Night Time Fun!

Books:  

Good Night, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle

Here are a couple of activities that would go with either book:

 

 Glue a 1/2  piece of black paper onto the blue paper to make a "day" and "night". 

 Add stars and a moon to the night sky.  Add a sun and cotton for clouds to the day sky.

 Cut 2 circles, a black and a white (mine were about 8 inches in diameter).  From the black circle, cut a smaller circle out as shown (mine was 2 1/2 inches in diameter).  Lay the two large circles on top of each other, and fasten with a brad paper fastener in the center (be sure to mark the exact center ahead of time).  Glue the smaller black circle on the white circle exactly underneath the hole that it came from.  As you turn the black wheel, the different moon phases will show. 

The Snowman

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman,
Once there was a snowman tall, tall, tall. (reach to the ceiling)
Then the sun it melted, melted, melted,
Then the sun it melted small, small, small. (pretend to melt.)

 

I had a little snowman

He had a carrot nose.

Along came a bunny,

And what do you suppose?

 That hungry little bunny,

Looking for his lunch,

 Ate that snowman's nose. . .

      NIBBLE, NIBBLE, CRUNCH!!

Five Little Snowmen

Five little snowmen standing in a row, 
Each had a hat and a bright red bow !
Out came the sun and it shone all day,
And one little snowman melted away!

The children are given 5 snowmen and a red crayon.  

They color all the bows red.

I then give them a variety of colors, and ask them to color the hats on the snowmen each a different color.  I write their name on the center of the sun, and keep all their pieces in separate zipper sandwich bags.

To play the game, the children lay their 5 snowmen in a row.  They lay their sun next to the snowmen.

We recite the rhyme together, holding the sun above the snowmen on the 3rd line, and turn one snowman over when we get to the end of the rhyme.  We repeat the rhyme again saying "4 little snowmen standing in a row..." until all the snowmen are melted.  We learn about the number zero at the end of the rhyme.

Send the rhyme home with the children.

Write each child's name on their sun.

4 Little snowmen standing in a row...

2 little snowmen standing in a row...

3 Little snowmen standing in a row...

1 little snowman standing in a row...

No little snowmen standing in a row...

We keep their rhymes for a couple of weeks, reviewing it each week.  Finally they get to take them home to play with their families.  I also send home a copy of the rhyme (just in case they forget part of it!)

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Polar B Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle

Show the children how to make a hand puppet of a polar bear from a styrofoam cup.  Have the children cut out a circle approximately 2 inches in diameter to use as the head.  Glue on wiggly eyes, a black pom-pom nose, and draw on the mouth with a black marker. Glue quarter-size circles behind the head for the ears.  Holding the cup upside down, the children can glue the  head to the cup, and add arms (already cut),wrapping the long strip around the body.




Let's sing the song, using the puppets!
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, turn around, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, touch the ground.
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, show your shoe, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, that will do!
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, go upstairs,  Polar Bear, Polar Bear, say your prayers,
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, turn off the light, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, sya "Good Night"!


Continue with facts about polar bears:

• mothers usually have 2 cubs at a time
• are the size of a rat, when born, and weigh only a pound
• a polar bear's fur is not white, each hair is a clear hollow tube
• their fur is oily and water repellent
•  wide front paws have webbed toes
• can swim up to 100 miles at a stretch
• primarily eat seals

 Other Classroom activities:

• We measure in the classroom how big a polar bear is: 10 feet tall, and can weigh up to 1400 pounds.
• (How many children would we have to put together to get to 1400 pounds?)
• We also sponge paint a polar bear, by painting inside the outline of a polar bear pattern.
• We conclude our class by playing "What's That Sound", where the children listen to a recording of various sounds, and find them on their "Bingo" type board.

SONGS

Snack Song:   (Are You Sleeping?)

Where is Blair?  Where is Blair?

Please stand up!  Please stand up!

Thank-you for the snack!  Thanks-you for the snack!

Now sit down.  Now sit down.

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Greeting Song:  (Mary Had a Little Lamb)

To welcome each child, I have an apple with their name on it. 
  When they see their name on the apple, they come to the front, they hold up their apple,   
                    and we sing this song to each child on his/her turn.

Logan came to school today!
school today! school today!

Logan came to school today! 
Hello, Logan!

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Good-Bye Song!  Good-bye my friends, good bye my friends, It's time to say good-bye!   Come back again another day, so we can sing and play!

Pete, the Cat!

Good Night, Moon!

We read "Good Night, Moon" when we are learning about rhyming words.  As we read the story, the children are anxious to guess the rhyming words.  We often read it a second time, so that more of the children can catch on to the rhyme game. 

 For an activity, I give them pictures of objects that come from the story.  We "read" through the pictures together, and they manage to spot the rhyming words.  They glue the rhyming words next to each other as pairs, on a large dark black paper (black sky).  I usually add a note on the bottom of the page explaining to the parents what we did that day.

One Duck Stuck

We read "One Duck Stuck"  by Phyllis Root.  The children were able to repeat the phrase: "Help, help, who can help?"  They always told me the number on the following page, and tried to guess the name of the animals.  I also made cards with pictures of the animals on them.  The children took turns holding up the picture cards as I read the story.

Because we were talking about different shapes, this activity worked well.  I gave each student a sheet of 9 X 11 green construction paper.  I had about 5 lines drawn part way down for the children to cut on.  This would make the "grass".  I gave each student 1/2 large paper plate and 1/2 small circle.  They positioned them for the body and head.  We used rectangle shapes for the legs and a triangle for the beak.  The children noticed I didn't have an eye yet, so I told them to make a circle eye.

Before attaching the duck to the grass, the children colored brown muck at the bottom of the green page.  They put glue on the back of the body and glued it to the green page, leaving the head free.

One Foot, Two Feet

In honor of Dr, Suess, we read The Foot Book.  After reading it, we traced the children's feet on a large piece of paper.  They traced it with a marker.  We then turned our feet into "Feet People", adding arms, legs, hands, feet and facial features.  We have already been practicing drawing our bodies, making sure to add many of these features. It is interesting to see how complete the children draw their pictures.  The developmental growth of each child is visible in the pictures below.