Geronimo Stilton

The Race Against Time Geronimo Stilton Activities: Fun Edible Spine

August 20, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If you want more Geronimo Stilton activities for the series of Geronimo Stilton books, you’ll love this edible spine hands-on history activity. Also I have this Human Body Crafts page for more fun ideas.

Jumping back in time with Geronimo Stilton, he is up to another fa-mouse-ly adventure in the book The Race Against Time (Geronimo Stilton Journey Through Time #3).

The book is divided into three sections of adventure mixed with history; we focused on the second section of the book which is the Renaissance period.

And the ultimate renaissance man is Leonardo Da Vinci known for his time spent learning about science.

The Race Against Time Geronimo Stilton Activities: Fun Edible Spine

First, you’ll love knowing more about the book The Race Against Time (Geronimo Stilton Journey Through Time #3).

The Journey Through Time series of Geronimo Stilton books give so much information on a time period in such an engaging way.

The series has colorful illustrations and text, small snippets of information, and great adventure.

Before the journey begins, we see renaissance fashions and what the time period was about.

And then go right into visiting important landmarks of the time period all through the eyes of a mouse.

You will be introduced to Gutenberg and his printing press.

In addition, your child will read about and Leonardo Da Vinci. They’ll read about his flying machine, sculptures, and art- including the Mona Mousa. I mean Lisa.

Even though the book does not reference the medical span of Leonardo’s contributions it opens the door to talk and research the other things he worked on besides art and inventions.

It becomes a natural springboard to add some science to your book or unit study.

Leonardo Da Vinci Activities

Leonardo da Vinci spent a lot of time measuring and drawing the human body and discovered that it has standard proportions.

He participated in many dissections to learn how the body worked and drew exact anatomical studies. He studied, measured, drew, and went hands-on in every aspect of his quest for knowledge.

This is a wonderful way to introduce younger children to his discoveries and contributions to the science world, particularly the anatomy of the human body.

If your child is interested in anatomy, include this hands-on activity alongside your Geronimo Stilton Unit.

The human body is wonderful. And it is so amazingly designed with the way each part fits together and works to move, protect, and shape our body.

The spine is a perfect example of that, and your science loving child is sure to enjoy making their own spine

Human Body Spine Facts

Look at some of these human body spine facts you can use in talking about Leonardo da Vinci or to add to your Geronimo Stilton activities.

The brain connects to the spine to control most basic functions of the body.
The spine has three jobs – protect your spinal cord, allow you to move and bend, and provide a foundation for your posture.
You have 25 bones making up your spine known as vertebrae
There are 7 vertebrae that make up your neck. Did you know that giraffes with their super long necks also only have 7?
Some snakes have more than 400 vertebrae.
The 5 bottom vertebrae between the ages of 18 and 30 become fused together to make your coccyx, or tailbone.
There are over 120 muscles and 220 ligaments that support the average spine.

As you build your spine you can naturally work in the importance of each part that makes up your spine and spinal cord.

The spinal cord works with the brain to form the central nervous system.
The vertebrae themselves give structure and protect the spinal cord.
Intervertebral discs cushion and protect the nerves from wear and tear.
The nerve clusters communicate with the rest of our body, sending signals to our hands, legs, feet, arms, head, etc.

Search Google for images of da Vinci spine drawings for a model to help your child along.

Also, you can add a tabletop skeleton model for your child to explore and learn with as well.

More Human Body Crafts

How to Make an Edible Spine

Now on to making a delicious, hands-on spine model. You can make yours true to size or create a mini model.

Our model here does not have all the nerves and is not life sized, but we made sure to include 25 vertebrae. If you are doing a unit on anatomy that is one thing you want your children to remember.

Here is what you will need to create your own edible spine:

Yarn- Spinal Cord, nerves (ok, not edible, but you know)
Butter Cookies with a hole- vertebrae
Gummy Lifesavers- intervertebral disc

String a long piece of yarn through a cookie and knot it several times until it is too large to fit through the hole. The yarn is our spinal cord.

Cut yarn into two-inch pieces and twist two of them so that they are between each gummy lifesaver and cookie to create the nerve clusters.

Add on a cookie to create a vertebrae.

Continue repeating gummy, nerve, cookie until you have made your spine as long as you want it to be then tie it off at the top.

You can further the lesson by having your child label the parts of the spine as it is laid out.

Other Geronimo Stilton Activities

What do you think? Are you ready with this hands-on spine model when reading The Race Against Time (Geronimo Stilton Journey ? Or adding more Geronimo Stilton activities?

Geronimo Stilton Adventure The Journey Through Time #2: Back in Time (Mayan Craft)

July 31, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Your kids will be off to another Geronimo Stilton adventure when they read the next Geronimo Stilton books. The Journey Through Time #2: Back in Time will delight your kids who love to time travel.

