VeggieTales Lapbook!

I chanced upon VeggieTales quite by 'accident' when Dumpling and I were at the library. I was captivated by the title and the illustration and took a second look. I then saw a post on A Journey Through Learning on the lapbooks that they created on VeggieTales titles and I decided to try it out. To my pleasant surprise, I actually enjoyed it as much as Dumpling!

The title which we picked up was titled Pistachio, the Boy that Woodn't. Dumpling was the first to notice that there was a pun on the word 'woodn't' and laughed about it. We played the DVD as soon as we can. The entire VeggieTales series is based on Christian faith but delivered through a cartoon format and importantly, children are engaged with familiar fairy tales / stories. In this title, it is a tweak of classic tale: Pinocchio.

There was corny humor in the show - Geppetto was renamed as Gelato and of course, Pinocchio as Pistachio. The story started with Gelato carved out a boy named Pistachio who took on the similar adventures as the classic story. But what I liked about the show are the catchy songs (some definitely corny) and the way the story was able to bring a certain biblical message down to a level where it is digestible. The DVD discussed 'obedience' and why we must 'Honour our Father and Mother' through the mishaps that Pistachio faced along the way.

The lapbook elements consisted of pockets of activities around character and traits discussion...

(Overview of some of the activities from the lapbook)

We also had a chance to discuss about the role of parents in Dumpling's life and the lessons which we have taught her. It was a very interesting and enlightening session for me just to hear it from Dumpling's perspective!

Dumpling giving it some serious thoughts before replying and discussing her views 

with me...

And then writing it out... 

Having a think about Gelato and his role in the show and in Pistachio's life... 

We then did some verse reading and discussed the commandment below

Included in the printables pack was a parable told by Gelato which is turned into a sequencing exercise

There are a few more activities from the printables pack which I did not include in this post. Here's a trailer on Pistachio to share:

Interestingly, the DVD did not touch on being truthful which to me, is one of the most obvious topics of discussions. Having said that, Dumpling enjoyed the story and I like that the DVD and the lapbook provided me with a chance to discuss values in an applicable and more importantly, a lighthearted manner with Dumpling. As I am not very much into TV time so we took the opportunity to revisit and read the classic Pinocchio too. We have since there reserved 3 more titles from the library so no prizes for the right guesses as to what we will be doing over the next few weeks. :)