The first Story Hour session was held this morning, September 25, beginning at 9:30 a.m. with some children arriving at 9:15 to enjoy playtime. We began the morning by talking about the colors and parts of the strawberry that was drawn on the chalkboard. We then went to the craft table to paint our strawberries.
Each of the children had a little mouse finger puppet to help act out the story. We discussed feelings as shown by the mouse's facial expressions and predicted the story as we went along.
I stopped reading at a suspense-filled part and we went back to the table. First we passed around a real strawberry and noted the stem and where the seeds were located.
Next we glued seeds and a stem on our strawberries.
Then we returned to the story spot and looked at a strawberry plant that was given to us from Price's Produce Farm. We noted the runner and the roots of the new plant; someone even noticed the leaves had a scent that seemed similar to a strawberry. Each child was given a real strawberry leaf to take home.
We then returned to our book to find out how the story ended. The children were very pleased with the ending because, as in the book, we then got to go to the table and eat a strawberry.
We talked about other fruit: an orange, a kiwi, a pear and a peach. We discussed where their seeds are located, their color and then tasted each one. Before pealing the kiwi the children were able to feel its "fuzzy" covering. They found that quite unusual.
At that point Story Hour was over, but some of the children chose to stay and play while I cleaned up the room. Our theme for next week will be
sharing.
