Construction, Demolition & Garbage

Well, I actually did not do this theme. Tuesday, we didn't have a program because I was hosting a librarian's workshop and Wednesday, Miss Sarah filled in for me. BUT, this is what I had planned...

Books:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction Machine Song:(from KidsSoup):
(Farmer in the Dell)
The excavator scoops up dirt
The excavator scoops up dirt
Hey-ho, Look at it go!
The excavator scoops up dirt

 

The bulldozer moves the dirt...
The dump truck dumps the dirt...
The steamroller flattens the dirt...

 

 

She'' Be Driving a Bulldozer When She Comes (She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain)

By Rob Reid

 

http://www.rapnrob.com/pdf/shebulldozer.pdf

 

Take-home craft:

Great for talking about shapes!

 



Lemons & Limes, Apples & Oranges

We  read The Red Lemon by Bob Staake, An Orange In January by Dianna Hutts Aston and Apple by Nikki McClure.

We danced to Jim Gill's Silly Dance Contest. We sang a song to the tune of Peanut Butter & Jelly called Lemons, Lemonade:
First you take the lemons and you cut them, you cut them
Then you take the lemons and you squeeze them, you squeeze them
Then you add the sugar and the water, the water
Then you drop the ice cubes, and you stir it, you stir it
Pour yourself a glass and drink it, drink it
Lemon, lemonade- yeah! Lemon, lemonade-yeah! (Themes from A to Z by Education Center)

We used our lemon and lime props to work with positional words.

 

The limes are here, the lemons are there

The limes, the lemons are everywhere
The limes are up, the lemons are down
The limes, the lemons are all around
The limes are in, the lemons are out
The limes, the lemons are all about
The limes are low, the lemons are high
The limes, the lemons all say Good-bye!

 

We tasted lemons and limes. And then we did a short sequencing activity with a girl drinking lemonade.

 



I had these take-home activities: lime and lemon slices, apple and orange word sheets and a positional word game to use with the lemon and lime props. The A words worksheet was from Mailbox Magazine and the O-words sheet I made in Word. The Wacky Word games was from http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=16188

Step Backwards!

Did you know they celebrate Backwards Day on January 31st?

Well, I decided last week's Preschool Pretend & Play theme would be Step Backwards because I saw some cute picture books. One was the AlphaOops! The Day that Z Went First by Alethea Kontis and the other was Previously by Allan Ahlberg. Also, Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer was very cool, but I did not use it for this program.

I used AlphaOops! last time for our Crazy Alphabets theme, so I didn't use that book either!

So, I started out by setting up the storytime room backwards. It was kind of funny because the parents and kids sat down on the carpet the normal way so their backs were towards me. Then I greeted everyone with "Good-bye! Thanks for coming! You did a great job today!" It took them a little while to catch on. One little boy starting walking out the door! It was funny!

We danced to Laurie Berkner's "I Really Love to Dance"- we walk backwards in that song. Then I read Tell Me the Day Backwards by Albert Lamb and part of Previously. We danced to our "Penguin Song" as usual.

Then we did some sequencing!
I passed out envelopes with 3 sequencing cards in them. These were printed from the book Make and Take Sequencing Fun. The adults and children talked about the sequence of the cards and what would happen if we went backwards! We had 3 different sequencing envelopes for them to try.

We read Silly Sally by Audrey Wood which the kids loved! And we ended with The Wiggles' "Monkey Dance" because we jump to the front and back!

The craft was silly animals made from different parts of animals!

Apples and Oranges - Harvest Time!

We read Pumpkin Harvest by Martha E. Rustad which is the perfect length and just the right amount of information about pumpkins for two- year-olds.

Then everyone got a pumpkin on a stick for our The Pumpkins Are Here song and activity from The Mailbox Magazine. It goes like this to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell:

The pumpkins are here, the pumpkins are there.
The pumpkins, the pumpkins are everywhere!
The pumpkins are up, the pumpkins are down
The pumpkins, the pumpkins are all around!
The pumpkins are in, the pumpkins are out
The pumpkins are all about!
The pumpkins are low, the pumpkins are high
Now all the pumpkins wave good-bye!

We read Apple Harvest by Martha E. Rustad as well!

