April 29, 2015 Story Time - Caterpillars & Butterflies

If you missed this weeks story time here is what we did:

*marks the books we read

Ten Little Caterpillars  by Bill Martin, Jr*
It's a Good Thing There are Butterflies  by Lisa M. Herrington
Molly in the Garden  by Kate Pope*
A Butterfly is Patient  by Dianna Hutts Aston
The Very Hungry Caterpillar  by Eric Carle
Houdini the Amazing Caterpillar*  by Janet Pedersen*
Watch Me Grow-Butterfly  by Lisa Magloff
See How They Grow-Butterfly  by Mary Ling
Waiting for Wings  by Lois Ehlert*

For our craft we made butterfly masks and colored a picture of a caterpillar and pupa that opened into a picture of a butterfly

Extra activities:

Colorful Butterflies
The first to come to the garden bed
is a lovely butterfly of brilliant RED
then in comes another and that makes two
fly right in my friend of BLUE
The garden is fine, the best I've seen
says the butterfly of softest GREEN
Our garden needs a sunny fellow
fly in butterfly with wings of YELLOW
little friend of PURPLE, fly in too
the garden is waiting for a color like you
ORANGE, orange you've waited so long
fly right in where you belong
butterflies, butterflies, you're such a sight
flying together -- what a delight!

While reading this rhyme we tried to think of other words that rhymed with the different colors (except for purple and orange)

Roly-Poly Caterpillar (sung to "Itsy Bitsy Spider)
The roly-poly caterpillar (creep finger up arm)
into a corner crept
spun around himself a blanket (spin around, or spin hands around each other)
then for a long time slept (rest head on hands, eyes closed)
roly-poly caterpillar waking by and by (open eyes and stretch)
found himself with beautiful wings
changed to a butterfly (flutter arms like wings)

The Life of a Butterfly (sung to "Skip to my Lou")
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me
What'll I be, my darlin'?
a chrysalis, now sleep like me
a chrysalis, now sleep like me
a chrysalis, now sleep like me
What'll I be, my darlin'?
a butterfly, come fly with me
a butterfly, come fly with me
a butterfly, come fly with me
come fly with me my darlin'
now all together, let's do all three
now all together, let's do all three
now all together, let's do all three
a caterpillar, a chrysalis, a butterfly -- three
move your body like this with me
the life of a butterfly, darlin'

April 22, 2015 Story Time - Earth Day/Arbor Day

If you missed this weeks story time here is what we did:

*marks the books we read

Arbor Day  by Rebecca Rissman*
Earth Day  by Amy Margaret
Seeds  by Vijaya Khisty Bodach*
A Tree for Emmy  by Mary Ann Rodman
Are Trees Alive?  by Debbie S. Miller*
Earth Day - Hooray!  by Stuart J. Murphy
The Busy Tree  by Jennifer Ward*

For our craft we colored a small paper world then threaded it onto a piece of yarn for a necklace

Extra activities:
Recycling in my home (sing to "Wheels on the Bus")
Recycling in my home goes round and round
round and round, round and round
recycling in my home goes round and round
all through the day

Hear the cans go crunch, crunch, crunch
crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch
hear the cans go crunch, crunch, crunch
recycle for our earth

Hear the bottles go ding, ding, ding
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding
hear the bottles go ding, ding, ding
recycle for our earth

Hear the paper go crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
hear the paper go crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
recycle for our earth

Love Our World (sing to "If You're Happy and You Know it')
If you love our world, clap your hands (clap, clap)
if you love our world, clap your hands (clap, clap)
if you love our world, really love our great big world;
if you love our world, clap your hands! (clap, clap)

If you love our world, plant new trees (new trees)
if you love our world, plant new trees (new trees)
if you love our world, really love our great big world;
if you love our world, plant new trees (new trees)

If you love our world, recycle (recycle)
if you love our world, recycle (recycle)
if you love our world, really love our great big world;
if you love our world, recycle (recycle)

If you love our world, do your part (do your part)
if you love our world, do your part (do your part)
if you love our world, really love our great big world;
if you love our world, BE SMART! (be smart!)

