HOOPS!

Remember last week when I hinted that we'd be having special guests join us this week? Remember I said the only clue I'd give was 'be prepared to move your hips'?

This week is the last class of this session so I thought we'd go out with a 'spin'!  

I've invited my friend Beth and her hooping comrade, Karla to come do some hooping with us! You can check out Karla's website here to learn more about it.

Karla is very experienced in working with preschoolers as well as adults, so this should be fun for all of us!

In the Tall Tall Grass

Books:
In the Tall Tall Grass by Denise Fleming
Ugh! A Bug by Mary Bono


Songs & Fingerplays:


Night Flyers 
(chenille pipe cleaners cut in quarters and bent in a moth shapre to fit around fingers, 2 per child)
Two Little Moths
Flying in the night
One goes left; 
One goes right.
One goes up;
One goes down.
Then they fly around and around.
Tow little moths
Flying in the night
They stop
And they go 
Until the morning light.


Movement Songs:
Flick a Fly (Amy Rogel cd)
Walter the Waltzing Worm (use crepe paper strips as 'worms')


Activities:
In the Tall Tall Grass
We'll use bug stickers and paint and bug shaped stamps to create Tall Tall Grass pictures!


Dot Bugs
Using colorful dot stickers and colored pencils we'll create bug scenes.


Flick a Fly
We'll develop eye-hand coordination as we swat at black pom pom 'flies' with fly swatters!


Large Group Activity:
Parachute Games!


Ideas for Home:
Worm Hunt: next time it rains go outside and search for worms! Or if you don't feel like waiting for the rain, cut up brown pipe cleaners and spread them around your lawn, then let the kids use toilet paper spy tubes to search them out!


Bug Habitiat: dig up a hunk up grass and dirt, put it in a terrarium and spend the afternoon watching who come creeping out.


Check out Insect Lore for great bug resources! We've done the lady bug kit, the butterfly garden and the frog kit at my house with great success.


Don't forget we have one more week left, a make-up class for the one we missed...and we have special visitors coming!

Lummi...what?

We used Lummi sticks today at Circle Time. Somebody asked me why they were called "Lummi Sticks". 


"Uh, I dunno." was my response...so I did a little research and here's what I found...

Lummi Sticks is a game that originated with the Lummi Indians who are the farthest north of the Puget Sound tribes. (Lummi is generally pronounced with a short u, but the tribe name has a long u sound.) Other Polynesian and New Zealand cultures have similar games with different songs.

Lummi sticks (named for the Lummi Indian tribe) are hardwood cylindrical sticks, usually roughly 7 inches long, and .75 inches in diameter, used as percussive musical instrument. They are generally struck against one another, and used frequently in musical education to teach rhythm.

Another variety, called simply a rhythm stick is 12 inches long, and painted blue. These are generally either cylindrical or fluted, and come in sets containing an equal number of both.

So there you have it....I got mine here.

Enjoy!

Beautiful Butterflies

Books:
Percival the Plain Little Caterpillar
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Goodnight Sweet Butterflies
The Butterfly Garden


Songs & Fingerplays:


First Comes the Butterfly

(sung to the tune of Up on the Rooftops)

First comes the butterfly who lays an egg

Out comes a caterpillar with many legs

Oh, see the caterpillar spin and spin

A little chrysallis to sleep in.

Oh, oh, oh, look and see

Oh, oh, oh, look and see,

Out of the chrysalis, my oh, my

Out comes a beautiful butterfly.

Butterflies in Motion (butterfly puppets)

(sung to the tune of London Bridges)

Butterflies fly up and down,

Up and down,

Up and down.

Butterflies fly up and down!

See them flutter!

They flap their wings

And Up they go!

Up they go!

Up they go!

They flap their wings

And Up they go!

See them flutter!

Gently, softly,

Down they come.

Down they come.

Down they come.

Gently, softly,

Down they come,

See them flutter!


Activities:


Dot Paint Butterflies
We'll create beautiful butterflies with dot paints.


Butterfly Matching
Butterflies are symmetrical, so today we'll use matching skills to match butterfly wings.


Playdough
Always a favorite....we'll use springtime themed accessories to have playdo fun!


