A Ball For Daisy

This week's activities were inspired by the wordless picture book  A Ball for Daisy.

 It was probably one of our favorite day of activities ever!  Especially our ball bounce painting!

Gathering Activity: Marble Runs

We explored balls of all sizes this week.  We started with very small ones.  The children each played with marble runs while we waited for everyone to arrive.  We had three different configurations set up, in order to allow all of the children a chance to experiment.  They had a lot of fun, and this activity extended well past the normal amount of time we allot to gathering time activities. 

Circle Time:

We read a wordless book this week A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka.  This book is a Caldecott Medal winner.  Through lovely and expressive illustrations the author tells a story about a doggy who loves a red ball.  You know she loves the red ball because she plays with it, can't sleep without it, and smiles whenever she has it.  Then one day at the park, another doggy pops her ball by accident.  The pictures show a very sad doggy who cannot sleep or play or smile without her ball.  In the end, the other doggy and owner bring Daisy a new ball, a blue one!  Daisy is happy again and plays with her new ball and friend.  

This was a fun one to do with my 2 and 3 year olds.  It is the very first wordless book I have featured at Mommy and Me Book Club.  I showed the pictures and guided the children through questions and observations. The children shared what they thought was happening in each picture.  They loved helping tell the story.  They were focused on the story and very engaged as they interacted with the book. 

We sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." 

Then we sang one I made up on the spot about our story.  

Daisy's Ball Song

sung to "Mary had a Little Lamb"

Daisy had a little ball

little ball

little ball

Daisy had a little ball

that she loved.

Daisy's friend, he popped the ball

popped the ball

popped the ball

Daisy's friend he popped the ball

that she loved.

Daisy got a new blue ball

new blue ball

new blue ball

Daisy got a new blue ball

that she loved! 

 

Snack: Fruit Bouncing Ball Pizzas

We were inspired by this beautiful fruit pizza at Hungry Happenings.  We wanted to make ours all red, like Daisy's ball, so we used only red fruit.  We made a large one for the moms to share, using watermelon, raspberries, and strawberries.  The individualized small ones for the children were made on flattened biscuits instead of cookies, and spread with strawberry flavored cream cheese.  Yum!  

Art: Ball Bouncing Painting

Messy outside art fun!  We dipped bouncing balls into sidewalk paint and then let the children bounce and splatter the paint onto large butcher paper.  These trays were perfect for this activity!   Talk about fun!  There were so many giggles and squeals.   This was a great process, not product activity!  

Materials Needed: Sidewalk Paint (we used these great Crayola trays), tennis balls, large sheets of butcher paper, and lots of water for clean up! 

Like all great activities, this one was flexible enough to allow the children to explore in lots of different ways.  The children quickly discovered that it was also fun to paint with their toes.

Activities: Ball Free Play

We set out assorted shapes and sizes and kinds of balls for the children to have free play with outside.  We even had an impromptu ball wash out of necessity.  The kids loved it!

A Rainbow of My Own

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All of our activities this week were inspired by the wonderful children's book, A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman. 

Gathering Activity: Rainbow Colored Spaghetti Noodles

I loved these rainbow colored spaghetti noodles when I saw them on The Imagination Tree blog.  I knew they had to be part of our rainbow day.  We followed the directions found on their blog to make them.  

Our kids had a great time with this wonderful sensory activity.  They were extremely engaged with the rainbow colored spaghetti noodles.  They squished, smelled, and yes, even tasted these noodles.  I didn't notice this on the Imagination Tree's blog, but that was the first thing our little ones did, stick it immediately in their mouths. (Thank goodness they are nontoxic).  Even our little ones who are pretty hesitant with most sensory activities got into the messy fun!  Our hands were VERY oily afterwards, but that was easily remedied with soap and water.

Circle Time

 

We read the Don Freeman classic,  A Rainbow of My Own.  (If you are unfamiliar with this author, he also wrote Corduroy).  The story is sweet and simple.  A child sees a rainbow and chases it, until it disappears.  Then the child imagines that the rainbow returns to play and belongs just to the child.  Each picture depicts delightful scenes of pretend as the child plays with the rainbow.  When the child returns home, a rainbow is on the wall of the child's bedroom, made from the sun shining through a fish bowl.  I love how the story never really indicates a specific gender, leaving the readers to picture themselves as the main character. 

We sang this cute song by Jean Warren. 
 

GREAT BIG RAINBOW
Sung to: "I'm a Little Teapot"
There's a great, big rainbow
In the sky,
With pretty colors
Way up high.
When it starts to rain
And the sun comes out-
A beautiful rainbow
Will pop out!

Snack: Rainbow Fruit Pizza
 

One of the moms made a large fruit pizza shaped like an arc using sugar cookie dough as the crust.  She topped it with cream cheese frosting and then fruit.  We  cut each child a slice so that they could  all have a rainbow of their own.

Art: Rainbow Art Collages
 

We were inspired by the lovely collages on katherine marie's blog.  

