Inspired by this past summer's Aussie Taste-Test, I did a program called Apple Taste-Test & Stamping on Monday afternoon. I had two sessions: one for ages 3-5 and one for grades K-2. I thought it'd be fun to have a sort of apple buffet so the kids could try all different kinds of apples and see what they liked best, then vote for their favorite.
I had eight different kids of apples: Courtland, Fuji, Ginger Gold, Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, Macoun, McIntosh, and Pink Lady. I cut them up into small pieces and labeled the table in front of them so the kids and parents could walk down the line and sample everything. Then, once they were done, I had the kids place an apple sticker with their name on it in the row for which one they liked the best. So essentially, we made a big picture graph. I had the second class add to the first classes results so we could see the final winner for everyone all together. This is how the graph looked at the end:
After the eating part, which took wayyyy less time than I'd expected (about 5-10 minutes), everyone moved on to the stamping part. I used fall colors and put half an apple (cut horizontally so you see the star in the middle) in each plate of paint. The kids had fun doing this and some got really creative!
Everything moved much faster than I'd anticipated so it was a good thing that I brought Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss in the room with me just in case. I totally needed it! As the kids were finishing up almost a half hour early, I told them to keep stamping while I read them the book. This was the first time I read a book without having a designated storytime area but it worked just as well. The kids were engaged and many of them stopped stamping to listen, then started up again after I was done--prolonging the program a little more (yay!). Plus, my past fear of reading Dr. Seuss in general is completely gone now!
In the end, neither session of this program ran for it's full allotted hour, but it wound up being fun and--dare I say--educational anyway. So I'd call it a success!
What worked least: It was just shorter than I'd expected. If I'd advertised the program as being 45-minutes instead of an hour long, it would have been perfect.
What worked best: The taste test part was super fun and I think that having the tasting table as the first thing everyone saw when they walked in the room made it extra exciting. Plus, as the kids continued stamping, they liked going back up to the "buffet" for more apple.
Today I had my first class of this fall's Books n Play for Pre-K program. I've written about the format of Books n Play for Pre-K in several past posts. Today, the theme was fall. After our Hello Song (still A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff), I started off with the book Stuck by Oliver Jeffers followed by Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss. The kids LOVED both! They appropriately laughed all the way through Stuck and were quiet, in that memorized, listening to a good book way through Ten Apples Up on Top (minus a few interruptions to say "That's a lot!" when the animals successfully balanced eight apples on their heads). Success!
This was my first time reading Ten Apples Up on Top in a storytime and, as I've mentioned before, reading Dr. Seuss out loud makes me nervous. Wording is so important when you're reading Dr. Suess because it's so rhymey and sing-songy. If you miss or flub a word, you can't cover it up easily or tell parts of the story from memory. Each word plays a vital role in the rhythm. But after braving one of his books this summer (What Pet Should I Get?), I was feeling confident enough to attempt another today. And Ten Apples Up on Top is so cute and theme-appropriate! So I tried it. In fact, I did flub some words, but the kids didn't notice or care. I just re-read the phrase and all remained ok. Nothing was lost and the funniness of the story still came through perfectly. While I probably should have given this a practice out loud read ahead of time, I managed ok anyway! And I conquered a fear!
After the two books we sang The Leaves on the Tree as seen below, thanks to good ol' Jbrary:
And I added a verse: The people in the yards go rake rake rake.
The kids enjoyed this song because they already knew The Wheels on the Bus. So changing it up was fun for them.
Then it was time to break off for the craft and play time.
4. Homemade cinnamon slime! I combined several Pinterest recipes for this. (See below for recipe)
The dot-leaf tree craft was super easy! The template was a really simple document made in Microsoft Word. Using the shapes tool, I just drew a circle shape toward the top and then overlapped it with an elongated trapezoid shooting out the bottom. Like the simplest possible tree-shape ever. You can download the PDF here!
The trees might look kind of unimpressive before they're painted but once you use a q-tip to dot the leaf part of the tree with fall colors, and a sponge brush to fill in the bark, the results are pretty cool:
I expected more excitement for leaf rubbing, to be honest. I walked around outside IN THE RAIN this morning, gathering the perfect variety of different shaped and textured leaves. I peeled perfectly good crayons so they'd have good rubbing sides. But despite this, sadly, leaf rubbing was not a hit. In fact the boy below, a good sport, was the only kid to even attempt it and frankly, he wasn't super thrilled to be doing it. So, oh well.
