Rosie's Walk

If you haven't had the pleasure of reading the book Rosie's Walk, I suggest that you run to your library and find it.The words in this book are really simple and the thing that really makes it special is that the pictures tell a completely different story than the words because it adds more details to what is going on. Rosie goes for a walk and unbeknownst to her a fox is trying to catch her. I used this book to talk to the kids about using the pictures to help us understand what is going on in the story (an important comprehension strategy).



After we read the story, we made our own Rosie the hen. Since it was letter R week we added some pretty red feathers to her tail using tissue paper. We started with this drawing that I did to look like Rosie.


Here's What You Need:

• liquid glue
• tissue paper cut into small squares (maybe 2 inches by 2 inches)
  
• unsharpened pencils
• crayons
• copies of the hen

Here's What We Did:

1. Color your hens.
2. Put a dot of glue on the tail.
3. Put the tissue paper on the table and put the unsharpened pencil in the middle of the tissue paper square.
4. Take the edges of the tissue paper and wrap it up around the pencil.
5. While holding the tissue paper to the pencil, put the paper in the glue and let go of the paper. Lift up the pencil so the tissue paper that is left forms a type of cup shape.
6. Repeat until the surface is covered.

Ribbon Dancing

Who would have guessed that a ribbon on a stick was so much fun? We did ribbon dancing this week for letter R week. It was so much fun that one of our parents jumped in and joined the play when she was dropping of her student.

We listened a lot to the rhythm and followed the slow and fast parts of the music in how we moved. The kids had a lot of fun and it was great watching them enjoy a new way to move. Making these are really easy, it only takes about 5 minutes and can keep the kids busy and happy for a long time.

Here's What You Need:

• 12 inch dowels
• 3 inch wide ribbon of any color
• hot glue gun
• fray check or a lighter
  

Here's What You Do:

1. Cut the ribbons to about 3 feet in length.
   
2. To stop the end of the ribbon from fraying, either put fray check on the end or turn on your lighter and hold it on. While the flame is on, quickly run the cut edge of the ribbon through the flame to melt the edge slightly.
   
3. Put a line of glue on one end of the ribbon.
4. Lay the dowel over the glue and start rolling it.
   
5. Add another line of glue and roll the ribbon more until the glue stops squishing out.
   

Easy peasy!

R is for Riding, Running, & Relays

I told the kids that there would be a surprise for them when they got back from spring break. And SURPRISE! We added a bike track to our backyard. We broke it in with a lot of fun activities like riding our scooters and bikes, running around the track, and doing some relay races. I am excited for a lot more fun as the kids enjoy this addition during recess time!

Letter P is for . . .

. . . Puzzles. It was puzzle mania during centers this week, we had puzzles of all different sizes and shapes.
. . . Puppets. For more information on our puppet fun, check out our post found here.

. . . Puppy Patterns.

We made patterns using little plastic dogs this week. Essentially you could make patterns out of anything that you have a lot of in different shapes or sizes. (Buttons, noodles, blocks, plastic toys, etc.) Since it was letter P week, we used puppies. I made strips of papers with patterns using the colors of the dogs. They matched each dog to each color. At the end, the kids had to figure out which puppy came next. Then, they had a strip with no colors where they could make their own pattern (or maybe just play with the puppies : )

. . . Popcorn!
. . . Pepperoni Pizza! We made some for snack and sang the song, "I Like to Eat Pepperoni Pizza."

. . . Pretty Pennies! We shined pennies to make them nice and Pretty.

Here's What You Need:
4 tbsp Vinegar
1 tsp salt
vegetable oil
rags

Here's What You Do:
1. Mix together the salt and vinegar in a small bowl.
2. Drop in your pennies. If your pennies don't become instantly clean, stir them a little with a wooden spoon.
3. Polish them with the rag and a drop of vegetable oil.

Puppets & Pigs

You have never seen one of life's greatest joys until you have seen a puppet show put on by 4 year olds. Oh. My. Goodness. It was adorable and cute and funny. I loved being able to just sit and watch their little personalities shine through.

And I love how my 3 year old class did not understand the concept of hiding behind the curtain. Their little eyes peeking out are just so fun!


I made this puppet theater and did a Three Little Pigs puppet show for the kids for letter P week. The theater was actually pretty easy to make. I followed the instructions found here on wikihow. You basically take a table cloth and cut it apart to make three panels that you hang on a spring tension rod in a doorway. It was really easy because you use a lot of the seams that are already there so you don't have to do a ton of sewing.

I'm not going to include the step by step instructions here because you can find them on the link I posted. I will offer a few tips of things that I learned:

First, the bottom curtain is suspended from the top bar with ribbon. Then it uses a dowel inserted into the curtain to keep it's shape. (See instruction 14 here if you are confused.) Instead of a dowel, I used a light weight valance rod to prevent the bottom curtain from swinging when it was hit.

Second, a basic table cloth isn't necessarily long enough to do a proper curtain so I just added a few strips of cloth to the bottom to make it a little longer. It was really quick and easy and it saved me the cost of having to buy two table cloths.

Third, it was easier for the kids to play when I took down the blue curtain in the background. They felt like they had more freedom and they could see what they were doing.

If this is clear as mud, you can always contact me for help. Enjoy!