Alligator Story Time: April 1-2, 2019

Books:
Alan's Big Scary Teeth by Jarvis *
Alberto the Dancing Alligator by Richard Waring
Alligator Boy by Cynthia Rylant *
For Pete's Sake by Ellen Stoll Walsh
A Girl and Her Gator by Sean Bryan *

Craft: Paper Chain Alligator
This week's craft was inspired by the above picture with several changes.  Instead of gluing paper tubes together, the children make a three link paper chain out of green paper for the alligator's body.  A strip of cardstock was colored and then folded to make the alligator's mouth.  Two sequins were glued onto it for the eyes.  The head was then glued to one end of the chain for the head.  Four legs were colored and glued to the chain for the alligator's feet.

Extension Activities:
- This week we are focusing on the letter "A" for alligator.  Have your child point out all the "A"s in the book as you are reading.
- Learn more about alligators by checking out a book from the library.  There are several great nonfiction children's books about alligators.

A - Alligators & Apples: January 5-6, 2014

Books:
Ants at the Picnic by Michael Dahl *
Ned's New Home by Kevin Tseng *
One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes
Snip Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman *
Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg

Craft: Alien Headband
Children were given two strips of cardstock (8-1/2" x 1-1/2") to color and glue into a circle for the headband.  They then colored three cardstock eyeballs.  The eyeballs were taped to half pieces of pipe cleaner which were then taped to the headband.

Literacy Extensions:
- Practice letter recognition by having your child point out all the letter "A"s in the book you are reading.  Start with the capital letters.  Then see if they can point out the lower case letters.  Finally have then point out both types.
- Talk about how some letters have more than one sound - especially vowels.  Practice the two sounds - long and short - for the letter "A".

Notes:
This is the first week of our five-month series on the Alphabet.  Each week we will focus on one letter of the alphabet.  This week we read about ants, alligators and apples.  We then made an alien headband as our craft.
Unfortunately, my voice was not up to story time this week.  I only made it through two of the books on Monday before my voice went out.
The favorite book by far was Ants at the Picnic by Michael Dahl.  Although it was a simple listing of everything the ants stole at a picnic, the kids absolutely loved it.

Green: A Colors Story Time - March 11-12, 2013

Books:
Good Luck Bear by Greg Foley *
Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Green Wilma by Tedd Arnold
Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal *
My Snake Blake by Randy Siegel
Snip Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman *
Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree by Jan Peck
Where Is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox *

Craft: Shamrock Necklace
Children colored a shamrock cut out of cardstock before stringing it onto curling ribbon with pony beads.

Literacy Expanders:
- Learn more about the various animals in the Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree.
- Talk about how the sound effects and selected words (i.e. slithered, etc) helped to create tension in the book Snip Snap! What's That?.