Eggnog Evergreen: Using our Elf to Promote Reading

Yay! Eggnog is back!  Tomorrow I will the rest of his adventures so far but, this year, I'm trying a new idea and it seems to be working! I'm using Eggnog to get Mr. No more interested in his book. I have no idea why I didn't think of it before especially since it makes it so easy to create scenes.  3 day sout of the 10 he's been back, Eggnog has gotten into Mr. No's bookshelf, pulled out a book (or books) and used them to create his nightly scene.  Some will be easy and some will be more involved. It's amazing how much more excited Mr. No is about the scenes when it's from a book he likes!  And he wants to read the book, sometimes several times, because of Eggnog. And since Eggnog is always thoughtful enough to leave the book out, it's easy for Mr. No to grab it and read.

This is what I've come up with so far:

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Since we had items readily available, I somewhat recreated the part with the goat and the boat.  We have 2 Rise of the Guardian Elves that are enemies of Eggnog so they each had a part and a sign with their line from the story.

I quickly sewed 2 eggs from felt, just green circles sewn directly to cream colored blobs, and green ham which is stuffed with fluff.  The "plate" has a bit of elastic sewn to the bottom so it could easily slip on his hand and stay put.

Bad Elf with the goat, fox and mouse in his car, looking crabby.

This is one of Mr. No's favorite books but he's been cranky about reading it because we've been trying to pick out sight words while I read.  He was all for it that night since it had Eggnog's approval.


The Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne

This one was a bit more involved.  I actually made the tree house out of cardboard which was fairly simple. Cut the doors and windows and draw the lines on to make it look like wood and it was done. The cardboard ladder took a bit longer and I should have tied it differently but it worked.  I used the leftover cardboard and cut it into strip, then punched holes in the ends, tied on the yarn and then taped it into the tree house.  And Eggnog couldn't be Jack without his glasses!

I was even crazy enough to make cardboard books, paint them and add titles.  It's not the magic tree house without books! Lalaloopsy girl was Annie and then I grabbed whatever toys I could find that fit the books we had read so far.  Dinosaurs, pirates, ninjas, knights, etc. and hung the pteradactyl from the fan so he was flying. This made him want to continue on in the series so Eggnog would have more adventures to go on with LalaLoopsy Annie.
 

Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks

This was my last one so far.  Mr. No had everyone he could find read this book to him after Eggnog set up the scene.  It's a cute little book about Mrs. McNosh washing and hanging up the laundry and everything in sight including herself.  He thinks it's hilarious and I even managed to find some chatter teeth to pass as Grandpa McNosh's removable teeth. This was a simple one to set up.  Ribbon tied around the room and I hung up every silly but small enough thing I could find.

 I like to create things so I enjoy making the scenes more involved but they could easily be done as simply as Mrs. McNosh was and it's a positive but still fun alternative to fresh elves! Though we enjoy when our elf gets into mischief!  With Mr. No just beginning to learn sight words, I thought this would be a fun way to encourage him to read more without pushing him.  It's working and the book scenes are his favorite scenes so far!