Luck of the Loch Ness Monster

Last week was my husband's turn to be the mystery reader in our daughter's class. He chose to read The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating by A.W. Flaherty. It's a funny story about a little girl who sails across the Atlantic from America to Scotland to visit her grandmother. To her dismay, she is brought a bowl of oatmeal each morning for breakfast. She refuses to eat the yucky oatmeal, and instead tosses it out the ship's window. A tiny sea worm discovers the delicious oatmeal and makes a meal of it. The little worm follows the huge ship across the ocean gobbling up the oatmeal each day, growing larger and larger. The little girl befriends the worm and teaches it tricks. And the worm eventually takes up residence in Loch Ness and grows into an enormous sea serpent, the famous Loch Ness monster. It's pretty silly and sweet. We love the illustrations.

In addition to reading a story, the parents are asked to organize a game or craft during their visit to the classroom. My husband decided to bring homemade oatmeal cookies, but also wanted to do a Loch Ness Monster craft. So, on the morning of this classroom visit, I suddenly realized that he needed my help... and quickly. I'd been admiring and thinking about these chunky bead necklaces that Kate of Foxs Lane made with her daughters. Visions of pink chunky beads for Valentine's Day... possibly... or, even better... big, chunky green beads on a string to make Nessie necklaces.

I drew up a plan (with Klaus's support) and rushed out to the craft store to buy fimo clay, string and googly eyes. It would have been fun for the girls to be able to make their own beads, but there wouldn't have been enough time, and the clay needs to be baked in an oven before stringing the beads into a necklace. So, I prepared all the beads (the many, many beads) at home and divided all the supplies into eighteen little bags for eighteen little girls. I wasn't able to go to the reading, but I heard it was a big success. I think the girls really enjoyed the story and loved the Nessie necklaces.