A cool collection of Cc activities

 Let's continue our letter Cc explorations! (If you missed the first installment, see it here.)

Activity #6 Castle and Sun collage creation.

Castle and Sun is a famous painting by Paul Klee (pronounced Clay) that I like to show the children during our letter Cc week.  The colors are bold, and it's made entirely of geometric shapes, so it's perfect to review squares, rectangles, triangles and circles.  What shapes can they see in the picture?  What does it look like to them?  Are there any doors or windows?  Turrets? (Use those great vocabulary words, you'll be amazed how many your children remember and use correctly!)

After we look at the picture, we build (construct!) castles with blocks, and I ask which part of their castles they build first.  Turns out you start at the bottom and work your way up - a concept I want them to think about BEFORE we make our paper collages.

 Check out all the geometric shapes in our blocks, just like we saw in Castle and Sun.  Hmm... what shapes do they see?

Finally I give the children a pile of squares, rectangles and triangles plus 1 circle (the sun), and they construct a collage from the bottom of the page up.  They already know the sun goes up in the sky, they're pretty smart you know!

If you and your child are practicing shapes, you might also like these hands on learning activities I've created.  This is Sorting and Drawing 2D Shapes:

 ...and this is Patterns with 2D Shapes. 

But wait, there's more! (Sesame Street wasn't the only TV I watched.)  Activity #7: Cat hats

Get ready for cuteness overload with this super simple cat hats!  I took a sheet of black construction paper and cut a long strip to go around each child's head.  (Pro tip, when you staple it, make sure the smooth side of the staple is on the inside against your child's head so it doesn't poke, scratch, or snag their hair).  We cut out and glued / stapled the nose and ears on, then crept around or crouched like cats.  Too cute! 

 Watch a quick how-to video here.

Activity #8 Painting with toy cars.

Paint or stamp pads + cars + paper = happy children.  It's easy, it's fun, why not?

Activity #9: Cow collage.  

The link above is to the French language site where this adorable cow idea came from.  You may think this multi-step art project will be too much for your littles, but the artistic ability of children has often amazed me!

Step 1: Children use crayons to draw flowers around the edge of their page.  It's important to use crayons because the next step is...

Step 2: Watercolor paint resist.  Children paint over the entire paper with one color of watercolor paint.  Look how the crayons resist the water, and it soaks into the paper around them, leaving the crayon pictures beautiful and bright!

Step 3: When the paper is dry, cut a rectangle from brown paper.  Have your child draw a smaller rectangle to cut out (the space between the cow's legs), then cut along the lines to make the cow.  From the little scrap rectangle they can make a tail.  Provide scraps of another color to make the rectangle nose and mouth (there are those shape words again!), plus horns and a tuft on the end of the tail.  They can add white circles for the eyes, and add the details for the face.  It's amazing to me that these were made by 3-5 year old children!  

I'd also love to see what YOUR child makes - if you post on social media, please tag me @paulabeckerman2399 or on FaceBook Paula's Primary Classroom.

 Activity #10 Songs!

We HAVE to have songs, right?  For Grandfather's Clock I like to tap rhythm sticks.  As they recite this rhyme children get to experience 3 different tempos for the music, and they're practicing self restraint to match my speed.  If you don't have rhythm sticks you can get the same effect with a couple of wooden spoons, or a pair of chopsticks.  Get creative!

 While you have your sticks (or improvised instruments) out, let's tap on our shoes for Cobbler Cobbler.  A cobbler is a job we don't see often any more, it's what we call someone who makes and fixes shoes.  We practice tapping to a rhythm, and the concepts of up and down in this fun rhyme:

Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe,  (tap on your shoes)

Have it done by half past two.

Stitch it up,  (tap sticks above your head)

Stitch it down,  (tap sticks on the floor)

Make the finest shoes in town.  (tap on your shoes)

Sneaking Cat Rhyme is one I found on Literary Hoots Cat Storytime.  Check it out, there are LOTS more fun cat rhymes and activities for cat loving children to enjoy!  It can be made even more fun by wearing the headband from activity #7.

 What other children's songs and rhymes can you think of for the letter Cc?  Let me know in the comments, and maybe I'll record them and add them to my YouTube channel for you!

 

A Delightful New Book and More Wonderful Cats

There are so many wonderful children's books around, yet it's always a delight to discover a new one! I'm lucky to have come across several really special new books lately, and I hope to share more of them with you another time, but today I'm thinking of one in particular: They All Saw A Cat, by Brendan Wenzel.

