Where the Wild Things Are

Special Instructions:  The children each wore a costume and brought a dollar to help pay for the pumpkins.

Gathering Activity: We decorated paper plate monster masks together to use for our Wild Rumpus at the end of class.

Circle Time: We read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.  We roared along with the Wild Things in the story. When we sang our opening song, "Here We Are Together," we sang it twice.  Once for our real names, and once for the names of the characters we came dressed as to Mommy and Me. We sang monster songs and did monster finger plays. 

Snack: Monster Face Pizzas
Ingredients: English Muffins, pizza sauce, cheese, pepperonis, pepper slices, olives.
Directions: Allow the children to assemble their own pizzas and bake until cheese is melted.

Art Activities: Pumpkin Monsters
Materials Needed: Pie Pumpkins, foam stickers, glitter glue, feathers
Directions: Allow the children to use the supplied materials to decorate their pumpkins however they wish.

Playtime Activity: Wild Rumpus
We held our masks in one hand and our instruments in another and ran through the house making lots of noise dancing, jumping, stomping, and crawling like wild things.  Then when a child pretending to be Max yelled "STOP", all the children stopped and then another child had a turn to be Max.  

Giraffes Can't Dance

Gathering Activity: We read stories about jungle animals and played with the Fisher Price ABC Zoo.

Circle Time: We read Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae.  We sang songs about jungle animals and used plastic jungle animals to order them smallest to largest.  We played a guessing game with the jungle animals.  The children made the sound of the animal and everyone tried to guess which animal makes that sound.

Art Activity: Giraffe Paper Towel Roll Craft
We followed the directions located at the link above.

Snack: We ate animal crackers and bananas with spots (drawn on by a black sharpie to look like a giraffe).  Giraffes in captivity eat bananas. 

Playtime Activity: We wore animal masks and played with jungle animal puppets and held our own Jungle Dance to fun music including, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight. "

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Gathering Activity: We played with magnetic letters, alphabet puzzles,and read alphabet themed stories.

Circle Time: We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. We sang ABC songs and acted out the story with flannel board pieces, over and over and over again! They loved making the letters crash to the floor.

Art Activity:  Chicka Boom Trees
Materials Needed: crayons, paper, ABC stickers
Directions: Trace each of your child's hands with a green crayon for the top of the tree.  (Why do kids love having their hands traced?).   Help them draw a trunk with a brown crayon and then color in the tree.  Have fun sticking on the letters to complete the tree.  Our kids had a great time making the letters fall down the tree.

Snack: We ate Scrabble Cheez-its, cheese cubes, and grapes.  Then we helped crack open a coconut to see what was inside.  Using a hammer was so much fun!  We tried the coconut milk and meat.

Playtime: Rice Exploration and ABC Freeze Dancing
(We were having too much fun that I forgot to take pics of this activity today!  Oops!  But I think you can get the idea).
Rice Exploration: We hid wooden ABC letters in a bucket of rice.  The children sifted through until they found all 26 and then we tried to place them in order.
ABC Freeze Dancing: We placed ABC flash cards on the floor and danced around to fun music.  When the music stopped, we each ran to a letter and with our mom's help (if needed), named the letter we were standing on.
 

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie

Gathering Activity: We read stories with our Mommies about mice.


Circle Time: We read the Book Club Selection If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff  and sang songs and did finger plays about mice and cookies.  We acted out the story using props such as a straw, tape, and blanket and tried to place them in the right order. 


Snack:  We started snack time right after circle time today because of our special activity.  We made cookies with our Mommies!  All of the ingredients were pre-measured and placed in containers.  Each child was given an item to place in the bowl.  As the recipe was read aloud, the children took turns placing their items into the mix.  Then they each got to help beat the cookie dough and scoop the cookies onto trays.  When they were ready to eat, we drank milk out of straws with our cookies.

Playtime Activity: While we waited for our cookies to bake, we played Cookie Monster Bingo.  If you don't have this game, you could play any type of bingo game and make small brown circles as cookie bingo markers.

Art Activity: When we finished enjoying our cookies and milk, we laid on the floor and drew pictures of our families on large paper, just like the mouse did in the book!

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

Gathering Activity: We read books together about Bears.

Circle Time: We read The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood.  We did finger plays and sang songs about mice and bears.


Art Activity: Cute as a Button Strawberries
Materials Needed: strawberry shape cut out of poster board , buttons, and green foam piece cut into shape of strawberry topper, glue, foam paint brushes

Directions: Paint the strawberry shapes red.  Glue on buttons and foam topper.  Allow to dry.

Snack: Red Ripe Strawberries and Cinnamon Bread Bears 

Playtime Activity:

Strawberry Scented Playdough (We tripled this recipe, and made ahead of time, for our 7 kids).

We had free exploration with cookie cutters and play dough tools.

The Pout Pout Fish

Gathering Activity: We played with fish puzzles and read fish themed books.

Circle Time: We read The Pout Pout Fish by  Deborah Diesen.  We sang songs about fish, practiced color words with colorful flannel board fish, and played with fish puppets.

Art Activity: Paper Bag Fish

Materials Needed: A paper lunch sack, plain paper bag, crumpled newspaper to stuff the sack, glue, pipe cleaners, and decoration material such as glitter glue, googly eyes, sequins or metallic confetti, markers, colored paper etc...

Directions:
1. Stuff half the sack with crumpled newspaper.
2. Twist on a pipe cleaner above the stuffing to form the body and tail.
3. Glue on a pipe cleaner mouth and eyeball.
4. Decorate the tail and body.


Snack: Goldfish crackers and fish shaped sandwiches (created with a cookie cutter)

Playtime Activity: We played fishing games with magnetic poles and fish.   You can find directions to make these here, but we already had enough between all the families.

Mouse Paint

Special Instructions:  Wear your swimsuit, bring a towel, and dry clothes 
Gathering Activity: We will make mouse ears together and read stories about mice in the living room.

Circle Time:Read Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Sing mouse themed songs and finger plays. 
(Please see Circle Time Instructions Tab for complete info)
Art Activity:
Materials Needed: Predrawn simple mouse outlines, watercolor paint boxes for each child, paint brushes, pink pom poms, googly eyes, glue, small cups of water for rinsing brushes.

Directions: Use paint brushes to paint like the mice did in the story.  Allow the children to explore as the mix the water colors together.  Discuss with them what colors they see as they mix together. Allow them to use glue to add a pom pom nose and googly eyes.

Snack: Strawberry Mice and Cheese cubes

Playtime:
Materials Needed: A large sheet of white poster board for each child, 3 disposable13x9 pans each filled with red, yellow, or blue paint, and a swimming pool labeled "CAT."

Directions: Allow the children to step into the paint (WITH ADULT HELP) and then dance on the paper.  This is fun and slippery, and must have a great deal of adult supervision!  When they finish their creations, they can wash down to a nice soft clean in the pool water.