Baby Time 2-29-12

Animal song: "If I Was a Bird" from Songs for Wiggleworms. In this mellow song, we join animal puppets and flap our wings, swing our arms, hop, swing our trunks, and slither.

Rhymes:
I adapted one of my favorite movement rhymes for the babies today. I got this alligator rhyme from Miss Trish at Chandler Libraries.

Alligator:
The alligator's jaws go snap, snap, snap
The alligator's tail goes thwack, thwack, thwack
GOTCHYA! (big hug)

I'm a Little Beetle (from http://melissa.depperfamily.net/blog/?p=857)
I'm a little beetle and I wiggle all day
If you get too close
I'll FLY away!

Book: Ten Tiny Tickles by Karen Katz. Family members awaken baby with tickles, from one tickle on a lovely sleepy  head to ten tiny tickle on chubby wubby toes.

Bouncing Song: "Walking' Ol' Joe" (Sorry, CD not in our collection)

Walkin' ol' joe
Walkin' ol' joe
You're the best horse in the country
Woooaaaaah!

Repeat with gallop (fast) and mosey on (slow)

Activity: We mix it up a little on the last babytime of the month and today we played with plush balls and the song "Roll Your Ball" (sorry, CD not in our collection)

Pre-K 2-23-12 Frogs and Alligators

Today we had a full-energy group...and lots of siblings.  We read about frogs and alligators and grooved to a new song.

Memory box: Fly (from Wide-Mouthed-Frog).  It was pretty funny and unexpected when the kids kept spotting the fly on every page LOL

What color are frogs?:  We had fun looking at a variety of colorful frogs

Books:

Jump! by Scott Fischer.  All the children got a colorful scarf to lift up high each time I read the word, "JUMP!" (which was fairly often).  From a bug and a frog to a croc and a shark, each animal JUMPS away from a larger animal.

Wide-Mouthed-Frog by Keith Faulkner.  The wide-mouth frog in this pop-up book eats flies and asks other animals about their favorite foods....until he meets an alligator who eats wide-mouthed-frogs.  The children then helped me retell the story with puppet props.

Flannel:
Little frog, little frog
are you in the color log?
(I let the kids call out colors and we looked under the logs until we found the two frogs)

Letter of the Day:
My duck from "All the Fish" laid two colorful eggs!  I instructed Lesley to show them the egg, but they couldn't tell me th letter.  Instead I had to guess the letter based on the words they came up with.
Music (sorry; neither CD is in our collection): 
"All the Fish":  We swam with fish, quacked with ducks, hopped with frogs, snapped like alligaors, flew like seagulls, and swam with children in the song "All the Fish"...and SPLASHed enthusiastically.

"Alligator Jump":  An alligator puppet taught us how to do the Alligator Jump with dancing scarves.  The chorus is:

Alligator jump

Alligator slide

All the alligators like to move from side to side

Alligator grunt

Alligator giggle

All the alligators like to turn around and wiggle

Wiggle Worms 2-21-12

That adorable (albeit sleepy/cranky) little monkey I grabbed a time or two during storytime was my little dude enjoying storytime with some of our friends.

Animal song:  Old MacDonald

Book: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow.  We used the big book version and jumped along to an audio recording

Letter of the day: Bb for banana

Movement:  After learning the sign for b, we sang the "B-banana/Monkey" song off Carole Peterson's CD. http://www.macaronisoup.com/Songs/March2011.htm

"B-banana, B-B-banana, B-banana, B-B-banana
Peel banana, peel peel banana, peel banana, peel peel banana
Eat banana, eat eat banana, eat banana, eat eat
And go bananas, go go bananas!!  Go banana, go go bananas!"

Flannel:  "This Little Piggy".  Our little piggies love their fruits and veggies and I just picked up some more from Joann's so they can really pig out ha ha.  Today the piggy ate an apple, a pear, and a carrot.

Finger Play:  "The Alligator"
(copied from/adapted from Miss Trish at Chandler Libraries)
Get on your hands and knees and get ready to be alligators.  Once the kids get the hang of this, they can turn around and get YOU.

