Crazy, Mixed-Up Animals!

After signing in, as we headed upstairs to check the weather, Maddie remarked, "We won't want to stay long 'cause it's COLD outside!".  How right she was!  But we also noticed that the sun quickly came out from behind one of the few clouds and it was very bright, but there was a slight wind that made the air feel very cold.

We put our weather symbols on the board and then sat down for the reading of The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most.  It was such a fun, silly story [except when the other animals made fun of the pig and the cow, and they were sad] with the cow and pig having mixed-up voices. We talked about the letter "M" today and that it starts the names of Mirabella and Maddie, and also the word "MOO".
The three children could name all the animals in the book and do most of their sounds, so they were able to help me when all the animals were laughing; such as when the donkey would go, "He-haw-HA!".  At least the book had a happy ending and the cow and pig got the 'last laugh'.

Now it was time to get up and move. We repeated our "Turkey Pokey" from last week and everyone sang, and danced, and giggled as we shook our wings, stomped our drumsticks and shook our tail feathers.  Then to get in a little more movement we blew bubbles and chased about catching them and giggling some more. We knew that bubbles were "round things" that we had studied earlier.

When our wiggles were worn out we sat down to read The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. We soon learned that the chameleon wasn't going to be happy no matter how many animals he tried to be like, but as he added other animal parts to himself he became more funny-looking and we got some laughs out of that. In the end he discovered he needed to be himself in order to catch a fly for dinner, and so we also learned that it is better just to be ourselves.

Next it was time to look at a surprise on the back of our bulletin board. I had posted pics of crazy mixed-up animals there and we talked about the parts that were put together to make them.

So off we went to the craft table to make our own crazy mixed-up creature. I provided a "body" and a sheet of animal "parts" for each child.

We first cut out and glued the body to our choice of colored paper. Then Moms did the cutting, but children selected the parts they wanted to use and put them where they wanted.

As you can see below, we ended up with some funny creatures.

We also got to take home all the extra pieces and another "body" so we could make another weird creature.  We were also given a bag of candy corn to "feed" us!

There is no Story Hour next week, so everyone may enjoy time with family.  Happy Thanksgiving!
When we meet again on December 4th we will be looking at the book Who Is the Beast? by Keith Baker.

Turkey Talk

This morning only two children were able to attend Story Hour, but they were sure in for a nice surprise! After our sign-in we went outside to check the weather. Maddie had already informed us that snowflakes were in the air and she was right. We also discovered it was quite cold, even though the sun was trying hard to peek through the clouds.

Rylan and I are having a discussion about whether or not it was raining outside.

We then sat down to read parts of the book Gobble Gobble by Cathryn Falwel. The illustrations were beautiful and we learned where turkeys sleep, how toms and hens are different, and some of the habits of turkeys.

Then it was time to get up and move and we learned a turkey dance [where the children get to pretend they are turkeys] to the tune of  "The Hokey Pokey".  Here is the way it goes:

You put your right wing [arm] in. 

You take your right wing out. 

You put your right wing in, and you shake it all about. 

You do the 'Gobble-gobble' [move your hands as if a turkey mouth gobbling] and you turn yourself around. 

That's what it's all about!  

Repeat with left wing [arm]; drumsticks [legs]; tail feathers [bottom] and neck.

Then our morning guest arrived with some great surprises for us. It was Wayne Edwards with all sort of turkey items to share. And did we ever learn some new things! We learned about turkey decoys and how they are used, beards and throat/head colors and how they change, spurs, their calls and much more. Even Mitzi learned some new things about turkeys!

It's not a real turkey, but it sure looked good to us.

Wayne handed the real turkey beard to Mitzi so the children could take a closer look at it.

When he removed the tail from the decoy we got to touch it and were amazed at how soft and smooth the feathers felt.

Wayne took off his Native American made spur necklace and let us look at it and feel the sharpness of the turkey spurs. We learned that the birds kick and fight with these. Ouch!

Here we are getting to hear the different sounds the hens make, depending on how tired or frightened they might be. Wayne also reinforced what the book said about turkeys sleeping in trees. The children found that to be quite unusual.

Rylan was as proud as could be when he chose to try on the spur necklace.

Wayne gave us some wing feathers [to keep!] and also a pencil from the Wild Turkey Federation. Rylan and Maddie were happy to pose for a final picture.  Thank you, Wayne, for visiting!

Then we were ready for our project of the day. Mitzi showed us some cute pictures of turkeys and then we headed to the craft table to create our own turkey.

