March 18, 2011

As most of you are aware, Jessica has moved.  I will be trying to continue with this blog, but I have never blogged before so bear with me.

My name is Chris, I will be doing the storytime at the library starting on April 6 at 10:30 AM.  We are in the process of planning all of the Summer reading activites and have some fun things planned, including a Magic Show and a Puppet Show.

Stay tuned for updates.  Thanks.

The Alphabet is Like a Box of Chocolates!

Books we read:

The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni

Alpha Oops! The Day Z Went First by Alethea Kontis
The Alphabet Keeper by Mary Murphy

Punxtawney Phyllis by Susanna Leonard Hill

Craft Time! 

 For the craft, we made "alphabet chocolate boxes"

 Templates:  Heart shaped box: click here

                  Alphabet chocolates:  click here

Materials needed:  heart box and alphabet templates (above), crayons, scissors, glue

Since today was Groundhog Day, we talked a little about the tradition of Groundhog Day, read Punxutawney Phyllis  and I sent a Groundhog Day coloring page home with the children.  We also did some Groundhog Day songs!  (see below)

See My Shadow

(tune: "Frere Jacques")

See my shadow, see my shadow

Move this way, move this way

Doing things that I do, doing things that I do

Follow me, follow me!

 (I had the children follow my actions while we sang this song, then let them take turns being the "groundhog" and determining the actions we followed)

I'm a Little Groundhog

(tune: "I'm a Litte Tea Pot")

I'm a little groundhog short and stout,

February second I will come out.

If I see my shadow they will shout,

"Six weeks more winter without a doubt!"

Fun With Colors!

Books we read:

Brown at the Zoo by Christianne C. Jones

Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox

The Deep Blue Sea by Audrey Wood

The Big Red Farm by Christianne C. Jones

Animals in Color/Animales en Color by Sebastiano Ranchetti

After reading the first book, we did an activity in which we made a rainbow using the poem at the end of this post (pictures and explanaition are also at the end of the post).  After reading the other books, we used the book Animals in Color/Animales en Color to learn how to say different colors and the names of different animals in Spanish. 

The craft we made was a rainbow made with torn paper!

Materials needed: Strips of colored paper (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), glue, and a paaper with arches on it.  I used this template: click here  or you can draw the arches.

Have the children tear the different colors into smaller pieces and paste in the arches.  I also had crayons out so that the younger children could color their rainbows instead. 

Making a Rainbow Activity!



Materials: Rainbow arches, colored and cut.  Images of fruit, colored (red cherries, orange orange, yellow lemon, green limes, blue blueberries, purple grapes), and a pot.  You can either put magnets on the back or just use tape to tape them up on a board.

I gave each child either a piece of the rainbow or one of the fruit.  You can either sing the following song, or read each paragraph and have the child with the coordinating fruit or piece of the rainbow bring it up and tape it to the board.  We also made stirring motions when the song says to stir.

Making a Rainbow

(Tune: Skip to My Lou")

Take some cherries; put them in a pot       

Stir them, stir them, stir them a lot!              

Pour it out now; what will it be?                                      

The prettiest red you ever did see!                                                                                 

Take an orange; put it in a pot                   
Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot!                                 
Pour it out now; what will it be?                    
The prettiest orange you ever did see!          

Take a lemon; put it in a pot

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot!

Pour it out now; what will it be? 

The prettiest yellow you ever did see!

Take some limes; put them in a pot

Stir them, stir them, stir them a lot!

Pour it out now; what will it be? 

The prettiest green you ever did see!

Take some berries; put them in a pot

Stir them, stir them, stir them a lot!

Pour it out now; what will it be? 

The prettiest blue you ever did see!

Take some grapes; put them in a pot

Stir them, stir them, stir them a lot!

Pour it out now; what will it be? 

The prettiest purple you ever did see!

Red and orange, yellow and green

Blue and purple colors are seen!

Put them together; what will it be?

The prettiest rainbow you ever did see!               

Pockets Full of Fun!

Books we read:

Boing! by Nick Bruel

A Pocket Full of Pets by Jane Belke Moncure

Mommy in My Pocket by Carol Hunt Senderak

Pouch by David Ezra Stein

Katy No Pocket by Emmy Payne

When we read Boing,  we hopped and jumped like the animals that were showing the baby kangaroo how to hop.  This helped get some wiggles out.

