Fingerplay Fridays (Double Play!)- Rain and Rainbows

It seems like there's storms across the Midwest today, and it's definitely raining here, so why not do a little fingerplay about the weather with your kids? These come from ChildFun.com

image from blog.chron.com

Rain
Tune: Row Row Row Your Boat
Rain, rain falling down, (Flutter fingers up and down.)
Landing all around. (Move arms out to sides.)
What a lovely sound you make (Cup hands behind ears.)
Splashing on the ground. (Wiggle fingers up and down.)


And after the rain, everyone hopes to see a rainbow!

image from planetpals.com

Rainbow Song 
Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
When the rain falls from the sky, (Flutter fingers downward.)
Don't forget to look up high. (Cup hand above eyes and look up.)
If the sun is shining there, (Make a circle with arms above head.)
You may find a rainbow fair. (Sweep arms in an arc above head.)
Red orange, yellow, green and blue.
And you'll see there's purple, too

Fingerplay Friday-Springtime Showers

Five little flowers standing in the sun (hold up five fingers)
See their heads nodding, bowing one by one? (bend fingers several times)
Down, down, down comes the gentle rain (raise arms and wiggle fingers as you slowly lower arms illustrating falling rain)
And the five little flowers lift their heads up again! (hold up five fingers)

Image from deepfriar.wordpress.com

"What Are You Reading?" Thursdays-One Foot, Two Feet

I've decided to start a new weekly meme, aren't you lucky?! On Thursdays, I'll be featuring a link-up called "What Are You Reading?" (Fun Blog Badge coming),  for you to share with others what you're reading to your kids, or even what you're reading yourself. The most important thing is that you're reading! Here's my post for this first week. Link-up and leave a comment at the bottom. Can't wait to see what you're reading!

This morning's read to Little Man

Free Alphabet Coloring Pages from LeapFrog

For those of you that don't know, I'm kind of a fledgling couponer. I FINALLY made a binder because of the great binder tab dividers that Freebies 2 Deals has on thier page, saving me all of the effort! So I subscribed to thier e-mail notifications, and thanks to one of those e-mails, I was linked to these adorable alphabet coloring pages from LeapFrog.

This is just the letter A....

But you can print the entire PDF file with all of the letters and animals by clicking here.

Happy Coloring!

Early Lit Tip Tuesday - How children view movement

Comprehending movement can be difficult for a child. The concept of wind: you can't see it, but you can feel it, can be particularly difficult. This video gives a brief explanation of how children comprehend movement and some tips to aid in your child's comprehension. 

Just a little "Pre-School Musical" fun for your Monday!

Valentine's Day Heart Sorting and Other Fun!

To celebrate Valentine's Day today with Little Man, I had some super fun, and educational activities planned for this morning.

We started out "coloring a Valentine's Day picture for daddy".

Here are some links to this, and other Valentine coloring pages:

Apples 4 The Teacher - V is for Valentine

Homeschooling on About.com - V is For Valentine

An assortment of Valentine themed pages from Kaboose.com

Assortment of Valentine themed pages from First-School

We followed up our coloring project with a "Sorting Hearts Collage"

Learning where the different sizes go

Sorting the different sizes

Still perfecting our artwork

The finished product

To create this project, I cut three different sizes of hearts from templates (since cutting symmetrical hearts can be so tricky) on both red and pink construction paper for some Valentine's Day flair. I then labeled the white background construction paper with Little, Medium, and Big Hearts places. After showing Little Man where each of the three sizes went, he had fun matching up the sizes of the hearts. I glued them to the paper where he wanted them, he is only 22 months old after all. :)

If you would like to create this project, here are some links to different heart templates:

Enchanted Learning-Various Size Hearts
Kiddy House-Various Size Hearts
2020Site -Stylized Various Size Hearts


I ended our craft time this morning by surprising Little Man with his Valentine's Day present. Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater. I think the picture says it all:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Song and Fingerplay!

Will You Be My Valentine?

To the tune of "The Muffin Man"

Oh, will you be my valentine?

My valentine? My valentine?

Oh, will you be my valentine?

And love me every day?

Oh, yes, I'll be your valentine.

Your valentine. Your valentine.

Oh, yes, I'll be your valentine.