We made our own by providing the children with pre-drawn and colored rainbows on half sheets of poster board and pre-color-sorted collage supplies.  (My 4 and 7 year old sons colored the rainbows for us before class).

 The children color matched an assortment of stickers, felt, paper, feathers, pom poms, ribbon, and foam pieces onto the rainbow.  

The kids enjoyed this project and really got the concept of matching the colors.  However, the size of the rainbow was too large to hold about half of our kids' interest, and we had a couple of moms left alone to finish the project at the end. I would recommend  one-fourth of a poster board if I was to repeat the activity.

Activities:Rainbow Streamers and Bubbles
 

1-Rainbow Streamers: We danced outside with Rainbow Wind Streamers that we made by following the directions on one of my very favorite blogs, Toddler Approved.  I love that these used surveying tape instead of paper streamers.  They were durable and we can use them again and again!

 

2-Rainbow Bubbles: We blew bubbles outside and looked for rainbows in the bubbles.  It was a beautiful day where we lived.  Perfect for creating memories with our little ones.
 

You can sing this cute Rainbows in My Bubbles song found here on Preschool Music Express. 

RAINBOWS IN MY BUBBLES
Tune:  “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round The Mountain”
I’ve got rainbows in my bubbles, yes I do.
I’ve got rainbows in my bubbles, yes I so.
When I blow up towards the sun,
They have rainbows, every one.
I’ve got rainbows in my bubbles, yes I do.
                                               Jean Warren

Freight Train

Freight Train by Donald Crews 

Gathering Activity: Train Play 

 

 Our little engineers had fun playing with our wooden train tracks and trains.  I also had train themed books for them to look at together.   Because sharing can be difficult at this age, I set up several small train sets, instead of one large one.  This insured a happy play time with the trains and reduced the frustration of train crashes when two trains come from opposite directions on the same track.  Or when one two year old wants to rebuild the tracks as another two year old is just about to reach the bridge!   It worked beautifully.  They moved from train set to train set.  Sometimes 2 children chose to play at one together, sometimes they chose to play alone.   But there were no disagreements.  The gathering activity lasted a little longer than normal, because they were so focused on play and enjoying themselves.  As is always our rule at Mommy and Me, we let the children set the pace of the morning. 



Circle Time: Freight Train by Donald Crews

We read Freight Train by Donald Crews.  This is a very simple book with very few words on a page.  The story introduces each train car, one by one, introducing its color and the kind of train car it is, as the train moves slowly down the track.  The book is a Caldecott Honor Winner.

 

After reading the story, we retold the story using flannel board pieces using these cute pieces I bought on etsy.  You could also easily make your own.   Each child was allowed to come and choose on of the train cars.  When I called his color, he came forward to place the train car on the flannel board.

Of course we had to sing fun train-themed songs!  I had a train whistle, which made a fun addition to our music time. 

“Little Red Caboose”
Little red caboose chug, chug, chug
Little red caboose chug, chug, chug
Little red caboose behind the train
Smoke stack on its
Back, back, back, back
Coming down the
Track, track, track, track
Little red caboose behind the train.


“Down by the Station”
Down by the station
Early in the morning.
See the little puffers
Standing in a row.
See the station master
Turn a little handle.
Chug, chug, chug, chug,
Off they go!

Art: Egg Carton Trains 

With 3 train obsessed kids, I have done my share of train crafts these past few years, but I had never seen this one before on the Getting Messy with Ms Jessi blog.  I loved it, and couldn't wait to try it!  It was a huge success with our little group!

Materials Needed: Egg cartons, toilet paper tube, paint, glue, cotton balls, paint brushes

1-) To keep the paint colors from getting to mixed up, we provided one cup per color with one brush.  We had two cups and brushes for the engine color, since it takes longer to paint.  As the children finished painting with one color, it rotated around, until everyone had used all of the colors.

2-)Paint the toilet paper tube for your engine.  Some of the children found it helpful to have a mom hold the tube, while they painted it.


3-) Paint 5 of the egg dividers, using a different color for each.

4-)Glue the tube onto the unpainted egg divider to make the engine.

5-) Stuff the engine with cotton balls.  (Although you might want wipes near by in case they stick to your gluey fingers).  :) 

Snack: Train Shaped Tortillas and Fruit Salsa 

It is easy to make tortilla chips to match any preschool theme!  We used a train cookie cutter to cut out our tortillas and then followed this super yummy (and easy) recipe on allrecipes for fruit salsa and cinnamon tortillas.  Anything that close to 3000 people have given a five star rating to has to taste delicious!

 


Activity: Sidewalk Chalk Tracks 

The moms drew the outside rails of a long winding train track.  The children helped fill in the tracks on the inside.  Then they had a fun time pretending to be trains running up and down the tracks.  And then drawing more tracks.    This is a great activity for fine AND gross motor skills.  It is rare to find an activity that strengthens both.