girls

When I was a little girl, I wasn't very mischievous - my mom wouldn't have dealt with that well, haha.  I did love to read about them.  While being a public school teacher with gifted and talented students, I was always on the lookout for strong, feisty, mischievous fictional girls. And, you know what? There aren't enough of them.  Little girls can learn a lot from reading about different personalities in different situations from their own, so, search for them, and read them. (and share them with me!)

Here are some of my favorite and I have to start with Junie B Jones because I actually used to read aloud over the elementary school intercom Junie B Jones books, with different voices and accents! Usually the second grade classes would study the book while I was going through one, and other classes could just turn it off, or listen, and laugh. 

5 Mischievous Fictional Girls

1.  Junie B Jones and Some Sneaky Peek Spying Girls and boys alike get a kick out of this children's literature icon.   I have a lot of favorites and there are 28 books in this series. This one cracks me up. Maybe it's because Junie is SO interested in her teacher's life, you know? I've had students a bit like that, too!  Runner up has to be:

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (P.S. So Does May)  or maybe Cheater Pants!

2.  Fancy Nancy and the Wedding of the Century There are a ton of books in this series, too, and no wonder. Fancy Nancy is quite a creative little character!  If you haven't read this one with your little girls, especially if you have a wedding coming up in the family, you should put this one your list! 

3. OMG, Olivia Marie!  "OMG, Olivia Marie!" Lots of people in Olivia Marie's family say this to her. Sometimes she even says it to herself. She wonders why people say her initials so often!  Jump in to this story and also enjoy a song and a quiz. Your child's imagination will want to add to the adventure! (Olivia is a real girl and her mom calls her a firecracker)

4.  Ramona the Pest Ramona Quimby has quite a time starting kindergarten. I never tire of this book - what a classic character. There's so much for children to enjoy and learn here, without being preachy. 

5.  Matilda    Matilda is a higher-level vocabulary book than many people expect but it has such a captivating prankster as a main character, children tend to READ UP to this level. It's a great chapter book to read aloud with your child, a chapter a night from your iPad or Kindle, or iPhone. Many different types of children connect with Matilda - bookworms, pranksters, brainiacs, and children with a big heart emotionally. It's also fun to watch the movie afterwards, and compare/contrast the movie with the book.

So, who else do you think should be on this list of Mischievous Fictional Girls?  From picture books like "OMG, Olivia Marie" to Matilda's higher reading level, feisty is lots of fun!

5 of the Best Unicorn Books for Children

Most kids love the thought of magical and rare unicorns. Unicorns are everywhere. My grand baby, Kyler,  had a unicorn bib on last night and Olivia had on a Unicorn dress at Bob Evans today. 

Look around - so much merchandise and lots of movies and books, too.

Here's a list of some the best Unicorn stories, in case you know a unicorn lover. (and, who doesn't love unicorns?)

1. Razzle Dazzle Unicorn   There are several of these books in a series of Phoebe and Marigold and this one is my favorite. It reinforces the important idea that it's perfectly ok to be weird and different.

2.  Uni the Unicorn   This one is a bit expensive but if you don't know this story, you should. It turns everything around since Uni has been told that there's no such thing as little girls! ( but Uni believes)

3. OMG, Olivia Marie! The Trouble with Unicorns   Olivia Marie loves everything unicorn and wants to go to the wild, where unicorns exist. Adventure awaits! 

4.  Goodnight Unicorn Yes, it's like Goodnight Moon, and it's so smart!

5.  Fancy Nancy and the Quest for the Unicorn  How hard can it be to find a unicorn? Fancy Nancy (and all her shenanigans) just follows the trail of glitter. 

Also:

Unicorn Coloring Book  You will want to take some time to color with your favorite little unicorn-loving girls since these coloring book choices are SO gorgeous. 

What's your favorite? Have I missed yours?

OMG, Olivia Marie! The Trouble with Unicorns

Smart moms with smart kids look for interesting and funny ebooks. We can't just let them game on their devices, right?

Please share this new Olivia Marie adventure with all the unicorn lovers you know!

I would so dearly love to have some Amazon reviews from the KIDS, too!  It's a great thing to do with your child - read the ebook and then leave a review!

OMG, Olivia Marie! The Trouble with Unicorns

OMG Olivia Marie! The Trouble with Unicorns

OMG, Olivia Marie! The Trouble with Unicorns will be on Amazon for Kindle this weekend.

Cat Themed Classroom Shower Curtain Ideas

This is a beautiful shower curtain that I found on Amazon. It was about $30. I bought two of them for Jessica's classroom. We put one on the wall near the group time carpet. It's colorful and showcases the names of different cat breeds. 

The yellow curtains that I got her last year never were really long enough to block all the playground action out the windows, so I had a plan for the other cat shower curtain, as you can see. I cut off the top row and the bottom row and sewed it on to the yellow curtains, to brighten up the room, AND to lengthen the curtains.  Our black silhouette cats still peek playfully out behind them. Don't they look AWESOME? 

That left the middle two rows of the second cat shower curtain, ( two groups of 4 cats) so I had Jessica pick her favorite section and I sewed a quick hem edge around 3 edges of the banner. (one side edge was already hemmed) 

See below? We hung the "cat banner" outside the classroom door, just over the desk that holds popsicle sticks with their names. They put their name in the cup that ways "school lunch" or the one that says "packed lunch."  I especially love this section because the Norwegian Forest cat looks like Jessica's cat, Mac, and my sister, Annette, has two Ragdolls, Slate and Cocoa.

This still leaves me with 4 more cat faces, and I think they are each going on a floor cushion cover. It's on my very long to-do list. Ha!

Magnetic Student Job Cards

We bought a booklet of animal print large index cards at Hobby Lobby, choose some our favorites, and added student jobs that we'd printed out earlier.
Next, we hard laminated them.
The last thing we did was to put magnets on the back of the Student Job Cards with a hot glue gun.

We put them on the front of the teacher desk, which is turned toward the student desk area.

Each student had the same kind of magnetic card with their name on it, and would put their name under the job they wanted.  Choice is so important for children and many times a student would earn the right to choose first for the next week.

How do you do your Job Cards?

OMG, Olivia Marie! on Sale this week on Amazon

Jack and I visited Olivia Marie recently and I took an iPad so we could read OMG, Olivia Marie! together and have some laughs. It was interesting to see her reactions as we read a book about HER.  She also has a sweet little singing voice - we had fun singing the song and taking the 2-question quiz when we were finished with the story.

Garrett got in on the fun also, as you can see, above. I think he only likes the page that HE is on, and no wonder. It is a book about a girl. I did get a chance to show him where he shows up in the second OMG, Olivia Marie book and he liked the illustration and the storyline  - he is trying to cheer his unicorn-loving sister up by finding her a unicorn movie!

Back to Olivia Marie - I talked with her about her love of unicorns and ran through the basic storyline of the book I'm working on now.  She immediately ran out of the room and came back with a stuffed unicorn that she didn't think I'd seen yet. (She was right) She said this was her favorite unicorn at least for the next few days!

Then she decided that I should draw this unicorn and that she would color it - for the book, for the book!  That turned out pretty sweet, don't you think?

OMG, Olivia Marie! is on sale this week on Amazon for Kindle. I'd be thrilled if you downloaded it and talked about initials and choosing to do the right thing when you would rather do something wasteful or annoying.  You both might have a good laugh together.  You might also find yourself saying OMG, Olivia Marie at opportune times in your lives!

Remember, reviews and shares are SO appreciated by authors. Thank you!