Meow!

After the toys were put away this morning, we had a visitor enter our room. Library Director, Cassandra Lull, brought in her three year old kitty, Shaye, a very small and friendly tortoise-colored female. Although Shaye preferred to check out the room, she did allow all the children to pet her. [To be safe I had asked each adult if their child was allergic to cats before having the cat come to the room.]

After Shaye was taken upstairs we discussed our weather board. Again, I was impressed with the children's awareness of the weather conditions. Besides receiving a sticker during our morning sign-in the children also had a cat paw print stamped on the back of their hand.

We then went to the craft table to make a kitty puppet that we could use during today's Story Hour. I am also noticing how much more of the cutting and gluing the children are now able to do by themselves.

Once all pieces were cut out and glued to the craft stick, along with a pipe cleaner tail that the adults help staple to the stick, we had a cute kitty puppet that was really more orange in color than the picture shows.

We then gathered on the carpet to talk about things cats do. We discussed the sounds they make and used our puppets to "meow" and "purr" and "sniff" about as cats do. We then went back to our tune from last week, "The Wheels on the Bus", and sang it as: "The cat in the house goes: meow, meow, meow...". We also sang it with "purr" and "sniff". Even my shy children are now participating.

The book we read today was So, What's It Like to Be a Cat? by Karla Kuskin. 

A little boy interviews a cat and asks him questions about why a cat is as he is. The book also gave us opportunities to use our puppets to do some acting, as well as times to discuss cats' behaviors. [Notice Madelyn's cute cat hat, it has a kitty face on the top, and matching jacket in the picture above.]

Our morning ended by talking about the letter "C" and how it is almost a circle that must be made by starting at the top. In the photo above you can see the letter "C" on the chalkboard. I printed the word "cat" with that and stated that "cat" starts with a "C". Our last activity was a sheet where we could trace letter "c" and then we took that sheet and a drawing of an adult cat and one of a kitten home to color.

If you join us next week, please bring items related to rain. Maybe a picture of someone playing in the rain, something special you wear when it rains, a photo of a rainstorm, or anything that relates to rain. I hope you join us next week. ;>}

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Children's Librarian

Mitzi Manthey