We’ve reached an exciting new milestone in our house: the start of chapter books! Girlie loves reading and can retain a story’s details for a long time and make predictions about what might happen next, so I decided she was ready to move on to chapter books. I was not sure at first how she’d feel about waiting a few days to complete a storyline, but she loved it! We had a great time talking about the characters and what was going to happen to them over the period of a few days while we read the book.
We started with The Magic Tree House because we heard it was popular with the kindergarten set. We borrowed book # 1, “Dinosaurs Before Dark,” from our local library and it did not disappoint. The story was full of action that was easy to follow and each chapter included at least one illustration, which made reading fun and helped complement the descriptions of the dinosaurs. We read two chapters a night and finished the entire book in under one week. We started each nightly reading session by reviewing what had already happened in the story line and what we thought might happen next. After reading our two chapters, we discussed the kids’ decisions and what we might have done differently or done the same and then made predictions about what we’d discover when we resumed reading the next night.
To celebrate the completion of our very first chapter book, I made Girlie a Magic Tree House bento to eat in the car on her way to Musical Theater last night. Here is her EasyLunchBox:
Magic Tree House Bento
I made her a PB&J tree house, using bread crust for trim, a pretzel rod for the tree trunk, and lettuce leaves. I attempted to make a cheese stegosaurus and a cheese T-Rex, but you can see for yourself how those turned out! I set some blueberry dinosaur eggs at the base of the tree. Her fruit compartment has kiwi, raspberries, blueberries, and grapes. I packed the small compartment with carrots, sugar snap peas, and a hello kitty hard boiled egg.
Girlie was very excited to see this bento dinner and it definitely helped her re-energize herself after a full day of summer camp to make it through her Musical Theater evening dance class. She loved all the fruits with their pretty colors and she discovered that she could hold the tree house by the pretzel trunk and eat it like a “sandwich lollipop,” which made her giddy.
Have you read the Magic Tree House books? The library does not have book #2 in stock, but they do have #3. Does it make any difference if we skip around? I can see there is something about collecting medallions that leads me to believe the order may be important, but I may be wrong. If you have advice on this, please post a comment. No spoilers!!! 
If you have not read the books, click here to visit my amazon store and learn more about this fun children’s series, which chronicles the adventures of a brother and sister who visit a magic tree house stocked with books and travel to historical times and places, kind of like a kiddie version of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Party On, Dudes!!!! Have a fun and safe 4th of July, everyone!
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I’m excited to start chapter books with my girls – will remember this series! And your lunch is adorable!!
Thank you! We had a great time reading it together and the lunch was a nice reward for us both!
This is awesome! We have been trying to create our lunches based on the books we read too, but never made it to my blog coz my kiddos gobble them faster than taking pictures of it. Next time I should do it at night when they’re in bed and surprise them in the morning instead.
Great idea! Sometimes I prepare the lunches at night, but mostly I work on them in the morning. My kids have been conditioned to wait for my to snap the picture before they can eat, but it is sometimes really hard for the Little Dude to be patient!
That tree house looks amazing!
Thank you, Keitha!
That is adorable! We’ve been reading that series too, and Cora is on a serious dinosaur kick. I might have to copy you soon!
Thank you, Lise! I can’t wait to see how you and Cora can improve on my idea!
Love, love, love! Everything’s amazing from the tree house to the perfect HK egg and the beautiful fruit salad! Happy 4th!
Thank you so much!!!! We are already getting excited for tonight’s festivities!!!!
I’ll definitely be looking for these books once I think John is ready!!! He has SUCH a short attention span they actually had to move him down in reading groups this school year so he’s not quite ready for chapter books … but once he is these sound right up his alley!
They are a great series to get started on. When he gets to that point, he’ll love them!
Z and I read one chapter at a time. Her attention wanders too, but she REALLY wanted me to read the Junie B Jones book she picked up from the $.99 rack, for some reason. So I’d stop and ask her questions as we read to keep her engaged.
I do ask a lot of questions throughout… or try to appear scared and ask if she’s scared, or ask her to act out something that the character does. That keeps her involved. For example… if it says, Jack groaned, I’ll ask her to groan. Or if he chuckles, I ask her to chuckle. And we talk about what is a chuckle compared to a laugh, etc… It is fun. Even with all that, we blow through a couple of chapters pretty quickly. We’re averaging 3 nights to read a book now and are already starting book #4!
Love it! The order does matter a bit. Each group of 4 is a mini-series with a quest to solve a greater puzzle, and they do reference the previous book. So if you skip 2 and read 3, they’ll tell you the answer in #2.
Thanks! That’s what I was worried about. Oh well, I just placed an order from the library to get the #2 book that they did not have and we’ll just have to be patient for it to come in!
Rachel the tree house is adorable – I can just see L. eating it!! When was the Tree House series written? I don’t remember it from when you all were little.
The series started in 1992, so we missed them, but they have a huge following all over the world now. They are really fun and a good stepping stone for more complex story lines. I’m going to the library today to pick up more!
My students loved these books when I taught. The sandwich is so cute. Thanks for a great lunch idea!
Thank you, Kim! I am so excited to have found a chapter book series at my daughter’s level. Do you know any other great series for Kindergarten-aged kids?
Mia Bella loves the Magic Treehouse books! Love your lunch!
Thanks Cristi!!! I am glad to finally have an ‘original’ that is such a hit! So far nearly all my ideas have been stolen from you and the other bento goddesses that I worship! <3
This is PRECIOUS!!! So creative Rachel!!
Thanks, Kelly!! We had so much fun reading the book and it just seemed natural to commemorate it in an EasyLunchBox!
I believe that the order of the books does matter. They are great books on their own but you will miss some of the story line if you skip around.
Check your local craigslist or even ebay. I got the whole series (not the Merlin’s missions) for about $20 off craigslist. I usually go the library route but these books are worth owning. We love them all!
That’s a great idea, Ginger! I was thinking of trolling the used bookstores for them, but maybe I can snag a set through craigslist or ebay! I’ll definitely try it. We managed to get the missing #2 from another library and we plan to finish it tonight. I think we should buy them though, because my son will like them too when he gets older.
i love the magic tree house book.realy it is amazing & interesting.i think it is a unique imagination.
I agree! We are almost done with book # 2 right now and we are loving all the action and excitement! Thank you for your comment.