FOR TEACHERS & PARENTS
Teacher Resources
NEW! Exciting new Teachers Guide for Carmela's latest book, Something Spectacular, A Rock's Journey
HAPPY CAMPER CHECKLIST is here!
Make your own finger puppets!
Cutest Bumblebee EVER (pdf)
Power Thought Activity Kit (pdf)
Wild Zoo Train Activity Kit (pdf)
Do Princesses and Super Heroes Hit the Trails Lesson Plans (pdf)
Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots Lesson Plans (pdf)
The Tumbleweed Came Back Lesson Plans (pdf)
Book Descriptions
Book Order Form (pdf)
Online Book Order Form
Poster (see below)
Need a poster for a school or store visit with Carmela?
Here's all you need for easy printing at a local print shop: PDF or JPG
How to Host a Hiking Boot Princess Party
Illustrator, Mike Gordon, and author, Carmela LaVigna Coyle have prepared a lively Hiking Boot Princess party for your home, library, bookstore, or school!
Follow the brochure link to craft instructions, Tic-Tac-Bingo game, recipes, along with loads of other ideas to make your event super fun and cost effective. Pick and choose what works for your budget! An easy link to Carmela's Pinterest board gives you further ideas to make a Hiking Boot Princess party POP! Add to the Hiking Boot Princess party fun by using the Randumhouse font for invitations, tags, signs, etc. Carmela and Mike would love to hear how your event goes. Your thoughts and photos are always welcome! Have fun! |
NEW!
HAPPY CAMPER CHECKLIST is here!
Have fun adventuring wherever your campout takes you.
Download the PDF here, and don't forget the bonus page of EXTRA fun stuff to do while camping!
Wouldn't it be fun to make finger puppets from felt?
Here's everything you'll need to make cute little companions to Do Princesses Really Kiss Frogs and Do Princesses and Super Heroes Hit the Trails.
(Adult supervision required!)
Feeling extra creative? Change the colors of the felt or use different size googly eyes. Have fun!
Frog Finger Puppet and Bookmark
What you'll need:
- Felt (green for body & red for frog mouth)
- Goggly eyes
- Scissors (with adult supervision)
- Thread and needle (or)
- Low temp hot glue gun
- Create a frog pattern or use the pdf provided.
- Trace (or pin) the pattern onto felt. Cut out frog body shapes and mouth.
- Begin sewing or hot gluing the frog body pieces together as shown.
- Glue on googly eyes. And suddenly your frog puppet is ready for Do Princesses Really Kiss Frogs?
Brown Bear Finger Puppet and Bookmark
What you'll need:
- Felt (brown, white)
- Googly eyes
- Scissors (with adult supervision)
- Thread and needle (or)
- Low temp hot glue gun or use craft glue
- Create a bear pattern or use the one provided.
- Trace (or pin) the bear pattern onto felt. Cut out bear body shapes.
- Fold over main body and sew the sides together or glue.
- Glue snout and ear pieces into place. See photo.
- Glue on googly eyes.
- Grrrrrrr...reat, now you're all ready to read!
Can you find the brown bear and froggy in Do Princesses Really Kiss Frogs?
Can you find the frog in Do Princesses and Super Heroes Hit the Trails?
Online craft supplies with really awesome stuff!
thefeltpod.com
A few words about pollinators
Bees, Bats, Butterflies, Bugs, and Birds make up the earth's most important pollinators. Scientists call this superhero group, the "Five B's". Of course, there are other pollinators, such as animals and wind and water. But they don't start with the letter "B", even though they're pollinator superheroes too!
Pollinators work to make sure we have flowers, fruit, grains, and vegetables, as well as most everything in the plant world, including soil.
When pollinators visit flowers and flowering plants, they capture pollen on their bodies. Then when they fly or crawl off to visit other flowers, they drop the collected pollen into those flowers. If the conditions are right, the pollen fertilizes the flower, and then the flower makes more flowers.