Too, I have a hands-on history LEGO temple craft which will keep your learners engaged.

Add in my Meso-America Lapbook about Ancient Maya and you have a full history and literature unit study.

Geronimo Stilton Adventure The Journey Through Time #2: Back in Time (Mayan Craft)

Besides being a special edition book, the time machine will take your kids to learn about ancient Rome in 45 BC, the Maya Empire 1005, and to the Palace of Versailles in 1682 CE.

You could just use this wonderful book for reference about those history topics. I always have a great history encyclopedia close too if we want to do further research.

Although the fun and adventurous Geronimo Stilton is on another adventure, this book can be used for historical fiction.

Geronimo Stilton Books Reading Level

In addition, if you not heard about this fun series of books, here are some quick facts.

Geronimo Stilton is a fun loving and adventurous mouse who runs a newspaper. However, as he states his favorite activity is writing adventure stories.
The books are full of color pictures and crazy fonts. This may be distracting for some kids, but others love it.
Geronimo Stilton’s author is Elisabetta Dami who is an Italian author of children’s book. She also has a passion for archaeology and visiting historical places which she embeds in the books.
And the reading age is 7 to 10 years old.

The Journey Through Time #2: Back in Time (Geronimo Stilton Special Edition)

And wow was this little book packed!

While it is a fun book with lots of great illustrations and font type, color, and size changes to keep it interesting for readers I love that it was so chock full of information.

Today, we focused on the Mayan civilization, but will come back to these other time periods in the book.

Back in Time, The Second Journey Through Time

Another tip, if you didn’t want your kids to read the entire book for the sake of time or because you have a reluctant reader is to focus on the middle section which is the Mayans.

Each story is distinctly broken up. You can have your children read the first part to find out how Geronimo travels.

Then skip to the Maya Civilization, saving the other parts for another unit study.

We incorporated history, art, science, reading, and more into this fun LEGO activity.

I was impressed by how much history is covered.

These are the things this section covers.

Exploring the Americas
Maps of the Yucatan Peninsula
Tropical Rainforest
Mayan Fashion and Customs
Chichen Itza
The Legend of The Mayan Sun god
Pok-Ta-Pok
Mysteries of the Maya

You’ll love learning just as much as your kids.

We put together a simple LEGO build to share that will help keep your kids engaged while you teach them all about the Mayans.

Here are some simple instructions but encourage your child to use critical thinking to put it together as well.

Challenge them to make it bigger and use the whole baseplate!

Geronimo Stilton – Build a LEGO Temple of Kukulcan

You will need:

A large LEGO baseplate
A couple handfuls of LEGO- Cream, brown, or yellow

If you don’t already have a collection of LEGO, look at the large creative box.

LEGO is an amazing learning tool for all ages and this is a good basic set to start with.

Even your teen will still love learning with them and creating.

Start by creating a base that is 10×10 studs wide on your baseplate.

So that is the little studs that stick up on top of the LEGO.

You can do it with a combination of 1×2, 2×2’s, and 2×4 sized bricks. They don’t all need to be the same.

Place your next layer leaving a border of 1 stud showing all the way around on your base layer.

Continue the same way, leaving a 1 stud border around 4 more times until your top is just 1 or 2 2×2 bricks stacked.

Create steps by centering 1×2 bricks all the way up.

Your pyramid of Kukulkan is done!

To extend this lesson a little bit I also challenged the kids to create rainforest animals using LEGO.

We used this page on rainforest animals for inspiration!

This little add on activity gives your kids some science and art with their history lesson and its fun to see what they come up with.

Look at the kids activities from the rainforest.

And the undergrowth..

Other Geronimo Stilton Books and Activities

You’ll love these other tips on the Geronimo Stilton books.

And if you love this book, check out Journey Through Time and the topics are how the dinosaurs became extinct, how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built, and what life was like at King Arthur’s court.

Also, if you have younger kids they’ll love this Geronimo Stilton 12 Inch Plush Doll Character while you read aloud. (adorable)

When I do these simple hands on activities I like to let the kids work on them while I am either doing a read aloud or showing a short video on our subject.

They absorb information while their hands work believe it or not!

To round out a mini study you could also use the book to…

Create other famous structures from Chichen Itza
Have them make a salt dough map of the Yucatan Peninsula
Create a list of resources from the rainforests
Taste test some of those treats from the rainforest (a multi sensory approach works great and kids will never forget where those items come from)
Create ancient Mayan fashion from scrap fabric
Look up vocabulary words from the pages like-cacao, artisanal, obsidian, toxins, etc…
Create a Mayan hut with popsicle stick
Make Mayan Flatbread
Create a Maya Calendar
Recreate their own version of Pok-a-Tok

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid Barbie Mummy

July 25, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid is another fun book in the series of Geronimo Stilton books. It is the second book in the series.

