October Virtual Book Club

This week's fun was inspired by the wonderful book Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  This post is part of The Virtual Book Club for Kids.

This summer, I participated in a Summer Book Exchange Program with Kim from The Educators' Spin On It.  I sent her family the book Spoon and created the activities for them to enjoy.   You can see the fun they had with it here.  I was very excited to introduce this book and the activities I planned to my own little Mommy and Me Group last week!  

Gathering Activity: Musical Pots and Pans
(This activity develops hand eye coordination, imaginative play, and cooperation skills). 

We had our loudest gathering time ever this week!  The children had a wonderful time creating their own band with utensils, pots, and pans.  (Although more than one mommy commented on how LOUD the activity was).  




Circle Time
 (During circle time we practice listening skills, social skills, language development, and early literacy skills).

We read the story Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  It is a delightful picture book with a moral.  The story is of a spoon who is feeling a tad jealous when he compares his life with the seemingly more exciting lives of his friends, the fork, chopsticks, and knife.  His mother kindly listens to him and validates his feelings about the talents of his friends, but at the same time encourages him to see himself the way they might see him.  Equally as endearing as the sweet life lesson and happy illustrations, are the cute puns.  My favorite is when Spoon and his family "spoon" together all snuggled up at bedtime. 
 
We taught the children the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle," because it is mentioned in the book. 

Art Time: Spoon Puppets
(This activity develops fine motor skills, creates connections with literature, and promotes aesthetic creativity). 

Supplies Needed: large spoon, felt, glue, googly eyes, yarn, ribbons, fabric scraps, markers

Directions: We gave each child and mom their own spoon and materials to create a puppet which we used after snack in a puppet show.

SNACK-Applesauce with Chocolate Covered SPOONS
 (Snack time even provides learning time.  Children practice self-help skills, hand eye coordination, and social skills). 

We gave each of the children their own applesauce cup and one of these adorable chocolate covered spoons.  We were inspired by these we found here at JellyfishJelly.   You can click through to get complete directions to make your own! 

Games
 
1-Pom Pom Pick Up 

We provided each child with chopsticks and spoons.  The chopsticks were rubber-banded together to make them easier for our little ones to use successfully.  We gave each child a bowl of pom poms and an empty bowl.  The children used the chopsticks (or spoon if they chose) and moved the pom poms into the empty bowl.  We placed the empty bowl on the right hand side, to let them practice transferring them from left to right.  (Tracking left to right is an important early reading skill.  And this activity provided fine motor and self-help skills practice).

2-Puppet Show
(Social skills, literacy skills, language development)

 The children had a wonderful time outside creating their own puppet show in this fantastic theater a mom brought to share!  Puppet shows are so much fun for little ones!  They didn't want to stop!  And to be honest, I wasn't quite ready to stop listening to their fun imaginative play when it was time to go home.  

Did you have fun with one of Amy Krouse Rosenthal's books this month?  Please join our Virtual Book Club for Kids and link up your activities below and join these other fabulous bloggers!

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn

 

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!

The Three Little Pigs

Gathering Activity: Pink Pig Cotton Ball Masks
 

I have been in love with these adorable masks since I first saw these over a year ago here at  A Bushel and A Peck. 

We made sure to spray paint cotton balls pink and to cut out all the pieces BEFORE class.   Then we assembled them together as the kids arrived.

 



Circle Time

 

 Inspired by a wonderful article on Imagination Soup about the importance of sharing Fairy Tales with kids, we read a favorite Golden Book version of The Three Little Pigs.  (Yes, I do recognize the irony of being inspired by her wonderful article and then using a Disney version of the fairy tale.  However, in this instance, I felt like the essential lessons of hard work were still taught without the need of the wolf devouring the first 2 pigs.  My older sons have heard that version, but I spared my 2 year old...for now). 

We used these great flannel board story pieces to retell the story. I bought ours at Kaplan's Learning Company.   

However if you don't already have your own, I found a link for characters here at Preschool Printables.
http://www.preschoolprintables.com/felt/3pigs/feltpig.shtml

Fingerplays:
We sang "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" and "This Little Piggy Went to Market."


Art: Piggy Pudding Painting
 

We printed a picture of a pig onto pink construction paper for each child.  Then we gave each child a small cup of chocolate pudding to finger paint their piggy with “mud.”   

This was so funny to watch.  We didn't tell them it was chocolate at first.  Then when we did, they hesitantly tasted it, then dove in whole heartedly.

Except for one little guy.  We couldn't convince him to try the "mud."  He gave us this great "You have got to be kidding me!" look.  He also opted to use a paintbrush over his fingers.    I share this to show that it is important to let each child to control his or her own experiences on their own terms.   We want the children to enjoy themselves and we want to expose them to opportunities to try new things.  However we do not want to make any little ones to feel pressured . 

Snack: Piggy Bagel
I searched the internet and I think I found the absolute cutest piggy snack out there at I Heart Crafty Things. 

It was also very yummy and fairly healthy.  The only thing we did differently was to use 100% Fruit strips cut into thin slices in place of the licorice.   

Activities

1-One of our moms made this adorable 3 sided house.  (inspired by an idea found here).   The kids had fun acting out the story of the three little pigs with the house, pigs, and wolf.  

 

2-We brought out several different building materials and allowed the children and their moms to build their own house and to blow their own house down like the wolf.  We provided Duplo blocks, Lincoln Logs, wooden blocks, and Magnatiles.