Bees happen to "be" one of the most important pollinators on Earth! All of our 58 National Parks are visited by pollinating bees at some point during the year. The princess and her brother in Do Princesses and Super Heroes Hit the Trails visit 12 of USA National Parks and are always looking for fun crafts.
Now you can make your own pipe cleaner bumblebee too!
See easy instructions below or download a PDF.
Cutest Bumblebee EVER
What you'll need:
- 3 pipe cleaners (various colors)
- 2 googly eyes
- Hot glue gun (low temp)
Hold two pipe cleaners side by side, and begin twisting them into one twisty pipe cleaner. It will now look like a 2-color striped pipe cleaner.
Next, wrap the pipe cleaner around your index finger (pointer) so it resembles a coil. Important: wrap the pipe cleaner tightly, but not too tight that you can't slide it off your finger!
Gently slide the coiled pipe cleaner off your finger. It should (sort of) resemble a fluffy fat bee. For the head, tuck the most narrow end in just a little.
Glue on googly eyes on the narrow end.
Next, tuck in the bottom end.
For bee wings, have an adult help cut one pipe cleaner in half. You only need one half for the wings. Holding the pipe cleaner, bring each end to the middle forming what looks like a bow or wings. Gently twist the pipe cleaner ends at the middle so the wings will stay in place.
Now you're ready to attach your wings! Slide the wings into the bees body. And Viola!
You now have one of the cutest bees ever! >Power Thoughts: A powerfully-fun activity to do anytime!
What are Power Thoughts?
At the beginning and end pages of Can Princesses Become Astronauts, there are 20 power thoughts geared for all ages. They are my favorite part of the book.
Power thoughts are the princess's gentle reminder to believe in herself. Here's a page from the book:
Wouldn't it be fun to create your very own powerful thoughts and write them inside clouds? Thoughts like, share brightness; smile at dogs; wish on dandelion puffs . . . or whatever you come up with?
How to make a Power Thought cloud:
- Download and print the cloud page here.
- Think about what you would like your power thoughts to be.
- Write your thoughts inside the clouds. Keep it simple!
- Don't worry if your words spill outside of the cloud lines. Clouds are super cool with that.
- Cut out your clouds. Or leave the page whole and frame it!
How to use cloud Power Thoughts:
- Tape clouds to a board or mirror as a lovely reminder of how powerful YOU are.
- Grab your crayons and color your clouds in whatever colors strike your fancy.
- Gather your cut-up clouds together like flower petals. Glue or tape together for one big cloud flower.
- Leave one or more cloud in a book, as a random act of kindness, for someone else to find.
- Give or mail a Power Thought cloud to someone who might need some cheering up.
How-to-Make Birdseed Biscuits—for our feather friends
Supplies:
- 2/3 cup of boiling water
- 2 packets of gelatin (generic brand or Knox)
- 2 cups of bird seed
- Paper plates
- Plastic cookie cutters (Dollar store!)
- Straws (cut in half)
- Wax paper or parchment
- Large bowl & wooden spoon
- Jute or string
Adult supervision required! Open contents of 2 gelatin packages into a large mixing bowl. Pour 2/3 cups boiling water over the top and whisk quickly until gelatin dissolves.
Add bird seed and stir well with wooden spoon. The bird seed should be well coated with gelatin.
Place favorite shape cookie cutters onto a paper plate. Begin spooning seed mixture into the cookie cutters. Occasionally press down with a piece of wax paper or plastic spoon. Add more seeds until the cookie cutter is over-flowing with seeds. Press down again.
Poke straw all the way through to create a hole, making sure the hole isn't too close to the edge of the cutter. Leave straw in place. Place the paper plates in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours. When set, remove the paper plates from the fridge. Gently pull out straw, making certain it pokes thru to the other side. Next allow biscuits to dry before removing the cookie cutter. Turn the cookie cutters over and allow to dry out for a few more hours. Or better yet, let them sit out overnight.
Carefully remove the cookie cutters.Thread string/jute thru the hole. Now it's time to hang your new birdseed biscuit outside!
