Toddler Time - Birds

Today's Toddler Time was about Birds. It's finally spring up here in Maine, and I was feeling optimistic with a spring theme. Since we still have about 2 feet of snow in areas it doesn't feel very spring-like outside.

Books We Shared:

Our first book, Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton, tells the story of an owl that falls out of his nest and must find his way back to his Mommy. He's helped along the way by a squirrel who jumps on the features Little Owl says his Mommy has and ask if animals like bears, frogs, and bunnies are Little Owl's Mommy. The kids really
liked saying if each creature was Little Owl's Mommy.

Our second book of the day was Early Bird by Toni Yuli. We
pulled out the scarves for this one and followed Early Bird's activities by moving our scarves. This is a super cute and the kids loved it.

Flannels We Shared:
Today's flannel is based off the Little Mouse flannel we've done in the past. I tried to find the website I stole it from, but I could not. I'm sorry. I was a bad librarian and didn't bookmark/record my resources. (If you know of a site that lists it please post in the comments.)

     Little Chick
     Little Chick, Little Chick where are you?
    Are you in the  ________ egg?
        (repeat for each color)

Action Rhymes We Shared:

We did two action rhymes today. First up is the favorite Two Little Blackbirds. For this rhyme I handed out blackbird puppets to everyone. Everyone got at least two (sometimes more, lol) paper blackbirds taped onto a craft stick. As we sang the song we acted out the rhyme with the puppets.

    Two Little Blackbirds

    Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill,

    One named Jack, and one named Jill.

    Fly away Jack,

    Fly away Jill.

    Come back Jack,

    Come back Jill!

Our second rhyme was a spin off of Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear called Little Birds, Little Birds. I found this one on Storytime Katie. 

    Little Birds

    Little birds, little birds, jump up and down

    Little birds, little birds, don’t make a sound

    Little birds, little birds, peep, peep, peep

    Little birds, little birds, sleep, sleep, sleep

    Little birds, little birds, fly to the leaves

    Little birds, little birds, sit down please.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:

• Learning different animal names will help a child to build their vocabulary. The larger a child’s vocabulary the more words he will be able to recognize and understand in print and in speech.
• Having your toddler hear rhymes prepares him for later being able to recognize and say when words rhyme. This is critical later when your child learns to read because they need to hear the smaller sounds in words to later be able to sound out words.
• Songs and rhymes like Little Bird and Teddy Bear help toddlers to work on their motor skills by jumping, turning, and sitting.