The alligator's jaws go snap, snap, snap
The alligator's tail goes thwack, thwack, thwack
and he's getting closer (crawl forward)

The alligator's jaws go snap, snap, snap
The alligator's tail goes thwack, thwack, thwack
and he's getting closer (crawl forward)
GOTCHYA! (big snap or hug)

Wiggle Worms 2-13 and 2-14 2012

Wiggle Worms is always a little crazy for my liking when we have to hold it in the Newsstand Room, but I still had a blast with all my little Wiggle Worms this week as we threw a little Valentines into the mix.

Animal Song: "Old MacDonald"

Letter of the day: Ll for ladybug (or lovebug)

Book:  My new favorite book by one of my favorite authors: All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri

Flannel:  Under blue heart there is a purpe heart.  Under the purple heart there is a green heart. Under the green hear there is a pink heart.  Under the pink heart is a red heart.  Under the red heart is a....LOVEBUG!

Movement:  After that flannel, we had to dance with lovebugs to Johnette Downing's "Love Bug"

Fingerplays:

Tommy Thumbs:

Tommy Thumbs are up
and Tommy Thumbs are down
Tommy Thumbs are dancing all around the town
Dance them on your shoulders, dance them on your head, dance them on your knees
and tuck them into bed shhhhhh....

WAKE UP, TOMMY THUMBS! (and do it again)

So many cuties!  So many Valentines!

 

 

2-9-12 Conrad Storad

Conrad Storad, a non-fiction children's author, helped us celebrate Arizona's 100th birthday!  Check out his books in our  catalog.  He read Rattlesnake Rules and brought out his impressive rattlesnake friend, Big Mama.

Jane Ringo, a Ringtail (Arizona's official state animal), surprised us by popping out of the closet and giving high fives and hugs.  (That's my adorable baby and colleague)

Babytime and thank yous 2-8-12

Big thank you to Lesley for covering baby time for me a second week in a row so I could attend/present a workshop.  And big thank you to the public for checking out my blog!  I'm sseriously pleased with my blog pageview stats and hope you're finding it a useful blog to follow.

Lesely read my new favorite book by one of my favorite authors: All Kinds of Kisses.

Pre-K Valentine's Day! 2-2-12

Next week we will have a guest speaker, so we stirred up a little Valentine fun this week.

Books:

Valentine Surprise by Corinne Demas.  A little girl tries to make a perfect heart valentine for her mother, but none turn out quite right.  She decides to tape them all together to make a colorful banner. 

Unfortunately, you can't see the glittery felt and puffy paint I used to make these flannel pieces, but they're quite vibrant in person.  Noah and Olivia helped me hold the banner up because it was about 4 feet long.  I made two sets of hearts and glued the second set together for the banner ahead of time.

Idea from http://busycraftingmommy.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/valentines-day-flannel-friday/



       

  

My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall.  Michael Hall, a graphic designer, uses over 300 hearts to construct a menagerie of animals. 

Game: "I'm thinking of something red"....We gave clues and the kiddos guessed which red items we were describing.  Some items were a stop sign, apple, fire truck, Clifford, and tomatoes.

Movement:  I played "Shake a Friend's Hand" and everyone partnered up with a mom, dad, sibling, friend, etc.

Flannel:  Six Valentines from http://busycraftingmommy.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/flannel-friday-another-valentines-day-set/ (words changed slightly)

6 little Valentines were sent to my house,
The first one was from Mouse (pink)

5 little Valentines in my mailbox,
The second one was from Fox (orange)

4 little Valentines full of love,
The third one was from Dove (white)

3 little Valentines just for me,
The fourth one was from Bee (yellow)

2 little Valentine’s mailed with care,
The fifth one was from Bear (sparkley pink)

The last little Valentine, from my friend Jay,
This one said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” (blue)

Letter of the Day: Hh for hearts

Craft: (from My Heart is Like a Zoo): Frogs