Go Away Big Green Monster

Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley

 

Gathering Activity: Two Monster Sensory Bins

Squishy Green Monster Eyes

Inspired by I Can Teach My Child, I bought green water beads from the Wal-mart floral department for the kids to explore.  They LOVED it.  The had so much fun squishing the "bubbles,"  and so did the moms!  They are addictive!  They are non-toxic and easy to clean up, even when they smash them. They come in a small package in many colors.  You add water and allow them to expand over night. 

Green Monster Sensory Bin

I created a sensory bin using shiny green gift filler, green boa feathers, googly eyes, and monster teeth.   The children had fun hiding and finding the eyes over and over again.  

Circle Time: Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley

Sing "Here We Are Together"

We read Go Away Big Green Monster together.    I love the layered illustrations, that build the monster a page at a time and then disappears a page at a time.  The kids love telling him to "GO AWAY!"  

Songs and Fingerplays:

I found cute monster finger puppets in the party section at Target.  I bought two packs.  The children enjoyed using these in our finger play today.   

Five little monsters went to play
Across the yard and far away
Mama Monster yelled really loud
“Little Monsters, come back now.”
(Repeat with numbers 4, 3, 2, and 1)
No little monsters came back then.
What could they be hiding in?
Mama Monster checked the yard
Five Little Monsters were playing hard.


I'm a Little Monster
(to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot")
I'm a little monster, can't you see?
Everyone is scared of me.
Scared of me, I don't know why ...
I wouldn't even hurt a fly!
                          

Art: Paper Plate Monsters

Materials Needed: Green Paper Plates, googly eyes, sticky foam pieces, feathers, colored pasta, glue, tissue paper, glue

Directions: Let the children create their own monsters using materials.


Snacks: Green Monster Pudding and Green Monster Cupcakes

Green Monster Pudding:  We found this super cute idea on the Better Homes and Garden Website.  The children loved it! 

Green Monster Cupcakes: One of our little friends had a birthday today and her mom made these awesome cupcakes!  The hair is piped chocolate she let harden.  The mouth and nose are fruit strips.  

Activity: Pin the Eyes on the Monster Game

One of our dads pitched in and made this large green monster for the children to "pin" googly eye balls on.  Thanks, Sam's Dad! 

The Big Red Barn

The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Gathering Activity: Barnyard Toys

The kids played with toy barns and animals.  They also read farm themed picture books with their moms.

Circle Time: The Big Red Barn

Sing “Here We Are Together”

We read The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.

 

Songs and Finger Plays:

“Old McDonald Had a Farm”- We allowed each child choose an animal to sing about.

“I’m A Little Scarecrow” (sung to the song of "I’m a Little Teapot”)

"I’m a little scarecrow filled with hay.  Here I stand in the fields all day.  When I see a crow I like to shout!  “Hey, you crows, you better get out!”

Art: Big Red Barn Spray Painting

Materials Needed: poster board, washable red paint, water spray bottles like you find at the dollar tree (one per child, outdoor space or  drop cloth for an indoor space (like a kitchen floor) 

BEFORE CLASS
1-Cut out 7 large pieces of poster board into a farm silhouettes.  Make each barn very large.  It isn’t very fun to squirt onto a small piece of paper.  
2-Fill water bottle with water and mix with red paint.

  


DURING MOMMY AND ME
3-Allow the children to spray the barns red. 

This was so much fun...and messy!  It was raining during art time, so we did this activity in the kitchen with tarps.  It stopped raining when it was time to leave. 

Snack: Haystacks
The story includes a haystack on the farm where the children play.  So of course we had to make haystacks for our snack!

Here is the yummy recipe we used. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Haystacks

Activities: Animal Round-Up and Animal Sound Game

1-) Animal Round-Up:
We decorated a large box to look like a barn.  We hid several stuffed and plastic farm animals.  The children pretended to be farmers and gathered all the animals and placed them safely back into the barn.  