Download these directions for birdseed biscuits (pdf)
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| Nick Coyle and his interactive Sea Discovery Invention |
Super-est TOY
Parents... the greatest, most super-est TOY for your child is a BOX!
I found this out when my son, Nick, discovered cardboard at the age of 18 months.
KIDSPOT has complied an awesome list of 15 things to do with cardboard boxes. Ok, you might need some tape and kid-safe scissors too!
Guess How Many Daisies?
There are MANY daisies throughout Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? Can you count them all?* (Start at the beginning, on the page with the two hiking boots and end on the page with the mirror!)
Ready. Set. Go!
Email me your answer and I'll write you back!
How-to-Make Tumbleweed Energy Balls
You will need:
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 cup coconut flakes (small flakes)
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 1/2 mini chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla
Mix ingredients together. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then form into bite size balls. Roll in toasted coconut (or untoasted).
Refrigerate. Makes around 20 balls.
Download these directions for tumbleweed energy bars (pdf)
How-to-Make a Do Super Heroes Cape for Teddy
You will need:
- Flannel (of choice) 10" x 12" piece
- Felt (various colors)
- 18-22" shoe string*
- scissors
- glue
- needle and thread
Fold approx. 10" X 12" flannel piece longways. With the help of an adult, round the corners on one end with scissors. Open cape. The top of the cape should be square edge, the bottom edges of cape should be rounded. Fold under the top of the cape (squared off edge) by 1 1/2" to create a tube. Stitch close to the salvage edge, leaving enough room for the shoe string to thread through the tube. Design your own super hero emblem with felt. With help of an adult, cut and glue into place. Next thread the shoe string through the tube. You are ready to tie the cape on your super hero teddy bear or other plush toy.
KA-ZOOM!
*If you prefer to use velcro instead of shoe string, simply add a tab of velcro to the upper corners of the cape.
Download these directions for a teddy bear superheroes cape (pdf)
How-to-Make a REAL "Do Princesses" Daisy Crown
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| Me wearing a daisy crown |
Does a princess wear a real daisy crown?
I believe she wears one all over town...
You will need:
- one bunch of fresh daisies
- scissors
This is the same instruction for making a daisy chain. Ask an adult to snip the daisy stems so that your daisies have at least two-inch long green stems.
Next, again ask an adult, make a very small slit, longways along the base of the daisy. Do this to all the daisies first before proceeding.
Now, insert the stem of one of the daisies into the slit, bringing the daisy heads close together. Continue adding daisies one by one through each slit, until you have a nice long daisy chain. You can either stop here... Or you can bring the two ends together to form a crown. Simply beautiful!
Silk Daisy Crown
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| Lulu is a princess too! |
You will need:
- Green (or other color) pipe cleaners (2 to 3)
- 6 or more silk daisies (craft store)
- Hot glue gun
- Scissors
- Ribbon (optional)
Look in one of the Do Princesses books to see an example of a daisy crown. And see photo of Lulu... isn't she cute?
With the help of a parent, twist two pipe cleaner ends together into one long piece. (Add another depending on the size of your head.) Then twist the two ends together to make one big circle. This will be the base of your crown.
Now, ask your parent to attach the silk daisies by using a hot glue gun, attach daisies in various locations around the crown.
Tie a ribbon to the back, if you would like.
Download these directions for a silk daisy crown (pdf)
WATCH my latest (first!) video as I demonstrate how to make silk daisy crowns just
like the ones in the books!
Super Hero Emblem
What is a super hero anyway? "They're brave and bold and kind and caring." Well, most of them. I challenge you to make one up. What's his/her name? What powers does she/he have? The skies the limit. Here, you can print your own template and color your very own super hero emblem. Remember to send me a note to tell me what you drew. Or better yet, send me a photo of your emblem too.
Puttering Princess/Prince Drinking Chocolate
I was the featured author for Julie Hedlund's popular 12 X 12 writer's workshop/forum in March 2013. Here you can find out: Do Princesses Putter? And don't miss my original recipe for Dark Drinking Chocolate!