We did a Apple Tree fingerplay:
Way up high in the apple tree (two hands in air)
Two little apples smiled at me
I shook that tree as hard as I could (shake)
Down came the apples (hands come down)
UMMMMMM!UMMMMM! Good! (rub tummy)

Crazy Alphabets

I usually get my ideas for storytimes from books as I catalog new books. That's exactly what happened with Crazy Alphabets. I saw two new books that were hilarious!

Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham is adorable. Moose so much wants to be in the alphabet book and is a little impatient. The crew decides to use Mouse instead of Moose on the M page and Moose sort of loses it! There are tons of alphabet books, but this one stands out for me.

Sunflowers

In Preschool Pretend & Play this week, we talked about sunflowers- big, round and yellow like the sun.


We started with our "10" action rhyme which we will do each program to concentrate on the number 10:
Apples Everywhere

Apples in the orchard (hold arms out like tree)
Apples on the ground (bend to ground)
Apples in my basket (hold one arm like holding a basket)
Apples all around (turn)

Apples in my cider (drink)
Apples in my pie (eat)
Apples everywhere
My, oh my, oh my!

Ten red apples grow on a tree
Five for you and five for me (show 5 and 5)
Help me shake the tree just so (shake body)
And count the apples as they grow
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

(Apple cutouts and words to rhyme were sent home so parents could do at home)

Buttons

This week in Preschool Pretend & Play, our theme is Buttons! Buttons to fasten our clothes, buttons to push and belly buttons to tickle!

We started with our 5 Eggs & 5 Eggs rhyme which my LLFs really have gotten good at doing! Yeah! Then we moved on to our Word Family- the -OP Family.

Can you sing the OP family, OP family, OP family
Can you sing the Op family
Come and sing with me!

We danced to a new song- The Freeze Song on the Three Little Kittens CD.

We read I Like Your Buttons by Nancy Cote. What a feel good kind of book! What a lesson to learn that simple kindness can spread and spread and even come back to visit you!

We read Button by Sara Fanelli which was about a runaway button that goes on an adventure!

Pies

In Preschool Pretend & Play this week, we talked about PIES. Mmmm, mmmm!

We read...

Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray. Funny book about a little dog who just wants a tast of that apple pie!

All for Pie and Pie for All by David Martin. A sweet little story about a family of cats, a family of mice and a family of ants that all share in the the apple pie that Grandma Cat makes.

Baby Pie by Tom MacRae. Three little trolls go out to find a baby for the baby pie they want to make...but they are in for a surprise!

Pie in the Sky by Lois Ehlert. Did you ever hear of a Pie Tree? Well, there's one growing right before your eyes in this story!









Preschool Pretend & Play- Chickens Run Wild

I think I did chickens last year...

As I said to Library Friends- big and little- I don't like to repeat programs or themes because there are so many new ones to do always, but I had to do 'Chickens' because there are so many new, fun chicken books out!

We started by shaking our eggs to Laurie Berkner's I Know a Chicken and then we read Chickens Run Wild by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein.

Our regular weekly rhyme concentrating on the number 10- 5 Eggs and 5 Eggs fit right in!

Then we danced to the fun song- Chicken Fun by Mary Jo Huff! Hilarious!

Preschool Pretend and Play - Dots and Spots

Dots and spots can be anything when we use our imagination!

10 Black Dots can be eyes on a fox, a sun, a moon, wheels on a train, soldier's heads, marbles and more! Donald Crew's book showed us that! So, did Dot by Patricia Intriago and Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier!


We counted dots on our chocolate chip cookies that Cookie Monster ate! We counted dots on our cards and found a library friend with a card with the same number of dots!


We danced to Shake a Friend's Hand from the Stinky Cake cd and Root-chy-cha from the Laugh and Learn Silly Songs cd.


Our take home crafts were animals that have dots or spots, a Where is Dot book to teach positional words and of course, some connect-the-dot pictures!


Dots and spots are everywhere! Take a look around!

Cookie Monster and 10 Fluffy Chicks

Here is the cookie monster puppet I will be using for our activity, but you can make one of your own at home!


Linda, one of my wonderful volunteers, made a cookie monster out of felt and a couple out of paper! Fun and easy!

