Itsy Bitsy Spider

    


You will need:
2 Ritz crackers
8 pretzel sticks
2 raisins
peanut butter for glue

Directions:
1. put peanut butter on one Ritz cracker
2. add the 8 pretzel sticks for legs
3. top with the other Ritz cracker
4. add the raisin eyes

There are many versions of this book/song as well as the fingerplay.  It's a great activity for counting and learning about spiders or just singing and playing together.

Go Away Big Green Monster

You will need:
Rice cake
veggie sticks or cheetos
1 green grape
raisins or licorice bits
vanilla wafers, 2 blueberries or raisins
Directions:
1. add vanilla wafers to rice cake for eyes
2. add grape for nose
3. add raisins for mouth
4. add veggie sticks for hair

This is so fun for kids to make the monster as you read the story.  They can eat the parts of the monster's face as you read: "Go away...."  during the story.  I forgot the ears!  I would have used licorice bits or squiggly cheetos.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

You will need:
a lunch sack or bottle sack
4 or 5 cotton balls
glue or a glue stick
Teddy Graham bears, gummy bears or small toy bear

Directions:
1. cut the bag so it is about 5 inches long
2. fold over the edges
3. add cottonballs to look like snow with glue

This is a great activity to practice counting with the bears or to practice positional words with young children.  Ask them to put the bear over, next to, inside, outside, behind and in front of the "cave".

Chicka Chicka 1,2,3

You will need:
a few stalks of celery
a few blueberries for coconuts
Fruit Loop gummy numbers

Directions:
1. arrange the celery to look like a tree
2. add the blueberries to look like coconuts
3. arrange the Fruit Loop gummy numbers around the tree

This is a great book that follows the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom format except it uses the numbers 1-100.
Children quickly pick up the rhythm/rhyme of the story and especially the line: "Will there be a place for me?"
It is a great story for learning to count to 20 and also to count by 10's to 100. If you don't want to use the gummy numbers, you can always cut out numbers from grocery story fliers or the newspaper and arrange them as you read the story.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

You will need:
2 or three stalks of celery
a few blueberries
Fruit loop gummy ABC's

Directions:
1. arrange the celery stalks to look like a tree
2. add blueberries to be the coconuts
3. add the gummy ABC's

This is a great activity/snack to go along with the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Children quickly pick up on the rhythm/rhyme of the story.  It's also a great way to practice learning letter names.  If you don't want to use gummy letters, you can always cut out letters from a magazine or newspaper and arrange them around the coconut tree as you read the story.  Children will want to hear this story over and over.

Pete the Cat

You will need:
1 tortilla
6 pretzels
cream cheese or peanut butter
blueberries (about 1/2 pint)
2 peach slices
1 banana

Directions:
1. cut tortilla into a football shape and save 2 triangle ends for the ears
2. spread cream cheese or peanut butter on the tortilla
3. add the peach slices with blueberries for eyes
4. cut pupils and a mouth from a banana slice
5. add pretzels for whiskers
6. fill in all extra space with blueberries
7. Eat!
Pete the Cat stories are great for teaching lessons about handling problems and deciding what is worth worrying about.  "It's all good!" and "Goodness, NO!" are phrases children pick up on quickly and they will chime in as you read the stories.  If you have colored buttons to use as you read this story, it can become a math/color identification lesson as well.

Swimmy

   
You will need:
1 flour tortilla
Peanut butter or cream cheese
goldfish crackers
1 raisin

Directions:
1. cut the tortilla with kitchen scissors in the shape of a fish
2. spread peanut butter on the tortilla
3. add goldfish to cover the entire tortilla
4. put the raisin as the "eye"
5. Eat!
Swimmy is a great story for starting conversations with children about working together, helping each other and finding solutions to problems.  I have used it with three to five year old Pre-K students.