For the craft, we made our own pockets!



The pocket is made out of craft foam.  We also colored baby kangaroos to put inside.  This was a good project for the kids to practice new skills (sewing the yarn around the edges).

Materials needed:  Craft foam, (2 pieces per pocket, one cut in half.  You can cut a "c" shape into one side if you want), yarn, hole puncher (yes, I punched all the holes in the foam, but the end product was cute and the children had fun with it, so it was worth it), tape.  Tape one ond of the yarn to make it easier to thread the yard through the holes (nail polish also works. Be sure to let it dry first)



 For some kangaroo coloring page templates, click here 

I copy and pasted them to a word document and sized them smaller so they would fit into the pockets we made.

Wild Animals!

Books we read:

One Whole Day: Wolves

Grandfather Buffalo

Raccoon On His Own

All of these books are written by Jim Arnosky

We talked about different animals you can find in the wild, and identified pictures of some of the animals.

The craft we did was a wildlife scene.  Materials needed:  Blue construction paper (for the sky), green and/or brown construction paper (for ground), clipart images of different wild animals, glue, scissors, and crayons.

I had both green and brown paper out for the children to use.  It was fun too se how creative they all got.  Some cut the top of the green paper in strips about 1/4 of the way down the paper to create grass, others layered the brown and green, and some made green hills behind brown dirt.  You could also cut trees out of the brown and use the green to make the leaves.

Dinosaurs!

Books we read:

Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson

Gorgonzola: A Very STINKYsauruas by Margie Palatini

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen

We made a Shape-a-saurus!

Before putting together our dinosaurs, we reviewed the different shapes we used to make it.

Materials needed:  Colored paper, glue, wiggly eyes (or you can draw eyes), crayons or markers to draw a mouth and claws.  The template for the shapes you need can be found on these two web pages:

click here and click here

Songs we sang:

Dino Pokey

(Tune: Hokey Pokey)

You put your claws in,

you put your claws out,

you put your claws in

and you scratch them all about.

You do the dino-pokey

and you turn yourself around.

That's what its all about

Repeat with:

you put your feet in.....stomp them all about

you put your teeth in....chomp them all about

you put your tail in....swish it all about

All Around the Swamp

(tune: wheels on the bus)

The Pteradon's wings went flap, flap, flap

flap-flap-flap, flap-flap-flap,

The Pteradon's wings went flap, flap, flap

All through the swamp.

Repeat with:

The Tyrannasaurus Rex went grr-grr-grr....

The Triceratops' horns went poke, poke, poke....

The Brontasaurus went munch, munch, munch....

The Stegosaurus' tail went spike, spike, spike....

Build a Dinosaur

(tune: Mary had a little lamb)

Our dinosaur has a scary face,

scary face, scary face

Our dinosaur has a scary face,

and lived a long time ago

Repeat with:

Big green body, swishy tail, long sharp claws, stomping feet

Happy New Year!

Books we read:

A Child's Calendar by John Updike

365 Penguins by Jean Luc Fromental

This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong

We made pasta collages for the craft!

 

Materials needed:

Colored paper with the year written on it in bubble letters, glue, dry pasta (fun shapes), and crayons.  You could use a variety of objects to fill in the numbers (ie: dried beans, confetti, glitter, cotton, material, buttons, etc.)

Songs:

Cheer the Year (sung to "Row, row, row your boat")
(you can add actions to this song)
Cheer, cheer, cheer the year,
A new one's just begun.
Celebrate with all your friends,
Lets go have some fun!
Clap, clap, clap your hands,
A brand new year is here.
Learning, laughing, singing, clapping,
Through another year!

Happy New Year (sung to "Frere Jacques")
Happy New Year, happy New Year,
Let's celebrate, let's celebrate.
Good-bye to the old year,
Hello to the new year.
Hurray, hurray! Hurray, hurray!

-On this song, I made craft sticks with the old year and the new year on them.  I held up 2010 during the first part, then hid it behind my back when we said "good-bye" to it and brought out 2011 to say "hello" to the new year.



A Brand New Year (sung to "The Muffin Man")

Now we have a brand new year,

A brand new year, a brand new year.

Now we have a brand new year,

It's (name of year)