Missed a week, but I'm back. Happy Tuesday! It's a blanket storytime!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Remember those long gone days where all you needed was a cup of juice, your thumb, and your blanket? It seems that everyone has some sort of special blanket or animal that is used for security during the scariest moments or as our steadfast companion in our early years. There are some great books all about blankets out there and I wanted to talk to our little kiddos about theirs.

The Books:
Blankie by: Leslie Patricelli
Small Bunny's Blue Blanket by: Tatyana Feeney
Flora's Blanket by: Debi Gliori

What we did:

1.) Guessing/Rhyming game: I once had a blanket (Jen in the Library)
Jen used this as a flannelboard game, but I didn't put any colors out, but had them listen to the clues and see if they could pick out the color that rhymed. Only a few could actually guess, but it's still good for the kiddos to listen to other kids rhyming. It gets the idea planted.
I once had a blanket
So soft and so new.
I once had a blanket
and the color was ________!
(Repeat for red, green, yellow)

2.) Action song: Bananas Unite! (Jbrary.com)
I get so many song ideas from the two outstanding librarians at Jbrary. They work well for both toddler age groups and preschool groups two! This one is just fun, bouncy, and short.
Bananas Unite! (circle arms like a barrel and then shoot them up in the air like a V)
Peel bananas! Peel, peel bananas! x2 (Pretend to peel a banana!)
Chop bananas! Chop, chop bananas! x2 (Pretend to chop bananas!)
Smash bananas! Smash, smash bananas! x2 (Pretend to smash bananas!)
Eat bananas! Eat, eat bananas! x2 (Pretend to eat bananas)
Goooooooooooo bananas! (circle arms, throw them in the air, and jump as high as you can!)

3.) Flannelboard-Ten little bears (Storytime Katie)
I made a reasonable facsimile of this flannelboard done by Katie. Her skills are infinitely better than mine, but it really worked out. This was one of the few times, my kids want to play with the flannel pieces after storytime is over. It was fun.

4.) www.gonoodle.com Brain breaks and body movement
MORE PROBLEMS WITH TECHNOLOGY! Live by tech, die by tech. Today, the wireless couldn't keep up with gonoodle.com and the video froze every 30 seconds or so. I tried to finish it a capella, but the kids just stared at me confused as all get out. We only did that one and then said goodbye. Oh well, hopefully next week will run smoother.

5.) Playtime: I veered back toward process art this week. We also did some more fine motor building and gross motor play.
a.) Fun brush painting- Process art really unlocks unbridled creativity in preschool children. Every picture should be different. Each child can express their own vision when provided with materials and little to no instruction outside of how to appropriately use them.

b.) Pla-Doh- A favorite, but this time, fairly overshadowed by...

c.) Tube play- Gross motor and social skill development together as they play, laugh, crawl, and hide in the tubes!

Well, the formatting of this page is starting to drive me just a LITTLE bit crazy, so I will leave you with that. Have a great week!

Happy Tuesday! Warm up in our Houses and Homes Storytime!

Happy Tuesday Everyone! Another large step the evolution of human culture was the creation of houses and homes. After we left our caves, we were a nomadic people for thousands of years until we discovered that staying put and farming crops was a better/safer way to live. If humans have three basic needs, they are most likely food/drink, oxygen, and shelter. We read books and sang songs celebrating how lucky we are to have nice, warm homes to go to.

The Books:
In a People House by: Theo LeSieg
Froggy Builds a Treehouse by: Jonathan London
A House for Birdie by: Stuart J. Murphy

What we did:

1.) Action song: Here is a house (Storytime Katie)
Here is a house, built up so high (Put arms over head like a triangle roof)
Here are two chimneys that reach the sky (Reach arms up to the sky)
Here is a window (Pretend to open a window)
Here is a door (Pretend to open a door)
When we look inside (Put hand over eyes to look inside)
We see a mouse on the floor. Eeeek! (Scurry fingers up your arm)

2.) Fingerplay: Houses (Preschool.com)
A Nest is a house for a robin (Cup hands like a nest)
A Beehive is home for a bee (Put two fists together)
A Hole is a home for a rabbit (Make a circle with hands)
And a house is a home for me! (Make a roof with hands)

3.) Flannelboard- A House for Birdie- I used the book as an inspiration for this. I cut out houses from flannel and then cut a specific shape bird (triangle, circle, oval, rectangle, square). I had the kids help me figure out what shape bird fit where. I pretend that I have no idea what I'm doing and they love to shout NO! when I am wrong. Lots of giggles and super easy to make. I only regret not taking a picture.

4.) www.gonoodle.com Brain breaks and body movement
We continued leveling our champion up.We tried two new songs called Dino stomp and I Get Loose. The kids began asking me to do some of our more familiar tunes. I got requests for the roller coaster song, and one mom mentioned that her little one was singing "Push all the buttons" all week. Perhaps we'll go back to that one. One thing you have to be aware of with technology is it will betray you when you need it most. Today that happened to me. On gonoodle.com, you pick a cartoon avatar called a champion. For every ten dances you do, they level up. When they do, something on them changes. Our champion has a bushy mustache. Today, his mustache got very long and grew mustache hands. It was funny. However, it didn't work the first time! The website crashed and while the kids were at playtime, I had to fiddle with the thing and then pull the kids out of playtime to look at it. Jeez...

5.) Playtime- I will apologize for my lack of pictures this week. We didn't have anything very new and how many pictures of play-doh can you look at. 8( Sorry!

a.) House project- I cut out many different shapes out of construction paper. The kids glued them into a reasonable facsimile of a house and trees. It was simple, but this was a difficult week for me to pull activities for.

b.) Play-Doh

c.) House/Animal matching game


Thanks for checking me out. See you next week!
Mr. Mike