And love you every day.

My Valentine Heart

When I say I love you (Point to lips)

It comes from my heart (Hand on heart)

You hear it in your ear (Point to ear)

And it sounds very smart (Point to head)

I love it when you're proud of me (Stand very tall)

You say it all day long (Stretch arms wide)

And when I hear you say it (Point to ear)

My heart sings a merry song (Hand on heart)

Stay Tuned, Today was just a preview. I'll have more fun Preschool and Early Lit fun tomorrow!

Fingerplay Friday- It is Snowing



Image borrowed from:
stopviolenceuw.wordpress.com

Since the vast majority of the US is about to be hit with a major cold snap, and may of us will be seeing snow, what better than to use snow as the basis of a Fingerplay!

"It is snowing, it is snowing, (Make snowing motion with hands)
All a round, All a round, (Hand at brow, look "all around")
I need a hat, I need a hat, (Motion as if you are putting on a hat)
On my head, on my head" (Point to head)

(Continue with motions, changing the winter gear you are putting on, and the body part you point to.)

"It is snowing, it is snowing,
All a round, All a round,
I need earmuffs, I need earmuffs,
On my ears, on my ears"

"It is snowing, it is snowing,
All a round, All a round,
I need mittens, I need mittens,
On my hands, on my hands"

"It is snowing, it is snowing,
All a round, All a round,
I need scarf, I need a scarf,
Around my neck, around my neck"

"It is snowing, it is snowing,
All a round, All a round,
I need boots, I need boots,
On my feet, on my feet"

"It is snowing, it is snowing,
All a round, All a round,
I need a coat, I need a coat,
On my body, on my body"

Early Literacy Activity Cards-Resource

Image borrowed from kwachtman.wordpress.com

I came across a site called Family Literacy Expertise, they are a Canadian non-profit and have an immense resource of early literacy activity cards based on familiar children's books. If you are looking for a kids book with activities pre-pared with it, or have a kids book and are looking for activities to accompany it. This is a great site to check out.

Some of the books they have listed are:

A Big Fat Enormous Lie	My Family's Changing
A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes	My Friends and Me
All Together Now	Nose to Toes
Alligator Baby	Number One, Tickle Your Tum
Amazing Grace	On Your Potty
Andrew's Loose Tooth	Pajama Time
Baby Faces	Peek a Who
Barnyard Dance	Peekaboo Baby
Big or Little	Red Ripe Strawberry, Little Mouse and the Big Hungry Bear
Can't You Sleep Little Bear	Shoes from Grandpa
Clap Your Hands	Sleepy Little Mouse
Finding Kate's Shoes	Stellaluna
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed	Stop Picking On Me
Five Little Monkeys Sitting In a Tree	That's Good That's Bad
Five Little Monkeys With Nothing to Do	The Bear Went over the Mountain
From Head to Toe	The Grouchy Ladybug
Good Night Gorilla	The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Goodnight Moon	The Kissing Hand
Guess How Much I love You	The Mitten
Hands Are Not For Hitting	The Princess and the Potty
Hiding	The Very Busy Spider
I Can Blink	The Way I Feel
I Have to Go	Touch and Feel Animal Kisses
I Love You So Much	Touch and Feel Bedtime
I Miss You	Touch and Feel Mealtime
If You Give A Moose A Muffin	Touch and Feel Pets
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie	Two Eyes A Nose & A Mouth
If You Were My Bunny	Up to the Skies and Down Again
I'm A Little Teapot	Very Busy Spider
I'm As Quick As A Cricket	Very Hungry Caterpillar
Jessica's X-ray	Where the Wild Things Are
Lifetimes	Where's My Teddy
Little Mouse, Red Ripe Strawberry & The Big Hungry Bear
Makeup Mess

Salt Dough Ornaments, Part One

Today I set out to have a "crafty" day with Lil Man, I was quite ambitious in thinking that we could make salt dough ornaments AND decorate a gingerbread house. Apparently, 20 month olds don't craft quite as fast as 25 year olds. :) Needless to say, today we only made it to half of the salt dough ornaments.