In the story a cat walks through the world, and is seen by a child and a variety of animals.  Each one sees it differently, depending upon their perspective and their way of seeing.  What a fun way to introduce the idea of perspective!  You can see and hear the whole book in this short video!

I also found an adorable song version of  this book on YouTube.com, and I can't wait to use it with preschoolers!  This book is destined to be one we'll read to children for years to come.

 Which got me to thinking about other cat books that I love.  No list of cat books would be complete without a mention of Pete the Cat, everyone's favorite blue cat!  If you haven't met Pete yet, stop by your library and check him out.  There's several books about him, and you can't go wrong with any of them!

I've also pulled out some of my personal favorites for this blog post.  Did you ever learn the song Senor Don Gato?  I learned it in Primary School in the 1970s, and had forgotten all about it - until I spotted a book version of it by John Manders several years ago.  Spoiler alert, Don Gato falls from a rooftop and dies, but he is revived by the smell of fish.  I love it, all my students have loved it, and you can find the tune for it easily, but you'll want to consider your audience before sharing this one.

I love the book Grandma's Cat, by Helen Ketteman to introduce children who don't have pets to what it is like to have a cat.  The little girl in the story wants very much to play with Grandma's Cat - so much so that she doesn't pay attention to the cat's body language, and ends up getting scratched.  Grandma helps the child learn how to be gentle and patient, and there's a satisfyingly happy ending. 

For the even younger crowd, I love the interactive Cat, by Matthew Van Fleet.  I first "met" his books when my first born was about a year old, and they are irresistable!  Each page includes textured pieces, but my favorite thing about this moving parts book is that it is designed to be played with by toddlers.  It is STURDY, so small people can push and pull the tabs without destroying the book.

I included the Eric Carle classic, Have you Seen My Cat? because of the lovely illustrations and repetitive text.  Even the youngest children will be able to "read" this book to you, making it a valuable addition to your child's bookshelf.

The last book on my list is done completely in black and white: Kitten's First Full Moon.  Poor little kitten is thirsty, and the moon looks just like a bowl of milk... but how to get to it?  You'll be rooting for this sweet kitten from page one!

Happy reading!
Paula

Dogs and Cats themed Stories - Fun!

This week Ms. Debbie and I thought we'd have a dogs and cats themed story time.  There are so many awesome children's books that star our furry friends, the hard part was choosing which books to read!  To make this day even more special, we had visitors from our local shelter join us - 2 cats and a dog, and all available for adoption!

Real furry friends is a wonderful start, but if you've been reading this blog, you know we like to offer a LOT of fun learning experiences.  This week we also counted the letters in some popular dog names, and put the corresponding number of doggy bones into doggy dishes.

We also counted buttons - groovy buttons - to put on Pete The Cat's shirt.  (I drew the Pete shape, made copies, and wrote numbers 3-9 on them.)  Fine motor and counting skills anyone?

The library has some beautiful doggy counters, so we put those out with a suggestion to find ways to sort them.

Of course, some friends enjoyed pretend play with them (I think they are kissing!),

some friends lined them up (another common way for young children to explore materials),

and some sorted them.  I feel so sorry for this little blue dog - it looks like the yellow dogs aren't playing very nicely!

Our final activity was another super messy one, but SO incredibly worth it.  I know I've said before that something was my favorite, but.... this was really my favorite! 

 We reenacted the story of Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes, by James Dean and Eric Litwin.  If you haven't heard it performed by Eric Litwin, you are missing something special!  In the story, Pete steps in strawberries, blueberries, mud and water, and his shoes change colors each time.  We chose to use paint instead of fruit and mud, but the results were similar!

Between the trays of paint and bucket of water, I rolled out some paper for the kiddos to walk on and make their own little foot prints.  They loved it so much, and repeated it so often, we saturated and tore up not only the first set of paper, but a second as well!  There was much washing of feet, and a few families even came prepared with a change of clothes - and there were so many smiles!  Even better, perhaps, was hearing our families talking about doing this again, at home!  (To see how I did this activity in my home-based preschool, check out this blog post.)

After the kiddos left, Ms. Debbie and I snuck out for a quick play in the paint too.  I truly thought that would be the end of this particular story.

Post Script: When I got in the shower later that day, I discovered blue tempera paint under my toe nails.  If that's not proof that I'm an early childhood teacher, I don't know what is!  But like Pete says, "It's all good!"