Wee Read - The Great Big Spider

Early Literacy Tip of the Week:

When playing with your child, make sure to follow his lead. If he isn’t interested in the activity, he probably won’t learn much from it so move on.

Good Morning

Hello, How are You?

The Great Big Spider

--from Lapsit Services for the Very Young II by Linda L. Ernst. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 2001.

*Substitute the words "great, big" for "itsy bitsy". Use big arm gestures instead of fingers.

Open Shut Them

Book One

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Tall as a Tree

--I’m a Little Teapot: Presenting Preschool Storytime by Jane Cobb. Vancouver, BC: Black Sheep Press, 1996.

There’s a Spider on the Floor – with puppet

--Raffi

One Elephant Went Out to Play

One Elephant went out to play

Upon a spider’s web one day

He had such enormous fun

He called another elephant to come.

(HEY, ELEPHANT!)

Two elephants went out to play

Upon a spider’s web one day

They had such enormous fun,

They called another elephant to come…

etc.

--Miss Mary Liberry

I Wiggle My Fingers

Book Two

The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Lorianne Siomades 

Humpty Dumpty Up

Humpty Dumpty up,

And Humpty Dumpty down.

Humpty Dumpty left,

Humpty Dumpty right,

Humpty Dumpty all around.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Poor Humpty Dumpty (smiling).

--Jim Thomas

Eyes and Nose

--Storytime Crafts: Crazy Days by Kathryn Totten. Ft. Atkinson, WI: Upstart Books, 2004.

Read Together

Little Miss Muffet by Tracey Campbell Pearson

The More We Get Together

Storytime - Butterflies

Toddlers

Books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Butterfly Butterfly by Petr Horacek.

Songs / Rhymes: “Good Morning”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “Open, Shut Them”, “Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly” with butterfly puppet, “Cocoon”, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, and “The More We Get Together”. 

Craft: Fluttering Butterflies. Materials: Kleenex, black pipe cleaners, and watercolor paints. The toddlers used the paints to decorate their butterflies.

Preschoolers

Books: Fly, Butterfly, Fly! by Dana Meachen Rau and Birthday for Cow by Jan Thomas (because it was my birthday!).

Songs / Rhymes: “Welcome to the Library”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “Open, Shut Them”, “Cocoon”, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, and “The More We Get Together”. 

Craft: Fluttering Butterflies. Materials: Kleenex, black pipe cleaners, and watercolor paints. The preschoolers used the paints to decorate their butterflies.

Songs/Rhymes

Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly

Sung to: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

Flutter, flutter, butterfly, 

Floating in the summer sky.
Floating by for all to see,
floating by so merrily.
Flutter, flutter, butterfly,
floating in the summer sky.  

--PreschoolEducation

Cocoon

You spin a cocoon

(Spin in a circle)

Then you wait inside

(Crouch down low and cover face)

And when you come out

(Link thumbs, still covering face)

You’re a butterfly!

(Lift hands fluttering into the atmosphere!)

--HCPL

Storytime - Ahhhhh! Spiders!

Toddler

Books 

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Lorianne Siomades.

Songs / Rhymes: “Good Morning”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “Open, Shut Them”, “There’s a Spider on the Floor” with spider puppet, “One Elephant Went Out to Play” on the felt board, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, “The Great Big Spider”, and “The More We Get Together”.

Craft: Hand Print Spiders. Materials: black construction paper hand prints, purple paper, googly eyes, crayons, glue, and tape. The toddlers glued the thumbs of their hand prints together to make a spider. They glued eyes onto their spiders and then colored them in.

Preschool

Books: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and I Love Bugs by Emma Dodd. The preschoolers helped me read Carle’s book by supplying the sounds of the animals.

Songs / Rhymes: “Welcome to the Library”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “The Great Big Spider”, “Open, Shut Them”, “There’s a Spider on the Floor” with spider puppet, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, and “The More We Get Together”.

Special Activity: The preschoolers shared with me what they knew about spiders. They knew that spiders make webs, have eight legs, and eat flies and other bugs. They even knew that spiders trap flies in their sticky webs!

Craft: Spider Webs. Materials: black construction paper, construction paper crayons, glue, and glitter. The preschoolers drew their webs onto the construction paper using the crayons, then went over the lines with glue. I added white glitter to their papers when they were finished.

Songs/Rhymes

There’s a Spider on the Floor (with spider puppet)

--Raffi

One Elephant Went Out to Play

One Elephant went out to play

Upon a spider’s web one day

He had such enormous fun

He called another elephant to come.

(HEY, ELEPHANT!)

Two elephants went out to play

Upon a spider’s web one day

They had such enormous fun,

They called another elephant to come…

--Miss Mary Liberry

The Great Big Spider

--from Lapsit Services for the Very Young II by Linda L. Ernst. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 2001.

*I do this version instead of itsy bitsy because, as Ernst suggests in her book, it's easier for the smaller children to do gross motor movements than the fine motor skills involved in the finger play.

Wee Read - Bumble Bees

Early Literacy Tip of the Week: Relax and have fun! It's okay if your baby crawls or moves away - she will still hear and benefit from your voice.

Good Morning

Hello, How are You?

Bumble Bee

Sung to: "Jingle Bells"

Bumble Bee, bumble bee,

Landing on my nose,

Bumble bee, bumble bee,

Now he's on my toes.

On my arms, on my legs,

On my elbows.

Bumble bee, oh bumble bee

He lands, and then he goes.

--PreschoolEducation

Open Shut Them

Book One

Hide-and-Squeak by Heather Vogel Frederick

Dancing Up and Dancing Down - with scarves

--Mother Goose on the Loose by Betsy Diamant-Cohen. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Where is Baby? - with scarves

Sung to: “Where is Thumbkin?”

