Toddler Art: Numbers

This month's Toddler Art theme was numbers. We read Race CarCount by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and then we did some painting and gluing.

For our first craft, we did some number dot painting with caterpillars and snowmen using black and green paint. The parents helped their child count while they were having fun with paint and using their fine motor skills.

Our second craft was counting cars to go along with our book. Each child had to glue on a different color car to the big number five on their paper. The kids really enjoyed this craft and I found out they are a big fan of cars, inspiring a possible car program for the future.

At the end of craft time, we had a little playtime.

Other Book:

Pop-Up Peekaboo! Numbers

Family Storytime: Butterflies

I am always surprised when I get to this theme that I'm not so wowed by the picture books on butterflies. Either the story is interesting, but too long for little ones to sit to, or they are lacking a good story to it if they are short. I do have my favorites for this theme, but I'm really looking for some new good ones to add to my list.

The books we read were Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert, Don't Worry Bear by Greg Foley, and Kitten's Big Adventure by Mie Araki. The group enjoyed counting the butterflies in Ehlert's book and liked how their was a kitten in Araki's book. 

I told the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar using flannelboard pieces and they all helped me put the food pieces onto the board. 

We also counted some colorful butterflies on the flannel board and went over each of their colors. 

For our craft, we made butterflies out of paper plates. They all turned out very pretty, but we needed to staple some of the wings together because the paper plates wouldn't stick too well to the the construction paper. 

Let's flutter into spring!

Family Storytime: Spring

Spring storytimes started off really well with a big turnout. I had some new faces and some regulars. Since we had some new kids and it was the beginning of a new session, it was time to go over what we do in storytime. After that, some of us got introduced to the bean bag song and then it was time for our first spring story.

When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes is a perfect story to go along with our theme and has such beautiful pictures. I think any books by this author works well for a storytime. 

 

After we learned a little bit about what makes the season of spring, we counted tulips using a rhyme on the flannel board and went over each of the colors. 

And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano was our next book. I liked how this book had a different style of artwork compared to Henkes and went over the brown colors of winter turning into the green colors of spring, which is one of my favorite parts about the season. 

Next, we all helped tell the story of The Spotted Caterpillar on the flannel board. I handed out red, blue, and yellow felt dots for the kids to put on our caterpillar once they heard their color in the story. This is always one of my favorite flannel board stories to use for a spring/flower/butterfly theme. It's about a caterpillar who eats red, blue, and yellow flowers and has spots appear on him after he eats them. The kids love putting their pieces up on the board. 

With such a big group and diverse ages, we were getting a little antsy so it was time for a quick book that would grab their attention and then our craft. I thought Abracadabra, It's Spring! by Anne Sibley O'Brien would do the trick. Some of the group helped saying the magic words with me in the story and enjoyed seeing the pages unfold.  

 After some upcoming program announcements, it was time to have fun making a construction paper and tissue paper flower. Boy, were these colorful and the group enjoyed making each of their unique flowers.

Happy Spring!