2-) Animal Sound Game: 
We gave each child a set of farm animal Popsicle stick puppets.  We had downloaded a super cute app called I Hear Ewe.  We played a sound and let them hold up the matching animal.   The kids were way more interested in the iPad app than they were with the planned game.  So we let them take turns pushing farm animals and enjoying the noises!  Flexibility is the key to success with two year olds!

Kitten's First Full Moon

Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes 



Gathering Activity:  Black Cat Ears and Whiskers 

Materials Needed: black construction paper,  white construction paper, glue sticks, staplers, eye liner


We had all pieces cut out before class.  Cut out two black ears, two white centers, and a long lack strip for the headband. 

We let the kids glue the ears on and staple with help. 

We used eyeliner to add whiskers.  

The little ones were so cute as they pretended to be kittens all morning.

Circle Time:  Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes


"Here We Are Together"


We read Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes.  This is a very sweet story about a little kitten who thinks the full moon is a large bowl of milk.  He tries unsuccessfully to reach the milk.  In the end, he arrives home to find milk waiting for him on the porch.  The illustrations are all black, white, and gray. 

Finger Play:

Five Kittens (Traditional)
Five little kittens standing in a row, (Hold up five fingers.)
They nod their heads to the children so. (Bend fingers)
They run to the left; they run to the right. (Run fingers to the left and then to the right.)
They stand up and stretch in the bright sunlight. (Stretch fingers out tall.)
Along comes a dog who's in for some fun. (Hold up one finger from opposite hand.)
ME-OW! See those little kittens run! (Let fingers run.)




“Shake Sillies Out” Song 



 Art: Microwavable Puffy Paint Moon

We cut out cardboard circles to create full moons and then the children painted them with puffy paint.  

We made  puffy paint using this recipe from Play at Home Mom.   This was perfect for our project.

We were able to microwave the painted projects, so that they were dry enough to bring home.  It puffed up nicely.   It was the first time we had used microwavable puffy paint, but it won't be the last!




Snack: Milk in bowls and Black Kitten Cookies

  We let the little ones drink milk out of bowls like the kitten in the story.  They also enjoyed these yummy kitten cookies from Recipe Girl.  

Game: Find the Moon Game 



I wrote a little song that we sang while we played our game. 

Find the Moon (Tune of Where is Thumbkin?)

“Where’s the moon?  Where’s the moon?  Find it soon.  Find it soon.  Kitten wants the moon.  Kitten wants the moon.  Find it soon. Find it soon.”  


We made a moon to hide.  (Can be a white paper plate).  

A Mommy and her child took the moon and hid with it.  The rest of the children and mommies sang the song.  They went to find the moon together.  We played until each child had a chance to hide the moon.

Ten Red Apples

Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchens



Gathering Activity: Apple Pie Play Dough Exploration 

This play dough smells soooo good!  We used the recipe found here at The Picky Apple.
The children had fun exploring with the play dough and fall cookie cutters. 





Circle Time: Ten Red Apples

We open each week by singing “Here We Are Together”



We read Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchens.  This is a colorful rhyming book that counts down from ten apples to no apples as the farmer's animals each come and eat one of the apples.  In the end, they discover another tree filled with apples for the farmer's wife to use to make a pie.

While I read the story, the children took turns coming up with their moms and picking an apple off of our own apple tree.  Together we counted down with the story.

 Fingerplay:  

“Way up high in the apple tree, (point to the sky) 3 little apples smiled at me. (show three fingers)  I shook that tree as hard as I could, (pretend to shake the tree) down came an apple. (fall on the floor)  Mmmm, it was good.” (rub your tummy)



Art: Fingerprint Apple Tree

Materials Needed: construction paper, green paint, brown paint, glue, and red hots.

1-Use brown fingerpaint to create a tree trunk with thumprints.

2-Use green fingerpaint to create the leaves on the tree with thumbprints. 

3-Glue 10 red hot candies on the tree.  

Snack: Red Apples


We enjoyed red apple slices, of course!  We added three special dips: chocolate, peanut butter, and whipped topping.

Activity: Apple Hunt

We scattered paper apples outside on the ground and let the children hunt for them and place them in their basket.  

The idea was inspired by an idea found on Chasing the Goose.



Closing: Good-bye Poem