Toddler Time - Bugs

Bugs Bugs BUGS! Today we read and talked about BUGS. We had a very small group today, so didn't follow the format we usually do. I only had one little boy (darn rain!) but we had a great time. He got a tailored story time just for him and some one-on-one action with dad.

Stories We Shared

We read two stories today. First up was a sparkly board book (which I normally avoid because they're so small and hard to see in a group) called Hello, Bugs. Adorable. Simple, eye-catching and perfect for little ones.

Our second story was I Love Bugs, which was super fun in my small group. We got to talk about all the different bugs shown on each page. It was a great learning opportunity.

Flannels We Shared

Today's flannel was 5 Hungry Ants from Miss Mary Liberry! I didn't have time to create awesome flannels, so I used laminated cardstock images. The kids didn't mind. :)

     5 Hungry Ants

     5 Hungry Ants marching in a line,

     Came upon a picnic where they could dine.

     They marched into the salad,

     They marched into the cake,

     They marched into the pepper….

     Uh oh, that was a mistake!

     AHHHH-CHOOO! (throw ant into the air!)

          4 hungry ants….etc….

Note: We only did 3 Hungry Ants. The favorite was when I tossed the ant into the air after sneezing!

Rhymes We Shared

This boy LOVES the Shaker Song so we sang it a billion times today. OK, maybe like 3. But he loves it. We also sang Eensy Weensy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle today.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• We didn't actually share any specific tips today, because we were one-on one. Instead dad and I just chatted about the different ways learning can be incorporated into play. This dad is fantastic and I am SO glad he's started coming to story time with his son.

Toddler Time - Purple

Still going strong in our color series today! We're almost done though. I think we're all just a little relieved. The 7 week series was ambitious and interesting, but we're all getting a little bored. If I do a series like this again (IF), I'll limit it to 3 weeks. Today's theme was purple!

Stories We Shared

Today we read Purple Little Bird. I've seen some adaptations of this in flannel, and I would love to do that some day, but the story is adorable on its own.

Flannels We Shared

Once again we did our Little Bird flannel. The kids love matching our birds to their nests, but are pretty much done with the rhyme. We now just ask which bird goes with which nest and play with them. Which works!

Rhymes We Shared

Our first song of the day was We Love Purple. I found this one on Preschool Express. It's from Heather McPhail. It is fun, but it will get stuck in your head!

     We love purple, we love purple.
     Yes, we do.  Yes, we do.
     Purple grapes and eggplant,
     Purple plums and grape juice,
     Just for me, just for you.

We also played a game today. We played a scavenger hunt style game where I had taped purple crayons all over the program room and while we sang the Color Chorus from Teaching Mama. My kids found purple crayons on the wall and put them in my basket. Totally adorable.

     If you see a purple crayon, pick it up.

     If you see a purple crayon, pick it up.

     Stand and wiggle, give a SHOUT!

     If you see a purple crayon, pick it up!

Of course we sang the Shaker Song, Eensy Weensy, and Twinke Twinkle Little Star today.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Babies can begin to associate words with objects and people as early as 6 months. Parents who identify the color of objects and frequently repeat this concept will find that their toddlers will start to recognize color names quickly.

Toddler Time - Blue

Welcome to week 5 of my color series for Toddler Time! This week we're focusing on the color blue! This week I disovered that it isn't super easy to find short, easy to remember rhymes about the color blue (if you have any leave them in the comments! I'm always looking for more.). Stories are easy, but rhymes not so much. I didn't want to have to fall back on Two Little Bluebirds [Blackbirds] so I went to pinterest and the Flannel Friday board to find an easy rhyme that went with the color blue.

Stories We Shared

It has been SUPER nice here this week, so everyone was wicked full of energy. So today we focused more on things that kept us moving and singing, and only read one book. We read My Blue Boat by Chris Demarest. It was a super cute story with awesome illustrations.

Flannels We Shared
We're still in our color series (only two weeks to go now) so we did our usual routine of the Little Bird rhyme and one new flannel. This week's flannel comes from Storytime Katie. The original rhyme is 5 Big Whales, but I wanted blue, so changed it to 5 Blue Whales. We had more fun just playing with the whales and making them swim than with the rhyme, but I think that was in part due to everyone wanting to be outside. This week I had a teen volunteer help me with my flannels.

     Five Blue Whales
     Five blue whales in the sea offshore
     One swam up to spout and that left four.
     Four blue whales in the deep blue sea
     One swam up to spout and that left three.
     Three blue whales in the sea so blue
     One swam up to spout and that left two.
     Two blue whales having loads of fun
     One swam up to spout and that left one.
     One blue whale longing for the sun
     He swam up to spout, and that left none!

Rhymes We Shared
This week's big winner was the Shake Your Shaker song from Jbrary. This week the toddlers were huge into the song and we sung it three times, each time to giant smiles. I think we'll continue to use this song when the color series is over.
As as usual for our color series we danced to De Colores and sung Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Parents, don't forget that repetition helpls children develop and maintain connections in their brains. This is one of the reasons we've been repeating so much in Toddler Time recently. 
• Parents who identify the color of objects and frequently repeat this concept will find that their toddlers will start to recognize color names quickly.