The Paper Mama sucked me in with her 50 DIY Christmas Crafts Salt Dough Ornaments. I love the folk art feel of salt dough crafts, and thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to share my love with Lil Man. So while he was napping I prepped the dough, as directed in The Paper Mama's post. Then after he woke up we set off to make some ornaments! Lil Man LOVED it!

Some of the creations... we did use a straw at the end to put holes in the top

Lil Man making a star ornament

Super excited about his accomplishment!

During our time crafting the ornaments, we spent time talking about the different shapes of the cookie cutters, working on enunciation of words, and talking about different textures, turning the ornament making process into an early-literacy experience! I don't think Lil Man knew he was learning at all. :)

You'll notice that there aren't any pictures of the finished product in this post, that's because the ornaments have to bake for almost 5 hours. So, they are baking away in the oven right now. They won't even be out until after Lil Man is in bed. So stay tuned....there's more to come!

Fingerplay Friday - Santa's Here!

Since I owe you a Fingerplay Friday post from last week, here's a really cute Sants fingerplay from kidnkaboodle.net.

Image borrowed from operationlettertosanta.com

Santa's Here Fingerplay

Someone's peeping through my window (peek through fingers),
Tapping at my door (make knocking motions),
Sliding down my chimney (make sliding motion with hands),
Landing on the floor (stomp feet).

He's filling all the stockings (make filling motions),
And looking at the tree (turn head and widen eyes).
He has lots of presents (pretend to count on fingers),
Some for you and some for me (point at others and then at self)!

Im peeking round the doorway (peek around hand),
And OH!, what do I see (look surprised)?

The jolly face of Santa (smile),
Peeking back at me (peek through fingers)!

Fingerplay Friday - Making A Snowman

Image borrowed from mrspatterson.edublogs.org

Making A Snowman

Find it, Find it, Find a pile of snow. (make searching motion, hand in a brim above eyes)

A Rolling, rolling, rolling we will go. (make rolling motion)
Pat it, pat it, face it to the south. (patting motion, like making a snowball)
Now my little snowperson's done, eyes, nose and mouth (point to each)

Storyline Online-Beloved Children's Stories Read By Celebrities

Image borrowed from
digthelibrary.com

One of my co-workers found this site, and after I browsed around, I just had to share it with you all, my wonderful readers.

The site is called StoryLine Online, and it is supported by the Screen Actor's Guild Foundation. So do you know what that means? You guessed it!

Image borrowed from blogs.voices.com

Your favorite celebrities reading your favorite children's books! I mean, seriously, what could be better than Betty White reading you and your children Harry the Dirty Dog? Um, NOTHING! :)

Along with the stories, there are downloadable activity guides that you can save or print off, as a way to futher the story's educational use. The activity guides are a perfect counterpart for the story whether used at home, or in school.

Just in time for the holiday season, Lou Diamond Phillips is reading one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE books, The Polar Express!

Image borrowed from petitbookshelf.blogspot.com

Be sure to check out this fabulous site, you won't be disappointed!

Early Lit Tip Tuesday Week Three

This week's video focuses on an "old school classic", one that you might not have yet played with your child. I SPY!

Good Night Construction Site, Good Night Baby

Image Courtesy of bookmarkable.wordpress.com

Today I brought home a new kid's book for little man, he's been fascinated by cars, trucks, trains and all things that go, So I thought I would cater to his desire for things that go, and brought home Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site.

Let me tell you, I am in love with this book! As a kid, I loved the Snort in Are You My Mother, and Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel. GNGNCS just can't even compare. It goes above and beyond. The best way I can describe the book, is that it's Bob the Builder, meets the Snort and Mike Mulligan, meets Pixar's Cars. This book is not only brilliant, it's award worthy.

The story itself talks about each different personified construction site vehicle, what it does during the day, and how it gets ready for bed. The crane truck even sleeps with a teddy bear. It's adorable. Each segment of the story concludes with saying "Shhhh", and wishing the construction site vehicle goodnight. Little Man loved saying "Shhh" along with the story. And the best part is that he was tuckered and ready for bed by the conclusion. Thank you Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld for reviving my childhood through your fabulous book and for putting my son to sleep. 

Don't believe me that this is one of the cutest books ever?? Check out the book trailer!

Ready to pick up a copy? Check out your local library or purchase a copy on Amazon.