Theme Thursday: Baby, It's Cold Outside

It is not cold outside. It is hot, hot, hot and thanks to the age of this building and its air conditioning unit failure, it is also hot, hot, hot inside. We had to close down the children's room and move story time to the basement because the temperature upstairs was 90 degrees. In an effort to combat the heat, we had story time on things that are cold. I was a little shivery by the end, but that could have just been the ice cubes we painted with during the craft.

 Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Flannel: Alphabet Soup- HOT and COLD

Flannel: 5 Little Snowmen

Book: Mouse's First Snow by Lauren Thompson

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Song: Shake Your Sillies Out

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Book: A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis

Flannel: Up North There's a Very Cold Ocean

 I borrowed this flannel (and the idea for this week's theme) from Miss Mary Liberry. Also my penguin lost his beak sometime after story time.

Finger Play: 2 Little Blackbirds

Song: Turn Around from Getting to Know Myself

Make and Take Craft: Painting with Ice Cubes

Supplies:

-ice cube trays

-water

-food coloring

-paper

Process:

I got my idea from Pinterest and this website (who in turn links back to her Pinterest inspiration). I also used food coloring because I wanted it to be okay if one of the kids popped an ice cube in their mouth by mistake. Food color comes out of just about anything, including hands and clothes, if you just soak it in vinegar first. Instead of filling up the ice trays and adding food coloring then, I mixed up a half glass of water and added to color there before pouring into a few cells. This made the color more diluted than other examples you'll see, but it came out a nice pastel shade and was throughly enjoyed by kids and caregivers alike.

After story time, I laid out blank paper and coloring sheets of polar bears and penguins. I ran up stairs to grab my bowls of ice cubes, still in the freezer and brought them down. The kids took it from there.

Time: Prep took about 5 minutes, but make sure you do it long enough ahead of time that the ice cubes freeze! Craft took 40, the kids really loved these ice cubes!

I had some really cute examples of pastel tie-dyed penguins and polar bears, but they disappeared before I could take pictures!