“Arnie the Doughnut”

First off, I selfishly chose this book because I find it completely hilarious. I cracked up more than the kids did, although they rather liked it as well.

If you haven’t had the opportunity, check it out: Arnie is a doughnut, born with chocolate icing and sprinkles. He eagerly looks forward to being purchased and going out into the wide world, which is exactly what happens. To Arnie’s great consternation, the man that purchases him, Mr. Bing, decides to eat him, at which point hilarious surprise and confusion erupts from both parties. Can a little doughnut create a different course of destiny for himself other than that of being eaten?

You’ll have to read it to see…interesting to ponder with preschoolers.

This week, we strung the beads that we made last week from our Sculpy clay. We also worked with Cinnamon dough to create little snowmen (our take-home gift for the upcoming holidays)…Senior Kindergarten handpainted glass vases instead. (Thank you, Robin, for the generous donations each year!) Lots of good fine-motor activities and also multi-step, multi-week projects which develop those listening skills, memory, and patience. Also, again, think of cooking as science…combining ingredients to form something new…using our senses to understand the properties of the materials we are using better…using our logic to determine why we wouldn’t be interested in eating these…

CINNAMON DOUGH:

1 cup ground cinnamon (I recommend purchasing this in bulk at a restaurant supply store–MUCH more economical if you have over a hundred to make as we did)

2 tablespoons of Elmer’s glue mixed well with 1/2 to 1 whole cup of applesauce

Combine wet with dry…you are looking for a dough consistency…too loose, add cinnamon, too dry, add more glue and sauce. Sprinkle work area with cinnamon before rolling out…dough rolls out better if kneaded thoroughly first. Cut to shape with cookie cutters. Don’t forget to make a hole with a straw if you are planning to hang these…they make AMAZING air fresheners or ornaments! Let them air dry on a cookie sheet, turning daily to prevent curling…takes about two days if you are in a dry, winter climate like Chi-town.

Also in preparation for next week’s Winter Party, we designed our own gift bags and cards as well…we emphasize a WINTER theme as opposed to a holiday theme. Our population tends to be pretty diverse, and I leave it for parents to determine what they want to teach their children about holidays, religions, and the lot.

“Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge”

i’m always a little loathe to repeat holiday stuff at FUN CLUB…especially since schools usually do that stuff so well, and i’d rather reinforce in a different way.

so.

instead of the usual pilgrims and american indians and whatnot of thanksgiving, i opt for the following book:

this book is about a little boy with four names who isn’t very big…he lives next to an old folks’ home (good way to introduce a place that can sometimes be scary or confusing for little ones at the holidays) and is friends with a lady who also has four names…but sadly, she has lost her memories. so our hero sets out to discover what memories are…and to help his friend.

i love thinking of thanksgiving as a day for remembering all we are grateful for…and for creating new memories with our friends and family. our “turkey tree” project had children decorating a paper cut-out of their hand like a turkey, and then listing something they were thankful for. children also made “turkey tamborines” to take home–they could call everyone to the table with their crazy rattling turkey!

“I Stink!”

ahh…what pre-schooler doesn’t love a book about the garbage truck?

not only is this book a great lead-in for a discussion about sanitation, waste management, and recycling, it has amazing illustrations and cleverly designed fonts to keep little listeners engaged.

projects today included sorting “trash” from “recycle” and then putting trash into the garbage truck, and recycle into the recycle bin on our coloring pages. during storytime, we also used the book to review our ABC’s and discuss what happens to garbage in the city…as the book says, “Without me, you’re on Mount Trash-A-Rama, baby!”

Pirate Adventure

avas, me hardies!

pirates are a subject that have fascinated me since my very first “treasure hunt” with my Grandpa Ferd at age four. In honor of my Grandpa, and the little adventure-seeker that lives in every pre-schooler, Pirate Adventure Week is a must.

We start out making the classic newspaper pirate hats–note to parents/teachers–be careful what images/text are on your newspaper! Hats can be decorated a number of ways–for our time purposes, we colored with marker. Our art requirements were: your name, jewels, feathers, and a parrot medallion. Requirements keep the children on task while providing flexibility and choice–some students worked for ten minutes on their hats while others worked for thirty or more! (Students go to “choosing time” when they are finished.)

Our books this week included “How I Became A Pirate” for JK and “Roger, the Jolly Pirate” for SK. Senior Kindergartens also generated some excellent questions about pirates, for example, were pirates real? are there still pirates? did all pirates have eye patches? what did they eat? etc. I have an excellent book called “What If You Met A Pirate” that has a wealth of pirate facts and interesting tidbits. (The illustrations are a bit graphic though, so you may want to wait a few years before putting this one into your child’s library.)

After our storytime, children participated in a treasure hunt–I hide small paper clues all over the room, and then we become a clue-finding team, hunting high and low for clues. It is really important to prep the children to help others find clues if they find one first–a lot of really kind moments and sweet sharing takes place during this activity. Also, be sure to have more clues than children–they really like to be able to find one (sometimes I keep a couple in my pocket and check to see who hasn’t found one yet–I then quickly hide them and invite the remaining child/ren to help me look for the last few clues.) When clues are gathered, we put the words together in a circle, using our emerging reading skills to “sound out” each of the words, and then unscramble the message (intro to sentence structure). Invariably, the message reads, “TO FIND THE TREASURE, YOU MUST FIND THE X!”

Children begin to hunt for a large letter X…when they find it, they point to it, giving everyone a chance to “spy” it. (This year, the treasure box was in the freezer upstairs!) A teacher carries the treasure box to the table and when all are seated we open it and take turns choosing our treasure!

Closure for the day includes learning the Pirate Handshake (make a “hook” finger and shake your neighbor’s “hook” and say “ARGH!”) and the Pirate Song, which goes like this:

“When I was ONE I sucked my thumb (show one finger, show pretend sucking thumb)
Going over the sea (make wave motion with arm)
I JUMPED aboard a PIRATE SHIP (jump aboard, make a sneer and a fist for “pirate ship”)
and the CAPTAIN said to me (salute on “captain)

When I was TWO I tied my shoe (show two fingers, show pretend tying shoes)
Going over the sea (make wave motion with arm)…

You can see where that is going. Just change the first line each time to the next number and an appropriate rhyme! Students love to help think of a good rhyme too…be prepared for some wacky ones though (”five” and “hive” come up a lot).

“The Jolly Postman”

For the Senior Kindergarten classes, I do a language arts theme around the book, “The Jolly Postman” by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. For those who have never read this charming book, it is a book made up of “envelopes”, “letters”, “advertisements”, and other “mail” which help to tell the story of a jolly postman who delivers letters to characters out of fairytales.

This book is a great introduction to the many different ways we can express ourselves through written and pictoral language. The children LOVE pulling out the “mail” from the envelope-pages and helping me “read” it. They are just at the age where they are beginning to understand that letters symbolically represent words, and that words can tell a story. When we are finished reading the book, we create our own tiny little books using the nifty kirigami fold below:

kirigami book

Before making our books, we brainstorm together some ideas for themes. Each child gets their own idea in their head first, and then begins to create after that. This helps them have a specific direction they want to work toward, for example, one child made a Star Wars book, one made a soccer book, one used invented spelling, one wanted to see the words written out to copy them exactly. Each is proud of their creation, and excited for their families to see the super-surprise mail that comes!

We decorate our envelopes, put an address label and stamp on, slide our tiny books in, and seal the envelopes shut. Children are VERY curious how this will go into the mailbox in Old Town, yet somehow arrive at their own house in a few days. We estimate how many days we think it will take. And then we walk en masse to the mailbox to send our treasure on its way!