Theme Thursday: RED

Themes are hard yo. Sometimes when nothing else is coming together you just have to say screw it and go with a color.

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Flannel: Little Mouse (he was hiding in the red house today)

Flannel: Alphabet Soup- RED

Flannel: Things that are Red
In which I described flannel pieces from all sorts of different sets and had the kids guess what they were. Normally I'd try to come up with a cute couplet for each one, but for today please see the above note on saying "screw it"

Book: The Red Hen by Rebecca Emberley


 Song: Wheels on the Fire Truck

Song: Mi Cuerpo from Hot Peas n' Butter's Best of the Bowl: Ingles y Espanol


Flannel: 5 Little Apples

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Book: Clifford the Big Red Dog from Clifford Collection by Norman Bridwell

 Funny story, I thought we didn't have any Clifford books for a while this morning because I always want to spell his name bIrdwell instead of bRidwell. Dyslexia strikes again!

Song: Turn Around from Hap Palmer's

Make and Take Craft: Red Collages

Supplies:
-glue sticks
-red markers
-red construction paper
-red pipe cleaners
-red tissue paper
-red glitter glue

Process: Cut the red paper and tissue paper into shapes. Give everything to the kids and let them go crazy. Some of the kids tried to make representative things like ladybugs or this itsy bitsy spider, others just had fun with glue sticks and tissue paper.

Time: Prep took 3 minutes, the craft took 25.

Theme Thursday: Chugga Chugga Cho Chooooooooooooo

And rounding out our impromptu transportation unit, stories about trains.

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Flannel: Little Snake

Song: Open, Shut Them

Flannel: Alphabet Soup- RED

Book: Down by the Station by Will Hilldebrand


Song: Wheels on the Bus

Flannel: This Little Train

Song: Shake Your Sillies Out from Raffi's The Singable Songs Collection (20th Anniversary Special Edition)

Song: Grand Old Duke of York

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Book: And the Train Goes... by William Bee


Song: Turn Around from Hap Palmer's Getting to know Myself

Make and Take Craft: Train Engineer Hats

Supplies:
-construction paper
-stapler
-crayons/markers

Process: Cut out a template for a train engineer hat. I just googled "train engineer hat" and copied what I saw on a full sheet of construction paper.  Color the hat as desired. Fold the hat at the brim line (where the sides of the hat start in pinch in) staple a long strip on construction paper to each side on the back and wear like a visor!

Time: Prep took about 10 minutes and the craft took about 15.

Theme Thursday: Miss Susie Had a Steamboat

That steamboat had a bell/ Miss Susie went to heaven/ that steamboat went to AND I think we all know where this is going.

Song: Good Morning

Flannel: Little Mouse

Finger Play: I had a Little Turtle

Book: Sail Away by Donald Crews
 

 Song: Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Book: Little Tug by Stephan Savage
 

 Song: 5 Little Sailboats
to the tune of 5 Little Ducks
5 little sailboats went out one day,
over the waves and far away
when the winds began to rock
4 little sailboats came back to dock

Song: Jumping and Counting from Jim Gill's Irrational Anthem and More Salutes to Nonsense

Song: Shake Your Sillies Out from Raffi's The Singable Songs Collection (20th Anniversary Special Edition)

Flannel: Let's Go Out on a Starry Night

Book: Splish-Splash by Nicola Smee
 

 Song: Turn Around from Hap Palmer's Getting to know Myself

Make and Take Craft: Shape Boats

Supplies:
-construction paper shapes
-glue sticks
-blue construction paper
-chalk (optional)

Process: Use the shapes to make a representative boat and use the chalk to color in waves or sea creatures. Crayons would also work, but chalk shows up beautifully on darker construction paper.

Time: Prep took about 5 minutes, the craft took 20.

Theme Thursday: Fly Away Home

I got a pretty new dress for this summer's wedding circuit. It has lots of planes and clouds on it. I'm nothing if not an opportunist, so a flying story time to accompany my sweet new dress was only a matter of time.

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Flannel: Little Mouse

Song: The Airplane Song from Laurie Berkner's Whaddaya Think of That

Song: Open, Shut Them

Book:Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly! (Cat the Cat) by Mo Willems

Flannel: I had a Rooster

Song: Mi Cuerpo from Hot Peas 'n Butter's Best of the Bowl: Ingles y Espanol

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Baby Bounce: Criss Cross, Line, Line

Book: Moon Plane by Peter McCarthy

Song: Turn Around from Hap Palmer's Getting to know Myself

Make and Take Craft: Clothespin Biplanes

Supplies:

-popsicle sticks

-glue

-clothespins

-markers

Process: No prep for this sucker. Just let kids color the clothespin and popsicle stick with markers and then glue two large popsicle sticks to the front clothespin, on the top and bottom, and one small clothespin to the back for the tail.

Time: Prep was zero, the project took twenty and the ensuing plane-play took another 25. Kids love zooming.

Theme Thursday: Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

"RAWR," said the fiercest jungle beast, "I'm so excited they finally did a story time on me!"

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Song: Open, Shut Them

Book: The Dancing Tiger by Malachy Doyle

Finger Play: Where are Baby's Fingers?

Song: Wheels on the Bus

Song: Jumping and Counting from Jim Gill's Irrational Anthem and More Salutes to Nonsense

Song: Shake My Sillies Out from The Singable Songs Collection (20th Anniversary Special Edition)

Flannel: I Had a Rooster

Book: Tiger, Tiger by Dee Lillegard

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Song: Turn Around from Getting to know Myself

Make and Take Craft: Tiger Faces

Supplies:

-construction paper

-glue sticks

Process: Before story time cut cat head shapes from orange construction paper. Cut triangle wedges from black and circles for eyes from any color and long rectangles with points for the nose from a contrasting color. Then sit back and let the kiddos create!