Pre-K Thanksgiving 11-15-12

Thanksgiving is in ONE WEEK!  Yay

Theme:  Thanksgiving

Books:

I Know and Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Allison Jackson

The old lady swallows a pie.  You know the rest.  I do not read all the repeating lines in order to shorten the story.

 

To make it easier to "see the book" I made this flannel.  The lady's skirt gets bigger and bigger as she eats.

 

 

 

The Ugly Pumpkin (Or in my version: The Bumpy Pumpkin) by Dave Horowitz.  The bumpy pumpkin is really a squash.  The other pumpkins are pretty mean to him so I change or skip most of the text and make it an upbeat story.

 

Why do I love this book?  Because I buy cool bumpy gourds every year and let the kids all touch them.

 

 

 

 

 

Flannels:

 

"Turkey Wore His Red Feather"

 

I LOVE programming during the holidays because attendance is low enough that I can do activities like this!!  Each child picked a feather and did a fabulous job waiting until I called their color and they came up to put feathers on the turkey.

 

As they brought the feathers up, I sang "Turkey wore his red feather, red feather, red feather / Turkey wore his red feather all day long" etc. for all the colors.

 

 

 

 

Bibbity Boppity Boo -- Turkey style

 

I came up with this game (it's floating around on the Internet without my name attached to it because I shared it on a listserve and was not credited when ideas were compiled).  It's easy and can work with any animal / thing really.

 

Each kid got a flannel turkey (I buckled down in front of the TV and made 40 of them last year) and we moved them around our bodies.

 

"Bibbity Boppity Boo - A turkey sat on my shoe"

"Bibbity Boppity Bed - A turkey sat on my head"  etc

 

 

 

Music:

 

"She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" - because she reminds me of the lady who swallowed a pie!

 

"Turkey Trot" (Gosh!  I don't know who to credit).

 

Oh you turkey to the left

You turkey to the right

You heel toe heel toe

And you scratch with all your might

You flap your turkey wings

As your head goes bobble, bobble, bobble

You turn around and then you say, "Gobble, gobble, gobble."

 

Of course Turkey trotted with us

 

 

 

Video song:

 

Apparently I am the only one with nostalgic memories of this from elementary school, but the parents all sang along and the kids got the "gobble gobble" refrain down.  The held on to the little flannel turkeys to dance with.

 



 

Game:  "Mouse View"  I created this game a few years ago.  I printed close-ups of various Thanksgiving foods and the kids guess what they are.

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

 

 

 



 

 

Pre-K Squirrels Getting Ready For Winter

I've been busy as a squirrel getting ready for winter (haha) and haven't been blogging.  This particular program worked well the MORNING AFTER HALLOWEEN because it was a smaller group and the acorn activity would have been crazy with a bigger group.

Theme: Squirrels getting ready for winter
Kids: 21
Siblings: 4
Adults: 16

 Books:

Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert (I like this book but not my first choice).  A rascally squirrel has an indoor adventure.

 

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri.  Squirrel is too busy to play with the other animals because he is getting ready for winter.

 

Memory Box:  Pumpkin from The Busy Little Squirrel

Music / Movement:

Music: "Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel".  There are many versions but I used the one that has gray squirrel, mommy squirrel, and daddy squirrel all shake their bushy tails.  I had enough pom poms for adults to move too and a few moms and dads did stand up.  Their kids LOVED watching them dance (so did I).  So funny! 

"Furry, Furry Squirrel" (poem) by Jack Prelutsky.  The kids acted the poem out as the puppet also hopped, ran up the tree, turned around, and scurried down.

 

 

 

Letter of the Day:  Ss for squirrel

 

I presented different animals and we categorized them as words that start with Ss and that don't:

Oh, yeah...that's a Snowy Owl

Flannel:

Sammy Squirrel comes from a flannel book.  Eesh I can't remember which one...

Sammy Squirrel contemplates how to stay warm during the winter when he can't find a tree with leaves on it.  He thinks about various friends who hibernate but none of those homes work for him.  Finally he sees something green in the distance...pull slowly out of folder....what is it?  A tree for Sammy!!

 

 

Activity:  The kids searched the library for acorns to put in the squirrel's tree hole.  Despite my clarity on only finding 2 or 3 each, some kids went nuts (haha) so I helped the more reserved kids find the acorns that the others didn't find (like in our potted plants).  I cut 76 acorns so there were plenty to find.

Borrowed straight from:  http://busycraftingmommy.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/animals-in-fall-storytime/