Theme Thursday: I Love to Read

Reading is awesome. And there are a surprisingly high number of books about how awesome it is. It's very meta of the authors, I guess they know the audience they're going for and don't mind the low hanging fruit of people who already love books.

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Flannel: Alphabet Soup READ

Song: If You Want to Read a Book 

Book: The Wonderful Book by Leonid Gore

 

Song: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Poem: I Had A Little Turtle

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Fingerplay: 10 Little Fingers

Song: Shake the Sillies Out

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Book:  Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss

 

Rhyme: Big, Big, Big

Song: Turn Around from  Getting to know Myself 

Make and Take Craft: Mini-Books

Supplies: 

-glue sticks

-crayons

-mini books (pre-made)

-small cartoons to be colored (pre-cut)

Process:  I made the mini books before story time by cutting stacks of construction paper in half horizontally and then folding 3 half-sheets in half (6 pages total) and stapling down the center. After the Turn Around song we met at the craft table where I gave each kid a book and spread the glue sticks, animal cut-outs and crayons around the table. I used animals that were in Book! Book! Book!, the last book we read during story time, but you could do anything. A lot of parents used it to help their kids practice writing their ABCs and others wrote the animal sounds above the pictures of the animals. 

The cutest thing I've ever seen happened when I was helping one little girl glue a goat to one page and looked up to see a 19 month old sitting in a chair by himself, flipping the pages of his still empty book, looking like he was reading it. And my heart did a big "EARLY LITERACY!!!" cheer and a victory dance and all was right with the world.

Time: Prep took half an hour before story time and the craft took about 40 minutes for the kids to complete.