Elementary students will love taking their favorite Geronimo Stilton book and turning it into a mini unit study with a few hands-on activities.

The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid is another adventure for Geronimo Stilton. He is off to Egypt to the Great Cheese Pyramid.

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid Barbie Mummy

So, this hands-on activity I am sharing with you today, mummifying a Barbie gives kids a little bit more understanding of the mummification process.

And you can easily tie in science and history perfectly with the fun book The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid. Matter of fact most of the books highlight some kind of geography or history.

Even if your kids are older like middle or high school the same activity can be altered to make it a bit more challenging so that the whole family can join in.

Books Of Geronimo Stilton

If you don’t know about Geronimo Stilton books let me give you a quick little overview. The fun series is aimed at early readers or ages 7 to 10 years old

And they follow the many and varied adventures of Geronimo Stilton editor and publisher at The Rodent’s Gazette.

Too, they read similar to a graphic novel.

Geronimo Stilton Four Cheese Box Set (Books 1-4)

For instance, the words are highlighted in different fonts, sizes, and colors. The series make it an engaging read for kids.

They are silly and outlandish which makes it especially great for reluctant readers.

Another point about the different fonts and colors of words are that some are for emphasis.

However, quite a few make great lessons for vocabulary, spelling words, and introduction to the eight parts of speech.

So be sure to make note of the words for several chapters.

And have your child look up the words and make flashcards to round out this mini lesson.

You certainly can use this fun book as a spine for language arts. Too, you can use this spine as independent reading or for a read aloud.

Ancient Egypt Mummifying a Barbie Craft

However, one of the best parts of each book is that you can add hands-on activity as Stilton is always on a globe-trotting adventure.

Today, since Stilton is off to Egypt, we learned about mummies in Ancient Egypt

Look at this short list of supplies to make a Barbie mummy.

A Barbie or similar doll (we grabbed a cheap one from Dollar Tree)
Gauze
Cooking oil
Salt (we used Epsom since we had that)
large dish big enough for the body to lay in
Essential oils
Scissors and construction paper

First, we made a death mask from construction paper and laid it aside.

Your kids can get elaborate with this part or keep it simple.

Then we made simple canopic jars by drawing them on paper.

After drawing the jars, we cut them out and taped them into a tube shape.

A quick google search will show you what each of the four gods, Hapy, Imsety, Duamutef and Qebhsenef looked like and which housed which organs.

We also used our TOOB Organs to examine the organs closely,

Then, we laid them out and talked about each function as the kids pretended to extract the organ and place it in the canopic jars.

Barbie Mummy

Next, this portion of the activity can be done or finished while you read aloud.

Have your child finish the death mask. And let your child draw them with whatever art medium they choose. We used markers.

First, the brain was pulled out through the nose, but considered unimportant in ancient Egyptian times, it was just tossed out.

Then, the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver were extracted and placed in the correct jar.

The heart stayed in place in the body. Use tweezers for this part and let them pretend they are extracting each part.

Next, Egyptians would cover the body in salt to remove all moisture, this would take weeks but for the sake of time we waited just a few minutes.

We used Epsom salt as we had a ton on hand already.

And then we placed our prepared body in a large tupperware container and covered it in salt as well as we could.

Finally, the body would be anointed with oils and wrapped,.

If you have some on hand add essential oils to a little bit of cooking oil to add to the sensory experience, pour over the entire body.

We tightly wrapped our Barbie head to toe and then affixed her death mask with a bit of tape.

Obviously, you know your child best and can include the parts that you would choose and gloss over those that might be too much for a younger child.

For example, for older children you can add ideas like labeling the organs, give them spelling and vocabulary words like sarcophagus, hieroglyphic, and etc.

Too, you can extend the lesson by having them give a presentation in front of the whole family on the mummification process.

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid covers everything from mummies to pyramids as well as mentions of camels, pharaohs, and the eye of RA, giving you a large base for a unit study.

I can’t wait to dig in a little deeper and share more hands on activities with you! What do you think? Are you going to add this to your list of hands-on activities?

Other Resources You’ll Love

Easy and Fun Who Is Geronimo Stilton Rodent Notebooking Page

July 20, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have an easy and fun who is Geronimo Stilton rodent notebook page. I’ll be adding more activities for the series of Geronimo Stilton books.

The series of books are delightful and cute, but parents and families have mixed reviews.

Since I don’t encourage a lot of formal writing in the early years, but I do encourage tons of reading, I love these books.

Easy and Fun Who Is Geronimo Stilton Rodent Notebooking Page

So, this easy free printable is geared toward the same ages as the book which is 7 to 10 years old.

