Toddler Time

We only had one toddler friend today but we sure had fun! We played with the animals before starting story hour. 

Our first book was Thank You Thanksgiving by David Milgrim. 

The little girl in the book took us on a walk to the store and back, saying "thank you" for the many things she sees along the way. 

Then it was music and dance time! We got out the bells and shook, danced and sang with the music! My friend "A" really has rhythm and likes music!

The dinosaurs came to visit one last time as we say goodbye to DiNovember! We read the book Dinosaurs by Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells.  It is a texture book so we had a hands-on reading experience.

Mrs. Swan brought homemade playdough to experience today. "A" was a little concerned about touching it and how it felt on his hands. He mostly enjoyed putting the horses in the playdough. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

There will not be story time on December 2nd.  I will see you again on Tuesday, December 8th!

 

Preschool Pages

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our book today was Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman. This was a great book to teach the joy of giving, gathering, friendship and gratitude! We said "thanks" every time that Bear said it.  We really worked hard to stick our tongue out as we began the word (th). We learned that den, cave and lair all have the same meaning. We each shared a little of what our Thanksgiving may be like.

Of course every Thanksgiving needs a child - made turkey craft to decorate the refrigerator. We worked step by step together to follow directions as we constructed our turkeys. Both boys were very proud of their turkey and were excited to take them home! 

Our poem for the day was: Gobble! Gobble! by Lynn Beaird

A turkey is a funny bird,

His head goes wobble, wobble!

He knows just one funny word,

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

There will not be story time on December 1st.  I will see you again on Tuesday, December 8th!

Our DiNovember biggest fan!!!! (and his Grandma)

Toddler Time

We had two new friends today, "E" and "A"! We are so glad they joined us and hope they continue to come each week! "R" came back after missing a couple of weeks. "J" and "L" were also part of our group of 5. Our ages ranged from 20 months to age 3.  Some of our friends were joiners today and some were watchers.  I welcome both!  

Dinovember continued with a focus on shapes today. Although we read about  many shapes I only introduced three (circle, triangle and square) to focus on.  

We began with a shape walk. We had squares, triangles and circles on the floor that we walked on when the music was playing. When the music stopped, we stopped. I then asked, "Who is standing on the ___?" while holding up that shape. I think we all had fun moving and checking which shape we landed on.  We also practiced saying the name of the shape we were standing on.   

Our books today were, Shape by Shape by Susan McDonald
and, Dinosaur Shapes by Paul Stickland. We had fun matching the shapes we were holding or had played with on the magnetic whiteboard to the shapes we saw in each book.

Preschool Pages

Dinovember continues in our story hour!  Our dinosaur book was, Dini Dinosaur  by Karen Beaumont.  We had fun with the repetitious text... "Scrub-a-dub-dub".  Since Mama dinosaur checked Dini from head to toe to make sure he was clean, we got up and did the actions to the song, Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Music, music, music! The bells and rhythm sticks were moving to the beat!  All three of my little friends had FABULOUS rhythm! (so did the adults)

Last we rotated through three dinosaur games: memory, dominoes & numbers.

 These games were a little hard for my friends but the exposure to the concepts of game playing, taking turns, following directions and staying on task was the main purpose. Plus it was quality time with their grandparents!

Our final book was Dinosaur! by Peter Sis. It's a wordless book so my little friends helped tell the story!

Toddler Time

Dirty, dirty dinosaurs invaded our story time today!  My friend "J", his grandpa and I had a blast playing in the mud with the dinosaurs!

First we read the book, I'm a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian & Ann James.  We took the time during our story to locates the letters, S, M, T, O, W & P.  We also made many predictions before we turned to the next page.

Then it got MUDDY!!! We took our dinosaurs and got them dirty just like in the book!  The fun of our mud was that it was chocolate pudding mud. My friend "J" wasn't too eager to get dirty but once "papa" and I joined in his fears eased a little.

He was quite surprised when I told him he could lick his fingers!  