Preschool Pretend & Play (ages 3-5) MyPlate

This week's theme is the new MyPlate food icon. This replaces the Food Pyramid. MyPlate really makes meal planning easier. Just by looking at the icon, you know right away that vegetables and fruits should take up half the plate (with the veggie portion being a bit bigger), and grains and protein foods should take up the other half (with more grains on this side). And with a side helping of dairy, you're reminded that kids also need a serving of milk or another dairy food (like cheese or yogurt) at each meal.

Preschool Pretend & Play- Bad Hair Day!

Wow! Miss Debbie is having a very BAD HAIR DAY!  And bad picture day!

Brush in my hair, now what will I do?
Brush in my hair, now what will I do?
Brush in my hair, now what will I do?
Guess I'll have to wear it!
So we danced to Bad Hair Day by Dream Jam Band. We read Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair by Lee Fox, The Unexpectedly Bad Hair of Barcelona Smith by Keith Graves, Big Bouffant by Kate Hosford and Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzberg. We then went bananas like Barcelona Smith's hair with The Learning Station.
The Knots in My Hair Song was silly! Hope everyone went home to brush their hair!

Preschool Pretend and Play

I Can Do It Myself! My LLFs are becoming big boys and girls and are learning do so many things by themselves! We counted, we sang our ABCs, we jumped and talked about getting dressed and more! They sure are special!

We read I Can Do It Too! by Karen Baicker, I Can Do It Myself by Diane Adams and How Do I Put It On by Shigeo Watanbe. We jumped and counted with Jim Gill and put togetther body puzzles with our grown-ups.

Preschool Pretend & Play- Noses & Toes

We started off dancing our toesies off to Gimme Back My Toes by Mr. Richard.

We read these books....
Who Needs that Nose? by Karen Clemens
Whose Toes are Those? by Joyce Elias
Long-Nosed Pig
Whose Nose and Toes? by John Butler
Hello Toes, Hello Feet by Ann Whitford Paul
We also touched our toes to our nose with this little ditty:
Hap Palmer- Touch your toes to your nose
Instead of our real toes this time, we used toes on a stick!
But everyone should go home, take off their socks and shoes and try the song with their real toes!

Preschool Pretend and Play

Socks and Shoes! Woohoo! The letter of the week, of course, was S for Socks and Shoes! Mr. Letter Muncher ate a lot of the letter S! Yum, yum!

We went walkin' in our walkin' shoes, stompin' in our stompin' shoes, running in our running shoes, tiptoeing in our tiptoe shoes and backwards in our backwards shoes! Oops, we bumped into each other!

Miss Debbie was sooo sad and cried because she lost her socks! But my LLFs helped me find my socks! We went BANANAS with our theme song!

We read Whose Shoes? A Shoe for Every Job by Stephen Swinburne, Shoes for Me by Sue Fleiss, Socksquatch by Frank Dormer, New Socks by Bob Shea and A Flock of Shoes by Sarah Tsiang.

Flannel Boards:

Five Pairs of Dirty Socks

5 pairs of dirty socks on my bedroom floor
Mom washed the blue pair and then there were 4

4 pairs of dirty socks that belong to me
Mom washed the red pair and then there were 3

3 pairs of dirty socks, What’s a kid to do?
Mom washed the green pair and then there were2

2 pairs of dirty socks, I wear them when I run.
Mom washed the purple pair and then there was 1.

1 pair of dirty socks, one and only one,
Mom washed the last pair, my favorite pair of all!.

No more dirty socks, Mom washed them all today,
But wait until tomorrow, cause there’s more on the way!

Preschool Pretend & Play (3-5)

The Letter of the Week is DDDDD as in Dinner! Who's Coming to Dinner? Pig, Chicken, Egg?

We have read stories about crazy dinners that don't go exactly as planned!

The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza
My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza
Foxy and Edd by Alex Smith
20 Hungry Piggies by Trudy Harris

We went bananas with our Go Bananas song and we danced to the Fun Thing by Eric Litwin!

We took home origami foxes and fox tails, too!

Next week- Preschool Pretend and Play Ages 3-5

We are going to camp out in the library! Next week- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 10:30 am. We are going to read camp stories in our tent, make smores, sing camp songs and watch out for bears! Oh, my!

Bring your bug spray and a sunblock!