But between you and I, it’s such a fun series that your older reluctant readers will be drawn in by the humor.

In addition, I wanted the printable simple so that you could either introduce a younger reader or a reluctant reader to the books.

Besides, as I mentioned I don’t want your young children thinking that tons of writing needs to always be associated with reading.

Moreover, read my post here 10 Fun Things You Can Teach Using Geronimo Stilton Books to help your child use the notebooking page.

Geronimo Stilton Books

Too, I was first introduced to the books a few years back when I was looking for a series for younger kids in our group.

And I was pleasantly surprised by all the adventures and mouse action in the Geronimo Stilton series.

Too, it took me a bit to sort out who is the writer and how the series unfolds.

However, let me share a few things to make your search for this easier.

Mouse in Space!
The Missing Movie

First, Geronimo Stilton is the editor of a newspaper.

The books have colorful fonts and pictures. And of course he spends part of his time solving mysteries, chasing adventure and satisfying his love for cheese rinds.

And as the Scholastic website says, “Geronimo Stilton is the publisher of The Rodent’s Gazette, Mouse Island’s most famouse newspaper.”

The Hawaiian Heist
The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid

The series is written by an Italian author, Elisabetta Dami, but there are many spinoffs now. However, Geronimo Stilton is the original series.

You can read about how Ms. Dami created Geronimo Stilton.

Author of Geronimo Stilton

I found Ms. Dami’s thoughts moving on how she created a shy, tender and clumsy mouse.

And another fun reason I really adore the books is that there are many references to geography and history because of Ms. Dami’s passion for archaeology.

So, these make for great supplements for your elementary kids to my history or science unit studies.

In addition, be careful when you choose the books. There are many spinoffs and the books are in black and white.

The original series have color pictures with colorful words and fonts.

Add in some fun bookmarks and your young reader will love these books.

Too, if you’re reading these fun books aloud, grab the read aloud tracking form.

Awesome Reading Aloud Tracking Time Homeschool Form
$2.75 Add to cart

Look at these other tips for books and reading you’ll like.

Books and Games for Beginner Readers

Another point I want you to know about the book is that there are funny spellings.

Also, there are play on words or unique spellings where there is substitution with some form of the word mouse.

For example, instead of the text fabulous, it’s written fabu-mous. This can be confusing for the young reader or for some they find the humor in it. Again, this depends on the maturity of your reader.

I think for some 7-year-olds the unique spellings would be too much.

By the way, Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye is the first book in the series if you want to start from the beginning, but it’s not necessary in this series.

However, you can use that as a teachable moment to explain the right word.

Of course if you’re reading aloud to a younger reader, he may not understand the play on the word. I’ve found that such saying the correct word and moving on is best.

Soon, your child will understand the funny passages. Like I mentioned I have more ideas coming to use for some of the books.

Which book is your child’s favorite? And old is your reader?

Grab the Free Notebooking Page Below

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE NOTEBOOKING PAGE

Geronimo Stilton

The Race Against Time Geronimo Stilton Activities: Fun Edible Spine

Leonardo Da Vinci Activities

Human Body Spine Facts

More Human Body Crafts

How to Make an Edible Spine

Other Geronimo Stilton Activities

Geronimo Stilton Adventure The Journey Through Time #2: Back in Time (Mayan Craft)

Geronimo Stilton Books Reading Level

Back in Time, The Second Journey Through Time

Geronimo Stilton – Build a LEGO Temple of Kukulcan

Other Geronimo Stilton Books and Activities

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid Barbie Mummy

Books Of Geronimo Stilton

Ancient Egypt Mummifying a Barbie Craft

Barbie Mummy

Other Resources You’ll Love

Easy and Fun Who Is Geronimo Stilton Rodent Notebooking Page

Geronimo Stilton Books

Author of Geronimo Stilton

Awesome Reading Aloud Tracking Time Homeschool Form

Books and Games for Beginner Readers

Grab the Free Notebooking Page Below

Categories

Archives

Geronimo Stilton

Leonardo Da Vinci Activities

Human Body Spine Facts

More Human Body Crafts

How to Make an Edible Spine

Other Geronimo Stilton Activities

Geronimo Stilton Books Reading Level

Back in Time, The Second Journey Through Time

Geronimo Stilton – Build a LEGO Temple of Kukulcan

Other Geronimo Stilton Books and Activities

Books Of Geronimo Stilton

Ancient Egypt Mummifying a Barbie Craft

Barbie Mummy

Other Resources You’ll Love

Geronimo Stilton Books

Author of Geronimo Stilton

Awesome Reading Aloud Tracking Time Homeschool Form

Books and Games for Beginner Readers

Grab the Free Notebooking Page Below

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