Just like in the book, our dinosaurs needed to be washed! "J" seemed to like the water play more than the mud.  

"J's" favorite part of the day seemed to be when we read the book, Hello Dinosaur, by Dwell Studio. We read it three times!  Each page we turned he excitedly made the connections between the dinosaurs we played with and the dinosaurs in the book.  He is such a clever boy! His favorite is the triceratops!

PRESCHOOL PAGES

DiNovember is still our theme.  We had three friends today.  We read the story, Dazzle the Dinosaur by Marcus Pfister and Alison James.  It was a longer book so we read it in two parts. 

In between, we got up to get our bodies moving. First we did the Dino-Pokey a couple of times.  Then we put on music and made our body dance.  We moved our dancing feet, dancing hands, just our hips, sliding feet and whole body!

Our activity today was centered around the categories of numbers vs. letters. Differentiating between letters and numbers is an early literacy skill. Each child took turns bringing me a letter or number.  Sometimes they were asked for specific ones, other times they were asked to just bring me a letter or number.    We ended the activity with sorting them into groups to put them away.  

We ended our time with the rest of our story and found out how Dazzle and her friend found a new home for their families.

Toddler Time 11/4/15

The dinosaurs have come to Toddler Time too! 

 

It was a small group of two young friends and three adults. It is so special that the grandmas and grandpas are bringing the little ones to story time!  Thank you!!!

 

 We started with our opening song then read the book Dinosaur Colors by Paul Stickland.It was fun to talk about all of the different colored dinosaurs. We also used the picture cues to help us determine if the dinosaur was a plant or meat eater.  Both of my friends saw some colors that they knew and learned some new ones.

 

Then we did the Dino-Pokey!!! This is so much fun! Both friends learned it yesterday in Preschool Pages and had the technique of the claws, feet and tail!

 

My Dinosaur Book by Karen Carr was a book that had "J" and "L" up off their bottoms, hands pointing and conversations happening!! We saw dinosaurs with features such as; bills,  bony plates, tough armor, large horns and short arms!  We could have talked about the photos in this book for hours.

 

Our dinotivities for today required play time with the grandparents.  We did a capital and lowercase D d sort. Naming the letter and the sound as often as possible. Both friends did very well with the sort and had a great time with their adults!

Our other activity was a dinosaur memory game.  We had to learn to flip ONLY two cards over at a time AND to take turns! A lot of great conversations between the grandparents and children were happening while they were playing together!

I wonder what dinosaur books and activities we will see next week?

 

 

 

 

 

Preschool Pages 11/3/15

It's DINOVEMBER at the Pardeeville Library!  We have invited the dinosaurs so we can learn more about them as we read stories, do finger plays & songs, create things and do dino activities!  

We started out our day with our opening song and check in.  We had five friends and five adults join me today!  Welcome to our new friends "D" and "T"!

Our first book was Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp! by Margaret Mayo. As we read the story we also played letter detectives.  Each child had a capital letter (S, T, O, M, P, D). I would ask "Who has the letter___ ?" and point to it in the book. The child with that letter would hold it up and we would all say the name of the letter.  We also boosted our vocabulary with words such as; mighty, guzzling, swish, glide, swoosh & whack.  If the adults were paying attention they probably noticed that I wasn't reading every word on every page. (they were polite not to point it out) The book was filled with a great story line but I knew it was a little over the heads of my young friends. So, I focused on vocabulary development and letter knowledge along with adding in some actions to make the book more interesting.

We danced the Dino-Pokey and recited a dinosaur poem. 

It was fun to put our
claws, feet and tails in during the Dino-Pokey!


Then we read Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezera Stein.It's a great story about a little dinosaur named, Dinah!

PAINT, PAINT, PAINT!!!! That was our final activity before saying good-bye.  Each child had a dinosaur to paint that I will later cut out and hang up in the library. 

There were no restrictions of color or style.  It was fun to use a paintbrush and discuss with the adults about the way a child holds the paintbrush or if they try to stay in the lines.