The homemade cinnamon slime was the other big hit of the afternoon. I don't mean to take credit for this slime in any way. All I did was combine a bunch of different slime recipes I found on Pinterest. But here is how I made my particular batch of slime:
In one bowl: 1 teaspoon Borax with 1/2 cup of warm water.
In another bowl: 2 bottles of Elmers white glue, two empty Elmers white glue bottles refilled with warm water (which also gets some of the extra glue out), food coloring (one batch with green, one batch with yellow [which I thought was red-- woops.]), and cinnamon essential oil.
Then toss the Borax mix into the other glue mix and it will immediately get super icky super fast. If you're as lucky as me, you'll have a willing page to do the yucky hand mixing for you. If not, you'll have to get in with your hands and sort of kneed it around. If you let it sit for a minute or two after that, you should find yourself with slime! We made two batches:
Like I said earlier, the slime was a big hit and the kids were awesome at not eating it, even though it smelled delicious. I also decided to let them all take home some slime (because really, what was I going to do with it?) and they were really great about taking only a small amount each. Smart and good sharers-- it's official: I already like this group!
At the end, of play/craft time, I wrapped up with one more story: Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger. The kids weren't super into it (to be fair, they'd just been given slime) but several of the grandparents and older caregivers called it "a nice story." I guess I should be happy the kids were quiet at all after just playing with the cinnamon slime, really.
Then we did my new favorite goodbye song, Bread & Butter (I still love and use Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner in all my other programs, I just needed some variety!):
What worked least: Probably Little Yellow Leaf. It was just too calm and naturey for a post-play session story. I actually had a feeling this might happen. Shoulda listened to my gut.
What worked best: The homemeade cinnamon slime! The kids totally loved just mushing it up and making lines and snakes and balls with it. I need to remember to incorporate more simple, sensory activities with this group. They like it more than I'd realized.
Yesterday I did a program to celebrate the release of the new Dr. Seuss book, What Pet Should I Get?. It was really fun!
Over the winter, while I was home on disability, my colleague found out about the book's big release. During a phone conversation one day, she asked me if I'd like to do a program to celebrate it and, naturally, I said yes.
Inside though, I wasn't sure. To be totally honest, I wasn't a big Dr. Seuss fan as a kid and I have always carried that with me. Even putting my personal bias aside, the wording is really important when you're reading a Dr. Suess book. You can't tell parts of the story from memory or ad-lib like you can with most other books. His writing is sing-songy and therefore, it has to have its intended rhythm. Every word plays a vital role; you can't miss one or change one or shorten a wordy section if the kids look bored. This all made me super nervous. I've never read Dr. Suess with the kids before and I was afraid I would have too many stumbles, and worried that my dislike for the book would subtly come through.
Leading up to today, I waited (im)patiently for the big release, with no idea what I had in store for me. Once I saw the book the morning of the program though, I was SO relieved. I liked it! It was sing-songy but was manageable enough and the story was funny, cute, and more realistic than other Dr. Seuss books--which, I think, was my gripe as a kid. I liked realism.
Reading the story out loud went well. The kids were all interested and engaged throughout the book and I didn't flub the sing-songy text too much at all!
At the end of the book the kids got to "make a pet." I had them start by coloring their pet's habitat, made out of these white Treat Boxes from Oriental Trading, crayons, and brown tissue paper to line the box with, like a blanket or a rug. Once they finished decorating their box, I gave each of them a handful of Crayola Air Dry Clay and told them to make an animal. Whatever animal they wanted. As a sample, I'd made a cat, (side-note about me: if I can incorporate cats, I will.) but the tail (and later two legs and an ear) broke off before I could take a picture.
The kids made a nice assortment of pets: a cat, dog, beehive, elephant, and some others. The clay was a total hit! Some kids took the full hour to do their craft (even a little longer!) but many finished more quickly and we all had a good time making other stuff out of the clay after that. We made pretzels, challah bread, lollypops, pizza... mainly food items, really. I used clay once before in a program and I didn't remember it being quite as much fun, but everyone (including me) enjoyed making stuff yesterday. It's like playdough for older kids! For adults, even!
Here is a sampling of pets in their habitats:
What worked best: The story! I can't believe it! Maybe it's because relief is clouding my judgement, but the story really really worked great.
What worked least: The air dry clay got a little too messy as we played with it more and more. There were tiny flakes of it everywhere and a wad of it on the bottom of a brand new sneaker. But other than more mess than I'd planned for, everyone really enjoyed sculpting and being creative!
