This Week at Toddler Storytime: Kittens and Mittens

I posted my version of Mitten Matching last year, but this year I added something new. I made three kittens to go with the mittens, and the kids are having a lot more fun with them. We started off reading The Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone. Then I passed out one mitten from each pair to all the kids (I have a a lot of mittens). I say, "These little kittens have lost their mittens." I put one mitten on a kitten and say, "Did you find this kitten's other mitten?" I repeat until all the kittens have mittens, then take them all off and start again.

When I do this in my three year old preschool class, I put the pieces out during centers so the kids can practice retelling the story and matching mittens.

"These little kittens have lost their mittens. Did you find this kitten's other mitten?"

Flannel Friday: Cookie Monster

I have only used this with two-year-olds in a Mommy and Me class I teach, so I don't have much in way of a rhyme to use with Cookie--yet. The two's just love bringing up their cookie to put is in his mouth (Love with a dash of fear. He is a monster, and that is a big mouth). After each child added a cookie, we all said, "Yummy, yummy in my tummy!"

Cookie is about 20 inches in diameter, so we had some more fun with him after circle time. I put him on the floor on top of a large piece of felt with cookie sheets on either side. The kids threw round felt cookie bean bags at the assortment of targets. I can't sew, so I just hot glued two beige circles together, filled with beans, and drew on chocolate chips. It was all super simple and very fun.

See the original post if you are interested in a craft to go along.

This Week at Mommy and Me: Hey Mr. Snowman

We used Miss Alison's Hey Mr. Snowman to build our snowman. It's always a hit. There are eight kids (two-year-olds) in Mommy and Me, so we have the luxury of enjoying some audience participation. They love bringing up pieces for flannel board stories, and it really helps develop their listening skills. It was white week, so we read The Big Red Ball (and the little white kitten) by Christopher Franceschelli--so cute!

Every other week, we make a color shaker. This week we made our white shakers extra fun by adding a few special ingredients to the ordinary white rice. To go along with our flannel board rhyme, our "I Spy" bottles contained a red scarf, green mittens, black eyes, a carrot nose, brown sticks, and yellow buttons. This is a new favorite project. They really turned out cute.

We did one of my all time favorite projects--kick the can painting. Put a 4.5"x18" piece of construction paper into a coffee can; add a few marbles and few tablespoons of paint; and kick! (envision a gentle, slightly uncoordinated toddler kick). We used blue paper and white paint. I diluted the paint slightly and added a pinch of salt for a grainy/snowy look.

We wrapped up the day with white balloon snowballs in the parachute to I Wanna Be a Snowman by Caspar Babypants.