I love it when my kids are active,can move their bodies and learn something. We just finished reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and I wanted my kids to practice retelling the story but I was bored of the usual retelling activities.
So this cute idea popped in my head and I went scooting for some ping pong balls.
I attached pictures of food that the hungry caterpillar ate in the book on the ping pong balls and put them in a basket. I then asked kids to find the food he ate, in order and prompted them to talk about the days on which he ate a particular food.
After they finished arranging the ping pong balls , we got up and aimed the balls in another basket aka the caterpillar.
There was a lot of excitement, cheers and joy while playing this game which of course, made me a super happy teacher!
"Frosty, the snowman is a jolly happy soul".... is the song on my lips these days. What with the cold weather finally setting in, just minus the snow. Many people dread the harsh winters we experience but for me its a joyful and a happy time. Drinking hot, steaming cups of mocha, eating loads of Christmas cake , wearing warm cozy mittens and snuggling in the blanket with a good book surely makes me a jolly happy soul.
And it is this cold weather that inspired me to write a post on all things snow and snowman.Since I consider books as the most important teaching tool, I am first going to share the latest Eric Carle book I have fallen in love with.
The story is set during Christmas time and revolves around a farmer and his five animals. Only there is no snow, till the night before Christmas. So what does the farmer do when snow finally falls? Find out in this beautifully illustrated book that will surely win over young hearts.
My favorite snowman craft that I love to do with kids every year also incorporates a little bit of literacy. I let them cut circles with white paper and prompt them to write each letter of their name on a circle.
Its fun to see little kids comparing the length of their snowmen.
And what is Christmas without gifts. Turn a simple chocolate into an adorable snowman and see bright smiles adorning your little angels faces.
"Snowman, snowman, where's your nose?", is a group game that will have your kids asking for more. Let children sit in a circle and ask one child to be the snowman. Give a small carrot to another child and ask him/her to hide it behind his/her back. All the other children also pretend to do the same and they say a chant: Snowman, Snowman, Where's Your Nose? Somebody took it from your home.
Upstairs, Downstairs, by the phone...Wake up Snowman, Find your Nose.Encourage the child in the center to guess which child he/she thinks has the snowman's nose. The 'snowman' gets up to three guesses. Keep playing till everyone gets a turn.
And finally if you want to do up your surroundings with some snowman decor, check out my door decoration.
I will leave you with my favorite song for this season...
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all my followers!
Its Eric Carle again, this week! "A House For Hermit Crab" beautifully captures how a hermit crab changes his shell when he outgrows it. The book also introduces a lot of new vocabulary for kids who are learning about the ocean. And like all Eric Carle books, this one too allows a lot of scope for building the sequencing and retelling skills in children.
We made a hermit crab craft after reading the book.
The children used sequencing cards and retold the story in their own words.
We used Lima beans to spell out the new words we learnt. You can use magnetic letters, letter tiles or a marker to spell the words.
The kids learnt a lot of new vocabulary and they used the vocabulary cards to match the words and the pictures in a pocket chart.
The kids are also learning how to write a sentence using punctuation marks, In this sheet,they practiced cutting the words apart and putting them in order(an important print awareness skill).
This week's book is "Papa Please Get The Moon For Me" by Eric Carle. Eric Carle needs no introduction. He is the king of children's books and all his books leave a lasting impression on little kiddos, You can use this book if you are teaching about the phases of the moon or when teaching letter M, like I did.
"Moon", "Monica", "Mountain", "Me" were some of the words we discovered from letter M. It is a simple book with beautiful illustrations and very subtly introduces the phases of the moon.
After reading the book, we followed up with a craft and a writing activity. I got this idea from Kindergarten Hoppenings.
The kid painted a sheet with blue paint and colored stars.
She wrote what she would do if she had the moon. This kid is only 4 years and is still learning to write, so I wrote out the words for her.
She added stairs and the crescent moon, since that's the shape she insisted on. Lastly she added her picture of climbing the stairs.
I just finished a comprehensive unit on plants with my kiddos and they responded very well to all the activities. I gave them lots of opportunities to think and observe and we included many experiments to make this unit an inquiry based one.
You can find the video link for the song below:
We read books like "Johnny Apple Seed", The Pumpkin Patch" and "The Carrot Seed" to see where fruits and vegetables grow.
If you liked these activities, please let me know by leaving a comment. I would love to hear from you and also would be delighted to know what activities you use in your classrooms while teaching the unit on plants.
I was at the New Delhi World Book Fair yesterday and i must admit that the fair has come a long way since i was a kid. The quality of books for children have improved tremendously and i was amazed at the choice of books that i came upon. Not to mention the prices ! I grew up on Nancy Drew's and Secret Seven , simply because children's literature in India was almost non existent. There were hardly any authors writing books for kids, leaving children to stock up books by Rohald Dahl, Enid Blyton, R.L. Stine and so on. As a little kid, i don't remember owning any picture books of Indian publications. Till the time i came back to India, i was relying heavily on books by western authors and i feel no guilt in admitting that some of my favorite authors are from the west. Dr Seuss, Eric Carle, Mercer Mayer, Donald Crew, David Shannon have all written fantastic books with amazing illustrations which catch children's attention in no time. This quality and variety definitely lacks in the Indian Literature but my visit to bookstores and yesterday to the book fair has made me rethink. I am glad that many people are working towards developing stories for little children and understand the need and importance of stories especially for the younger group of children.
Katha- a non profit organisation is working seamlessly in this regard.
They have been publishing fabulous books for children and their collection is worth an investment. They have a vast collection of books, both in English and Hindi.
I got my hands on some very good titles.
I even got some amazing books that have been published by the National Book Trust of India at dirt cheap prices. I had to double check the prices to be sure. I was behaving like a loony after experiencing excitement of such great intensity and had it not been closing time i could have spent the whole night there marveling at the prices of some very good books.
I also picked David Mckee's Elmer and Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell by Sue Hendra.
I was so ecstatic that today all i wanted to do was read to my children. :)
After my experience at the book fair yesterday, i think i will consciously be on a look out for books by Indian authors and would be incorporating many such stories in my classroom.
My kids are turning into budding readers themselves and they are so eager to explore text of all kinds. I made some sentence strips for them to read at the literacy center. If you are interested in downloading them you could visit my TPT Store or click on the link below:
I am going to share the names of few books that i read with my children during the unit of sea animals.
Commotion in the ocean was used to introduce the topic. The book has rhyming words and colorful illustrations.
Rainbow fish by Marcus Pfister and Swimmy by Leo Lionni are always liked by students. These books can also be used to talk about concepts of sharing and group work.
Any book by Eric Carle is a huge hit in my class. We read A house for the Hermit Crab and Mr Seahorse.
As a follow up activity, children made their own crafts.
We also did a reading of non-fictional books by scholastic. Children loved exploring the books on killer whales, dolphins and sharks.
I felt the content of these books were meant for the age group of 6-8 years. However the illustrations were great and language can always be modified for young children.
If you would like to purchase these books in India, you could go to Flip kart.com