We started by tracing a body pattern Mitzi provided for us, and then we cut it out and glued it to a sheet of white cardstock.

The fun part came when we got to choose our own items from the table to build our turkey tails. Both Maddie and Rylan did very well with all the gluing.

After adding some wiggle eyes and a beak, and drawing some legs and feet, the children showed us their pictures.

We ended our morning by learning to find an item that was different in a row of similar Fall objects. Then we found out that turkeys like to eat corn, so Mitzi gave us a little bag of candy corn to take home.

We hope you are enjoying reading this blog. Please leave us some comments.  

The next Story Hour will deal with animals that get their sounds mixed up.  I hope you will join us.

Mitzi

Children's Librarian

It' a Witchy Morning!

We had all sorts of  "different" characters attend Story Hour this morning, including:  princess, a mermaid, a pumpkin person, a policeman [with a whistle that got our attention!], a dog, a little fuzzy duck and a big witch! 

After putting away the toys and the usual sign-in we headed upstairs to see what the weather was like today. The children were very careful not to trip or step on someone's costume. It was quickly decided that although the sun seemed to be trying to peek through the sky was mostly cloudy with a slight wind.

Once we were back downstairs we settled in for our first book, Two Little Witches: A Halloween Counting Story by Harriet Ziefert. First we discussed what each of the children planned to be as they go trick-or-treating tomorrow evening. As we read the story we found lots of interesting things to notice in the pictures. Some of the children we unsure about the witches and whether or not they were "real", so we talked about "pretend" for a bit. The children soon picked up on the repetition of the story and also counted all the costumed characters with me on every page. At the end it was fun to see all the children home safe and looking out of their house windows. Someone also noticed that the last little witch left her broom outside.

At the craft table we had a very cutting and gluing intensive project that involved both adults and children, as we created our very own paper plate witches to take home. Everyone worked very hard and added their own special touch to their witch by putting the mouth, teeth, and eyes on differently and adding their own hand traces as hair.  

Look at all of us with our cute witches!

When our project was finished there was just enough time to hear a silly book titled Hubble Bubble, Granny Trouble by Tracey Corderoy. It was all about a little girl whose granny is really a silly witch. The girl tries to change her but then finds out she likes her better the way she was.

When we finished the book we took time to eat a yummy cookie that the Big Witch gave us and then Maddie gave each of the children a bag of treats to take home. The children also had a couple cute Halloween coloring sheets for "homework".

Please remember that next week Story Hour is cancelled. We will meet next on November 13 and hear about a cow that goes "oink".  Have a great Halloween!

Monkeying Around!

After signing in this morning we went outside to see what the weather was like. The children were very quick to recognize that it was cloudy with no sun shining through and chilly. When we went inside they made sure I put up the cloudy plate along with the windy one. 

We quickly reviewed some of the things we've already studied and then moved right into the reading of our first book: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow. Most of the children were familiar with the story and could tell me what was coming next, but greatly enjoyed doing this. We discussed how naughty these monkeys were and some of the children added comments about things they do/or don't do that are naughty. 

At the craft table Mitzi gave each child a printout of the monkeys in the book and they practiced their scissor skills as each did some of the cutting. The adults were allowed to help as the paper was a heavier stock and  little hands and kid scissors didn't always work well. The monkeys were then glued to craft sticks so everyone had five puppets. 

Upon returning to the reading rug we used our puppets to act out the story. Using the felt board, Mitzi showed us which monkey fell off the bed and the children had to find their matching monkey and make him/her fall off the bed [their legs were used as beds]. All the children did an excellent job retelling the story. They were especially good at scolding like the doctor.

It was then back to the table to play a monkey memory game. I showed the children ten different pairs of cards. As each was shown the children talked about what the monkey was doing. Then the cards were mixed and placed face down in rows on the table. I was so pleased with how great they were about taking turns turning over the cards and how well they applauded each time a person found a match. 

We ended the morning by getting a couple pieces of candy for being such good sports and playing a monkey toss game where we threw bean bag type bananas into the mouths of three monkeys. Again the sportsmanship was wonderful!

In addition to incorporating past skills we also worked on identifying like objects and developing fine motor skills through cutting; as well as counting to five which most children could do quite well.

Next week: children may come in a costume or partial costume, as long as they can move about freely [we will not use paint or anything that should harm them].  Also remember that Story Hour will be cancelled on November 6 so Mitzi may attend the Wisconsin Library Association Conference with our director.