Large Group Movement Fun:


Musical Scarves
We'll use the silk scarves, grasped in the center to make butterflies, and some springtime music including the song Butterflies by Amy Rogel to dance.


Ideas for Home:


Butterfly Garden
watch caterpillars transform into butterflies at home, kits can be purchased through Insect Lore, along with loads of other hands on science supplies.



Butterfly Hunt
Help the children to make butterfly nets using cardboard and citrus fruit bags. Make butterflies from rectangle of tissue paper twisted in the center. Throw them into the air and have children try to catch them with their net! 

Fabulous Frogs!

Books:
The Wide Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner
Jump, Frog, Jump! by Robert Kalan
One Frog Sang by Shirley Parenteau
Frog Lunch by Dee Lillegard


Songs & Fingerplays & Flannelboards:

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Five green and speckled frogs,

Sat on a speckled log,

Eating some most delicious bugs,

YUM YUM!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Now there are four green speckled frogs,

GLUB, GLUB.

(Continue until there are no frogs left.)

Does It Hop, Hop, Hop?

(sung to the tune of Do Your Ears Hang Low?)

Does it hop, hop, hop

"Til you think it will not stop?

Does it make a 'ribbit' sound

On a day that's very hot?

Does it swim very well?

Then I know that you can tell

That it is a frog!

Little Green Frog
(blink) (stick out tongue) went the little green frog one day
(blink) (tongue) went the little green frog
(blink) (tongue) went the little green frog one day
And they all went (blink) (blink) (tongue)
BUT
We all know frogs go LAH ( clap) dee dah dee dah (wave hands to side like hula), lah ( clap) dee dah dee dah ( wave), lah ( clap) dee dah dee dah ( wave)We all know frogs go LAH (clap) DEE DAH DEE DAH (wave)
They don't go (blink) (blink) (tongue).

Activities:

Green & Speckled Frogs Craft
We're making our own fly-catching frogs with long sticky tongues! 
Tiddlywink Frogs

We’ll challenge fine motor skills as we try to hop those frogs into the pool!

Frog Life Cycle

We’ll use sequencing skills to expand our understanding of the frog’s life cycle.

Green & Speckled Frogs

We used a feltboard and sang it during our Circle Time, now let’s act it out!

Large Group Movement Fun:

Bean Bag Games!

Are you ready to balance and toss, pass and rock with your beanbags?

May 12, 2010: Farmyard Fun!

Books:
Over on the Farm by Christopher Gunson
Who Took the Farmer's Hat? by Joan Nodset
Who's on the Farm by Heather Gondak
This is the Farmer by Nancy Tarfui
Color Farm by Lois Ehlert


Songs, Fingerplays & Flannel Board Fun:
(to the tune of Six Little Ducks)
Ten Little Pigs
Ten little piggies rolling in the mud
Squishy, squashy, felt so good
the farmer took on piggie out,
Oink! Oink! Oink! that pig did shout!
(continue song, counting backwards, nine, eight...)
No little piggies rolling in the mud,
They all look so clean and good,
The Farmer turned his back and then,
Those pigs rolled in the mud again!


Down On Grandpa's Farm
Oh, we're on our way, we're on our way,
On our way to Grandpa's farm.

We're on our way, we're on our way 
On our way to Grandpa's farm.
(CHORUS)
Down on Grandpa's farm there is a big brown cow,
Down on Grandpa's farm there is a big brown cow.
The cow she makes a sound like this: Moo! Moo!
The cow she makes a sound like this: Moo! Moo!
(CHORUS)

Continue with other animals, let kids pick the animals and sounds they make.


Activities:
Fluffy Sheep: kids will make a sheep to take home using cotton balls, small paper plates, sheep head print outs, black construction paper and gluesticks. 
Pigs in the Mud: We'll get a little messy finger painting with chocolate pudding on pre-printed and laminated pink pigs printed.
What's Missing: we'll give this classic memory game a farmyard twist today! Props: a farmer's straw hat and an array of farm animals.


Games:
Barnyard Mix Up
In and Out of the Barn


Idea for Home:
Pig Slop Snack: talk to your kids about how farmers often mix different foods or leftovers to feed their pigs, then create a Pig Slop Snack by mixing snack foods in a bowl.