CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Puddle by David McPhail


 Gathering Activity:  Umbrella Art 

Materials Needed: Cupcake liners, pipe cleaners, construction paper, Do-A-Dot markers, sticky foam cut into the shape of raindrops




We made these adorable umbrellas inspired by this craft on No Time for Flash Cards.  You can click on the link for detailed directions.

 The only modification we made was to cut raindrops from sticky foam we happened to have available.  The children were able to peel off the back and stick them on directly.  




Circle Time: The Puddle by David McPhail


The Puddle is a delightfully written and illustrated story about a child who goes out to play with a sailboat in the rain.  The child's sailboat sails out of reach when a frog asks to sail in the boat Then a turtle backstrokes by while enjoying afternoon tea, a crocodile rescues (and chomps) the boat, a pig dives into the puddle and splashes the child, and an elephant drinks the puddle.   In the end, the child comes home and enjoys a warm bath and sailing the boat in the tub.  Another fun thing about this book is that the author purposely allows the reader to decide whether the main character is male or female.  


After reading the story, we sang some favorite songs.

  



A Sailor Went to Sea
A sailor went to sea sea sea.
To see what he could see see see.
But all that he could see see see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea.

This first one was our favorite.  We taught the children how to do the hand motions.  You slap your knees, clap your hands, and then clap the hands of your  partner three times.  We sang this one several times.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the waterspout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
So the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again!

Rain Is Falling
Rain is falling all around,
 on the housetops on the ground,
 rain is falling on my nose,
on my head and hands and toes.

Snack: Apple Sailboats

Materials Needed: Apple slices, cheese cut into triangles, toothpicks 


We allowed the children to assemble these themselves.  They really enjoyed making and eating these. 

Art Activity: Sailboats 



Materials Needed: Plastic cup with top half  cut off, with duct tape around the top of the bottom half of the cup (keeps the jagged edges from cutting the children), straw, triangle shaped paper with two holes to thread straw through, modeling clay 




Directions: Allow the children to decorate the sail themselves.  Help them thread the sail onto the straw and stick into the modeling clay that is placed in the center of the bottom of the cup.  The lower the sail, the better balanced your boat will be.  



 Activity: Sailing Sailboats




We sailed our boats in our little swimming pool.  It was a fun use for our pool that usually doesn't get pulled out until the summer.  The children wore raincoats and rain boots like the child in the story.  It also helped ensure that they stayed dry.




  We played outside for quite a while.  By the time we finished, the 3 girls' boats were exactly as they had been at the beginning.  The 3 boys' boats had been taken apart and were now cups that they were using to scoop and pour and splash with. 

Puddle Jumping



We cut out puddles from blue construction paper and allowed the children to jump over them.  A fun song to play along while they moved would be Greg and Steve's "Robin in the Rain."  Of course I didn't think of this until they were jumping.  I will pull the puddles back out later this week and play again using that song. 




 

4 comments:

Deborah

I love David McPhail! Thanks for your commitment to children's books! I love how you bring the literature into other content areas!

Melissa Taylor

love this - I wish my kids were younger so I could do it with them. :) Maybe I'll just do it by myself?

Shauna

I always love stopping by your blog to see what fun things you are doing with children's literature.
Take care,
Shauna
myshaenoel.blogspot.com

Cloud Boy

What a great idea!! My little baby girl like different things to do and I think this will be enjoyable for me also when I'll see she is making this.

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments! I love hearing from the readers of my blog. It makes my day! I have recently had a lot of inappropriate spam that has snuck through, so I am turning on the moderation of comments for a short time, to see if it helps. I am so sorry for any inconvience this may cause, but I want to remain a family friendly blog. -Danielle @Mommy and Me Book Club