LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

Click here to listen to: Inky's Christmas (our second holiday story)

View the blog post with activities for the story: All Things Inky

Click here to listen to: Chilly's Christmas (our first holiday story)

View the blog post with activities for the story: Chilly's Christmas Activities

Have you seen or captured a view lately that you would like to share? We would love to post it on the blog. Send us your visual definition of view to nightlightstories@gmail.com.

LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

Click here to listen to: Inky's Christmas (our second holiday story)

View the blog post with activities for the story: All Things Inky

Click here to listen to: Chilly's Christmas (our first holiday story)

View the blog post with activities for the story: Chilly's Christmas Activities

Take a look at our picture and sentence for unruly. Can you guess what it means? If you need some help, just click on the word unruly in this post and it will bring you to the definition.

Show us how you visualize the word unruly by sending us a picture. You can send it to nightlightstories@gmail.com.

We will post it on the blog for all to enjoy! As always, I look forward

to watching the glow grow brighter with the many words we can share together.

TREAT TIME

Click here to listen to: Inky's Christmas (our second holiday story)

View the blog post with activities for the story: All Things Inky

Click here to listen to: Chilly's Christmas (our first holiday story)

View the blog post with activities for the story: Chilly's Christmas Activities

Hi All,

One of our favorite things to do this time of year is to make cookies! My son and I do the gathering, measuring, and mixing of the dough; while my husband is wonderful at cutting out the cookies with the kids and decorating them. We do have a few favorite recipes. The first is my grandmother's secret cookie dough recipe. The secret mostly is the amount of butter in them!
Our second favorite, which we would like to share with you, is a Gingerbread Cookie recipe that was passed onto me by a student. They are fun and easy to make! Click here to get the recipe. There are a few simple steps in making cookies. Follow along with us as we go through them.

FIRST AND FOREMOST, WASH YOUR HANDS THOROUGHLY!

READ THE INGREDIENTS LIST IN THE RECIPE.

GATHER ALL THE INGREDIENTS YOU WILL NEED.

FOLLOW THE RECIPE CLOSELY. MEASURE, POUR, AND MIX.

(Oh, and make sure to get flour on your pants)

ROLL OUT THE DOUGH. SHAPE THE DOUGH INTO A BALL OR CUT THEM INTO SHAPES WITH COOKIE CUTTERS.

TIME TO COOK! ASK AN ADULT FOR HELP!

(Can you find the lobster and ferret cookies?)

WAIT FOR THEM TO COOL.

SCRUMPTIOUS!

Feel free to send us your favorite holiday recipe that you like to make as a family to nightlightstories@gmail.com or post it here on the blog.

We will make a list and post them next week for all to share!

As always, I look forward to watching the glow grow brighter with

the many holiday treats and recipes we can share together.

Episode 16: Inky's Christmas

Click here to listen to: Inky's Christmas

Click here to listen to: Chilly's Christmas (our first Christmas story)

Hello All,

Season Greetings! We want to send out our warmest Night Light wishes to you and your family during this holiday season. This time of year, we look forward to a lot of parties, lights, decorations, singing, and presents. There are a lot of different ways to give through the holiday seasons. You can give your time to a worthy cause, collect food, collect toys, even donate a book for children in the hospital. Share with us a way that you have given in this holiday season. We love to hear about how creative and generous our listeners are.

Voracious Vocabulary

Our stories are filled with many illuminating words. Try and use them somewhere in a conversation this week.

festive: joyous

propel: to drive, or cause to move, forward or onward

smithereens: small pieces, bits

All Things Inky

Download the All Things Inky Template (.PDF)

Try any or all of these fun activities with Inky!

1. Color Inky your favorite color using markers, crayons, colored pencils, or any other fun coloring tool you have!

2. Paint or color an ocean scene on a piece of paper and then paste Inky somewhere in your seascape!

3. Design Inky's den for him. Where would his bed be? Would he have a kitchen?

4. Use a crayon and color all of Inky's pieces heavily. Really bear down on the crayon so that you cannot see any white spots. When you are finished, flip the paper over to the side that is not colored. Dribble a little vegetable oil on a paper towel and spread it across the paper. Check out the cool effect you've create! Hang Inky on the tree or in the window to create a sun catcher.

5. Practice your counting, addition, subtraction and/or multiplication with Inky! Print out the Head, Arms, and Suction Cup templates. Attach all 8 arms to Inky's head. Cut out all the suction cups. Move them around each tentacle and add them up or take some away.

6. Place as many suction cups as you want on each tentacle and count them up. You can practice counting by 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, or even 10's!

7. Practice your multiplication facts! Place 6 suction cups on all 8 arms and see how many you get? Take them off and place 3 on each arm. How many do you have now?

8. Create a pattern with Inky's tentacles, such as red, green, red, green. If you are a little more daring, use the suction cup template and see how detailed you can make your patterns on his tentacles.

9. Decorate Inky as festive as you can for the holiday season using things around the ocean.

10. Design your very own Inky, Shark, Jellyfish, and Eel. The possiblilities are endless!

Once you've finished your project, take a picture and send it to us at nightlightstories@gmail.com. We'll post it up in our Fan Art section so you can share it with the world! Who knows? Your work of art might just inspire someone else!

Have fun and enjoy!

JUST ADD IMAGINATION

Try these activities to keep your imagination glowing after hearing the story.

1. Create a holiday scene using the ocean theme. How many things in the ocean can you find to mimic decorations on land?

2. Write a letter to Inky sharing some ideas with him on how you think he could control his inking.

COMPREHENSION CHALLENGE

After listening to the story, can you recall the details to answer these questions?

1. List 2 things that Inky worries about throughout the story.

2. How did he plan on not inking at Shark's Shindig? At Jellyfish's Jamboree?

3. Were his friends angry with him like he thought they would be? How did he know?

BRIGHT BIRTHDAY WISHES
We want to send out bright birthday wishes to:

Papa G of Massachusetts

Uncle Markie of Massachusetts

Shawn D

Nonni B of New York

Cavin D of West Virginia

We hope your day SPARKLED!

If you know someone who has a birthday coming up and you'd like to send them a Night Light Birthday wish, send us an email at nightlightstories@gmail.com.Please send us your loved one's first name and the first initial of their last name only and we'll pass along the birthday wish.

There are no age limits!

As always I look forward to watching the glow grow brighter with the many stories we can share together.

LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

What kind of teamwork have you captured on your camera lately?

Show us how you visualize the word teamwork and send it to nightlightstories@gmail.com.

We will post it on the blog for all to enjoy! As always, I look forward

to watching the glow grow brighter with the many words we can share together.

LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

Cocoa the puppy found a comfortable lap to take a snooze in.

The boy and *girl took a snooze after a long day at the beach.

*The girl is a former and very sweet student of mine!

The children are snoozing in the car after the 2009 "Walk Now for Autism" walk.

The baby is snoozing peacefully on the floor.

Have you caught someone snoozing lately? Send us a picture of your family member, pet, or friend that you caught snoozing to nightlightstories@gmail.com. We will post them on the blog for all to enjoy. As always, we look forward to watching the glow grow brighter with the many words and pictures we can share together.