Toddler Time - Socks and Shoes

Today's Toddler Time was all about Socks and Shoes (you'll note there's a missing week in here, last week the toddlers wer so full of energy that we skipped "normal" Toddler Time and just had free play).

Books We Shared:

A Pair of Socks by Stuart J. Murphy, illustrated by Lois Ehlert was our first story. This was a perfect story for Toddler Time. Minimal text, bright picutes, the works.
Our second story was Whose Shoes? by Stephen R. Swinburne. We didn't read the whole story with this one, just the end part where the story asks "Whose Shoes?" and shows a picute of a person's feet. The next picture is a full picture of the person. This one is good for recognizing uniforms and answering questions. My kids are super young, so of course they didn't answer many questions, but they liked looking at the pictures anyway.

Flannels We Shared:
Today's flannel was a sock matching game. I got the poem I sang from A Year Full of Themes by Teacher Created Resources. I said the poem and had the children try to find my matching sock from the pile in front of me. The Sock Matching game originally came from Miss Mary Liberry's blog.

     Sock Pairs
     I have two feet on which I walk,

     But I can only find one sock!

     Here's a Sock I like to wear,

     But I need a matching pair.

     Bring one up so we can see,

     If it matches perfectly!

Movement Activities We Shared:Our first movement activity is one that I keep going back to- scarf dancing. The toddlers love playing with the scarves and of course dancing and playing with scarves builds motor skills and coordination.

This time we danced to Shoes sung by Wayne From Maine. I love Wayne From Maine. His songs are so much fun and he has enormous energy. (He's also a fantastic live show if you are in the New England Area!) 

The second movement activity was the activity rhyme This is What My Feet Can Do which I found on the Sunflower Storytime blog, and they give credit to the ACLA Youth Services blog. This is an adorable song and we sang it twice.

     This is What My Feet Can Do

     This is what my feet can do, feet can do, feet can do.

     This is what my feet can do

     Can you do it too?

     Let your feet go hop, hop, hop; hop, hop, hop; hop, hop, hop

     Let your feet go hop, hop, hop

     All around the room.

Jump; tiptoe, sit - Quietly instead of All around the room

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:

• In today’s story time, we’ll be exploring shoes and socks. Most people don’t think of clothes as a learning tool for young children.  However, if you think about it, clothes are a perfect medium for parents to use to introduce, size, color, number and purpose to young children. 
• Sorting between colors helps children with color recognition. Sorting also gives children practice in recognizing likes and differences, size and function. A fun home activity would be to have your child help sort the family’s socks. You can start off sorting first by color, then by size and then by similarities. 
• Rhymes and games like this one help a child to develop their listening skills and to learn to follow directions. With activities like jumping and hopping we’re also helping to develop coordination and muscle strength.
• Matching a person's shoes to their uniform can help a child develop Self Awareness, the idea that one is an individual and possesses unique qualities

Wow. I didn't realize I had snuck in so many tips! The parents aren't giving me funny looks anymore, so they're hopefully working.