Good Night, Gorilla

Our activities this week were inspired by the book, Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann. 

Gathering: Zoo Animal Toys and Books

The children played with the Fisher Price Zoo Animals and Zoo Train.  We also read zoo books with mommies and played with zoo animal masks and puppets.

Circle Time:
 

We read Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.  I love this story.  There are very few words, but all that needs to be said is conveyed through the pictures.  As a zookeeper closes his zoo for the night, he says "goodnight" to each animal.  A gorilla sneaks behind him and unlocks each cage with the zookeeper's OWN KEYS!  They all silently parade behind him into his house and into his bed!  When the animals are discovered in the bedroom, he brings them all back to the zoo.  All, that is, except the gorilla.  A cute mouse is on each page pulling a banana on a string.  The little ones had a fun time searching for him every time I turned the page.  They giggled as each animal escaped. 

We sang Raffi’s “Going to the Zoo”

and 

The Animals at the Zoo Tune: The Wheels on the Bus
(sing with the animals in the book)

The snake at the zoo goes Hiss Hiss Hiss Hiss Hiss Hiss
The Snake at the zoo goes Hiss Hiss Hiss
All day long
The lion at the zoo goes Roar Roar Roar Roar Roar Roar
The lion at the zoo goes Roar Roar Roar
All day long (Add other animals)

Art: Gorilla Paper Plate Art

We found this adorable gorilla craft at Creativity Takes Flight. 

Snack: Bananas and Animal Crackers

 

We enjoyed bananas (In honor of the little banana being pulled by a mouse on each page) and animal crackers.

Activities: Zoo Cages and Good Night Gorilla Games

1-)Zoo Cages Guessing Game:

  We made 3 zoo cages out of baskets.   The creative mommy who made these, added the most adorable signs on the cages. 

 We had one child leave the room with Mom.  While they were gone,  we hide a toy zoo animal in one of the cages.   When they came back, they opened each of  the three cages until they found the hidden animal.  

2-) Goodnight Gorilla:

We had  the children pretend to be each of the 7 animals, one at a time.   We said "Goodnight, Hyena". Then they pretended to go to sleep.  

One child pretended to be the zookeeper and would rattle a set of keys and say “Wake up!”   

Then of course, the kids would all jump up.  

Why is it that pretending to sleep is such a fun game for 2 and 3 year olds?  It is one of their favorites!

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.

 

 

The ABC Book by Dr. Seuss

****In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, we read his ABC book.  He has lots of wonderful books, but this is one of the shortest and its length is why I chose it for our bouncy twos and threes.  

 

Gathering Activity: Letter Pretzels

We made homemade pretzels together.  We prepped the dough before class.  As the children arrived, we handed each a ball of dough.   They had fun playing with the dough and rolling their pieces out into "snakes."  

Then the moms formed the snake into the first letter of the child's name.  We baked them during circle time. 

Here is the pretzel recipe we used Wednesday in case anyone would like to use it.  We used one cup of whole wheat flour, and that didn't seem to change the texture of the pretzels.

1 1/2 c warm water

1 tbsp sugar

1 package active dry yeast (1/4 oz)

4 to 4 1/2 c flour

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp baking soda

1 egg, beaten

1-2 tbsp melt butter, optional

Coarse salt or sugar and cinnamon for topping

Measure the water into a mixing bowl.  Sprinkle in the sugar and yeast and stir gently to dissolve.  Then stir in 3 cups of flour and salt until combined.  Gather the dough in your hands and place it on a floured surface.  Knead, working in more flour a little at a time until you have a soft dough that doesn't stick.  Continue kneading for an additional 8 minutes.   Place dough in a large greased bowl and cover.  Let dough rise until doubled, about an hour.  Heat over to 450.  Punch down dough and divide into 16 pieces (we did 8)  Roll each piece into a strip and twist it into a pretzel shape.  Fill a large stainless steel pot (not aluminum)  with 3 inches of water.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and add baking soda to the water.  Gently drop pretzels into the water and poach for 1 minute.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pretzels to a greased cookie sheet.  Brush on beaten egg, and salt now.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.  Brush on melted butter and if your making sweet pretzels roll in cinnamon sugar.

This activity was inspired by an idea I saw in The Friend magazine.  

Circle Time

We read Dr. Seuss’s The ABC Book. 

 

We let each child come and find his or her name on the flannel board during circle time.  As an added bonus, they got to hold the Cat in the Hat puppet.

 

We sang the ABCs.
 

We sang the song "A You’re Adorable."  (I printed out words for each mom).

Lyrics found here at http://www.metrolyrics.com/a-youre-adorable-lyrics-perry-como.html


Art: Alphabet Stamping

We did alphabet stamp art on large white paper with like the inside cover. We used the colors from the book (orange, hot pink, turquoise blue, green).  

Snack: Pretzels and Soda

We ate the pretzels we made during the gathering activity.  In the story, a little boy sips six sodas through a straw and got "sick, sick, sick."  We didn't drink 6 sodas, but we gave each child a can of drink (ours was juice) to drink through a straw.

Activities: ABC EXPLORATION CENTERS

****Each child in our group is at a different level of exploration with letters.  Some are writing their own names, some are still learning to recognize their own first letter by sight, (or even any letter).  Both of these stages and anything in between is very normal and appropriate for our 2 and 3 year olds.   These exploration centers allowed moms to play with their own children and adapt each activity to her child’s comfort level.


We set up these four centers to allow the children to rotate through and explore.  

1-Go Fishing for Letters:  I have this awesome ABSeas fishing game from Discovery Toys.  

 

2-Alphabet Bean Bag Toss:  I have letter bean bags that the kids could throw and practice saying the letters. 

 

3-Easel with magnetic letters The kids had fun playing with the letters.

 

4-Sensory Bin of Foam Letters: This activity was meant to allow children to play with letters, find letters that they know, and scoop and pour them.  Instead, the children decided it would be fun to throw them on each other and the mommies.