Elephant & Piggie: Are You Ready to Play Outside? Story Time: June 3-4, 2019

Books:
Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems *
Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis
The Nuts: Bedtime at the Nut House by Eric Litwin *
Peek-A-Boo Bunny by Holly Surplice *
Please Play Safe! Penguin's Guide to Playground Safety by Margery Cuyler

Craft: Elephant & Piggie Rainsock
Children colored a half sheet with Elephant on it and Piggie cutout.  They glued the half sheet into a cylinder and glued 3 crepe paper strips to the bottom to make a windsock.  Cutout raindrops and Piggie were glued to the crepe paper.

Extension Activities:
- Take a trip to a local playground.  Go over playground safety beforehand (maybe by reading Please Play Safe).
- Not a Stick imagines all the different things you can imagine a stick to be.  Stretch imaginations by asking your child to come up with different things an object (i.e. - box, rock, ball, etc.) can be.


Template --

Favorite Books of 2014: December 29-30, 2014

Books:
The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water by Gemma Merino *
Duck, Duck, MOOSE! by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen *
Hickory Dickory Dog by Alison Murray *
My Teacher Is a Monster! No, I Am Not. by Peter Brown
Ninja! by Aree Chung
Peek-A-Boo Bunny by Holly Surplice *
Tyrannosaurus Wrecks by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Craft: Dragon
I don't have a picture or template to share of this project as it was hand-drawn.  The kids colored a dragon's body and wings before gluing the wings to the body and then gluing on tissue paper flames.

Literacy Extensions:
- Explore the original "Hickory Dickory Dock" and other nursery rhymes.
- Ask your child for his favorite books from this year.  Have them articulate why they liked certain books and disliked others.

Notes:
I was amazed at how much the kids really liked Duck, Duck, MOOSE!.  I was afraid that it didn't have enough story to go with it.  Turns out that they liked it almost as much as the similarly written book Moo! by David LaRochelle.

Rabbits Story Time: July 21-22, 2014

Books:
The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers *
A Boy and His Bunny by Sean Bryan *
It's Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler
Peek-A-Boo Bunny by Holly Surplice *
What Does Bunny See? A Book of Colors by Linda Sue Park *

Craft: Bunny Mask
The center was cut out of a 9" paper plate.  Two bunny ears were glued to the top of the plate.  A jumbo craft stick was glued / taped to the bottom of the plate.  Cotton balls could be pulled apart and glued around the edge of the plate and the ears to make the bunny fuzzy.  The mask is held up so that you can see the child's face in the center of it.

Literacy Extensions:
- Practice rhyming using A Boy and His Bunny.  See if your child can come up with more activities they can do "with a bunny on their head" making sure to rhyme with "head".
- Explore shadows.  Discuss how shadows are created and then play with making shadows. (i.e. The Black Rabbit)