Where is baby? Where is baby?

There you are! There you are!

I’m so glad to see you, I’m so glad to see you

Peek-a-boo! Peek-a-boo!

--ALSC

Roll Your Scarf - with scarves

--Mother Goose on the Loose by Betsy Diamant-Cohen. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2006.

I Wiggle My Fingers

Book Two

Animal Baths by Bob Barner

The Bees in the Flowers

The bees in the flowers go buzz buzz buzz,

Buzz, buzz, buzz,

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

The bees in the flowers go buzz buzz buzz,

All day long

--PreschoolEducation

I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee

I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee.

Won't my mommy be so proud of me?

I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee.

Bzz, bzz, bzz says the bee.

--Babies in the Library by Jane Marino. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003.

Read Together

What Do You Say? by Mandy Stanley

The More We Get Together

Storytime - Bees

Toddler

Books: Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennon and Bear and Bee by Sergio Ruzzier

Songs / Rhymes: “Good Morning”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “Open, Shut Them”, “Bumble Bee” with bee puppet, “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee” with bee puppet, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, and “The More We Get Together”.

Craft: Bumble Bees. Materials: black construction paper wings, yellow construction bodies, googly eyes, crayons, glue, and tape. The toddlers glued their bee parts together and then drew on black stripes. We had a record high attendance on this day and I ran out of crafts for the older siblings!

Preschool

Books: Buzz by Janet S. Wong and Bear and Bee by Sergio Ruzzier.

Songs / Rhymes: “Welcome to the Library”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “Hi There, So Glad You Came”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “Open, Shut Them”, “Bumble Bee” with bee puppet, “Head and Shoulders”, and “The More We Get Together”.

Craft: Bee Windsocks: black construction paper stripes, white construction paper handles, sheet of yellow construction paper, yellow streamers, glue, tape, crayons, and scissors. The preschoolers glued the black stripes to the yellow paper, added the yellow streamers at the bottom, and placed the handles on top. They had fun pretending that bees were flying around the room. We had another very large group in this class and I ran out of crafts for the older siblings again!

Songs/Rhymes

Bumble Bee

Sung to: "Are You Sleeping"

Bumble bee, bumble bee

Don't sting me, don't sting me.

Just fly to your home,

And leave me alone.

Don't sting me, don't sting me.

--PreschoolEducation

I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee

I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee.

Won't my mommy be so proud of me?
I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee.

Bzz, bzz, bzz says the bee.

--Babies in the Library by Jane Marino. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003.

Storytime - Lovely Ladybugs

Toddler

Books: The Very Lazy Ladybug by Isobel Finn and Jack Tickle and CanYou Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas

Songs / Rhymes: “Good Morning”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “Open, Shut Them”, “Ladybug” with ladybug puppet, “Pretty Ladybug” on the felt board, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, and “The More We Get Together”. 

Craft: Build a Ladybug. Materials: red construction paper oval, black construction paper head, crayons, glue, and tape. The toddlers glued the head to the body of the ladybug and drew on spots.

Preschool

Books: The Very Lazy Ladybug by Isobel Finn and Jack Tickle and CanYou Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas

Songs / Rhymes: “Welcome to the Library”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “Open, Shut Them”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “Head and Shoulders”, and “The More We Get Together”. 

Craft: Ladybug Headbands Materials: red construction paper strips, small black construction paper strips, black construction paper die cut spots, glue, tape, crayons, and scissors. The preschoolers taped their red strips together, added their spots, and taped on their antennae to make a ladybug hat.

Songs/Rhymes

Ladybug

Sung to: "Three Blind Mice"

Fly, fly, fly

Ladybugs fly

Fly over here

Fly over there

They fly up high and they fly down low.

Around and around and around they go.

They fly fast, and they fly slow.

Oh, ladybugs fly.

--PreschoolEducation.com

Pretty Ladybug

Sung to: "The Muffin Man"
Ladybug has 1 black spot,
1 black spot, 1 black spot;
Ladybug has 1 black spot,
Pretty ladybug!

Continue until there are 6 spots.

--from PreschoolEducation.com

Storytime - Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!

Books

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner

Toddler

I Love Bugs by Emma Dodd

Toddler

Aaaarrgghh! Spider! by Lydia Monks

Preschool

Special Songs/Rhymes

"Pretty Ladybug" Felt Board

Sung to: "The Muffin Man"
Ladybug has 1 black spot,
1 black spot, 1 black spot;
Ladybug has 1 black spot,
Pretty ladybug!

Continue until there are 6 spots.

--from PreschoolEducation.com

Crafts

Toddlers

Pencil Critters

We have a die cut in the shape of a caterpillar with holes through each of its segments so that you can thread a pencil through it. We added some googly eyes and extra pencils I had laying around. 

Preschool

Bug Buddies

Each child was given a baggie with a leaf shape cut out of green construction paper and two pompons, one big and one small. I set up the craft tables with Elmer's glue, googly eyes, and sequins. Their instructions were to make their bug how they wanted to. They came up with some pretty interesting creations.

 

Flannel Friday - Pretty Ladybugs

Happy Friday! The rest of the Flannel Friday gang is posting felt board ideas for "One World, One Story", the theme of their Summer Reading Program. But I'd like to give a little love to Texas where our theme is "Dig Up a Good Book". I'll be using this flannel board for our insect theme in July.

Pretty Ladybug

Sung to: "The Muffin Man"

Ladybug has 1 black spot,
1 black spot, 1 black spot;
Ladybug has 1 black spot,
Pretty ladybug!

Continue until there are 6 spots.

 -- PreschoolEducation.com

  

While we sing, I'll place the numeral on the board, too.