April 15, 2015 Story Time - Recycling

If you missed this weeks story time here is what we did:

*marks the books we read

Miss Fox's Class Goes Green  by Eileen Spinelli*
Emeraldalicious  by Victoria Kann
Let's Save Water!  by Sara E. Nelson*
What Happens to Our Trash?  by D. J. Ward
Let's Reduce Garbage!  by Sara E. Nelson*
A Plastic Bottle's Journey  by Suzanne Slade
OK GO  by Carin Berger*
We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers  by Lauren Child

For our craft we made windsock kites out of recycled lunch bags

Extra activities:
Recycling in my Home (tune: Wheels on the Bus)
Recycling in my home goes round and round,
round and round, round and round
recycling in my home goes round and round
all through the day

Hear the cans go crunch, crunch, crunch,
crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch
hear the cans go crunch, crunch, crunch
recycle for our earth

Hear the bottles go ding, ding, ding
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding
hear the bottles go ding, ding, ding
recycle for our earth

Hear the paper go crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
hear the paper go crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
recycle for our earth

How can you use a recycling bin to help learn literacy?

• Sort the recycling, provide categories for children to sort your recycling (paper, plastic, glass etc).

April 8, 2015 Story Time - April

If you missed this weeks story time here is what we did:

*marks the books we read

April/Abril  by Robyn Brode*
Splish, Splash, Spring  by Jon Carr
What a Mess!  by Stephen Krensky*
April Foolishness  by Teresa Bateman
You Can Help  by Jennifer B. Gillis*
April Fool!  by Karen Gray Ruelle
Word Bird's Spring Words  by Jane Belk Moncure*
Arthur's April Fool  by Marc Tolon Brown

For our craft we colored a picture of a girl dancing in the rain, then glued a paper umbrella over her

Extra activities:
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout
down came the rain and washed the spider out
out came the sun and dried up all the rain
and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again

Five Little Dandelions
5 little dandelions
growing by my door
whoosh went the wind
and then there were 4
4 little dandelions under a tree
whoosh went the wind
and then there were 3
3 little dandelions
I picked them for you
whoosh went the wind
and then there were 2
2 little dandelions
blowing them is fun
whoosh went the wind
and then there was 1
1 little dandelion
standing in the breeze
whoosh went the wind
and scattered all the seeds!

Color Umbrellas
(we played a color recognition game with paper umbrellas)
Here are some umbrellas
just for me and you
can you name their colors?
red, yellow, blue

Here are more umbrellas
the prettiest we've seen
now let's name their colors
purple, orange, green

Early Literacy Extras:
*Talk about the word "puddle", sound out the different parts of the word "pu-dle"- say them separately and then together again, first slowly and the faster. Clap once for each syllable of the word. Do the same thing with words like: water, umbrella, rainbow and lightning.
*Help your child think of words that rhyme with "rain" like: train, stain, plane, drain, cane - make up silly rhymes with these words.
*Help your child think of other words that start with the "r"-"err" sound like: rice, red, read, rug, radio, roll.
*Help your child think of other weather words like: thunder, lightning, wind, shower, storm
*The sense of rhythm obtained from listening to songs and rhymes will help your child to identify patterns, like rhyming words, which will help them learn to read. Because songs automatically break down words into smaller sounds through tones, singing with your child is one of the best ways to develop early literacy skills.

April 1, 2015 Story Time - Colors - Blue

If you missed this weeks story time here is what we did:

*marks the books we read

Bear Sees Colors  by Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman*
Blue Chameleon  by Emily Gravett
Blue Chicken  by Deborah Freedman
Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?  by Eve Bunting*
Blue Everywhere  by Kristin Sterling
Blue  by Patricia M. Stockland
Good Night, Little Rainbow Fish  by Marcus Pfister*
baby bear sees BLUE  by Ashley Wolff

For our craft we colored a small picture of rainbow fish, glued on sparkly sequins and added a craft stick for a fish puppet

Extra activities:
Color Jump Song
If you're wearing blue then
jump up and down,
jump up and down,
jump up and down,
If you're wearing blue then
jump up and down,
now sit back down
Repeat with red, black, green, yellow, pink, orange, purple, white, etc

Listening exercises
Stand up tall
reach up high
nod your head
blink your eyes
clap your hands
touch your toes
stomp your feet
wiggle your nose
sit right down, hands in your lap
ready to listen
Just. Like. That.
Shhhhhhhhhhhh!