Numbers, numbers, everywhere!

So, your children are ready to begin counting?! First, you want to start with one-to-one correspondence ... touching each object as you count and associating the oral number with a bunch of objects. As you are counting blocks, touch and say, "one, two, three - I have three blocks!" You should see your child copy this behavior, after some modeling. Then, play games to see who has how many - I have three cars, how many do you have?

After children understand that groups of objects can be assigned a word (numbers), show them what numbers look like! Show numbers in text and play a find the number game. There are many counting books available, with fantastic illustrations, to help generate interest! Whatever your child is interested in, there is probably a book that shows counting and numbers related to it! Eric Carle's wordless book, "1, 2, 3, To the Zoo!" is a favorite to start with. Look for Dinosaur counting books, books with fairies, etc., ... there is something for everyone! "Over in the Meadow" and the "Five Little Monkeys" books are favorites for rhyming songs with numbers. 

When your child is ready, look for numbers in other printed material, such as newspaper flyers and mailers, and make separate collages of each number - work on one number at a time. Use Legos to "build" the number and talk about how it is formed. Play some silly finger plays like "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree" to reinforce the number names, too!

When you're ready for hands-on number making practice, use the different letter forming fun tricks mentioned in former posts! You can also find heavy-duty plastic paper protector sheets for 8 1/2 by 11 paper and make some templates to slip in. Then, practice with dry erase markers to your heart's content :) Some children like to practice using a Rainbow Write technique, which is to form the number with a pencil very nicely, and then go over it for repetition with many colored pencils. 

Take it step-by-step and only introduce the next step when your child is ready. Frustration is the last thing you want your child feeling! Have fun!

Reading Treat: Very Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salad

Celebrate Eric Carle's birthday this week (July 25, 1929) by making a beautiful fruit salad with your little ones!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, is a favorite of children all over! This adorable book has the recipe right in it's pages, so sit down and read it again with your child to get started. Make sure you have a paper and writing tools ready, so you can help your child spell each ingredient ... getting some letter and number practice in while you do! (Only the first five fruits should be added - after that, you might get a bellyache like the caterpillar!)

When you have your list, check off what you have in the kitchen and then make a trip to the produce/grocery store. Your child will want to help find the ingredients, weigh them, and purchase - great lessons all the way around!

Make sure to wash all the fruits before using and cut up (with supervision or adult intervention) into small chunks. Add a little citrus, orange or lemon, to keep it fresh.

Now, enjoy your Very Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salad as a treat or as part of your meal!

Have fun!

Eric Carle's Birthday Bash!

All kinds of fun from my friends at "An Amazing Child" - they have set up a link to gather ALL these great ideas - check them out!

Start Spring with Eric Carle books!

To get started, gather some books written and/or illustrated by Eric Carle - there is a great list on his website: www.eric-carle.com . Check out similarities, artwork, colors ... go on a few picture walks. Choose a few books to read and show your children that some of the books have specially-cut pages and need to be treated, as all books do, with special care!

I like to tell the little ones that someone named Eric wrote these books for them – and other children! I tell them his whole name and describe how he is sitting somewhere in a workshop/office planning even more stories – right now! I describe the process in simple terms for them and then we get started looking at some of the books – it helps them connect in a special way. (I also tell them that they, too, can be story-tellers or authors!)

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is a well-known book that is fun for all ages! (counting and days of the week are part of the book!) 

When you're done reading, make one of these:  (1) Egg carton caterpillars from half of an egg carton – paint and attach eyes and chenille stick antennae.

(2) Thumbprint caterpillars - use as many colors and make it as long as you want! 

(3) Super-simple paper-cup print caterpillars! Use the top edge of a small cup to dip in paint and make your caterpillar -  go over circle shapes, too! 

(4) If you’re really ambitious – here's a multi-part project: Have children paint clothespins to look like a caterpillar. Separately, make coffee filters into butterfly wings by coloring with markers (try for symmetry) and dripping drops of water to make them bleed. Let dry and set aside. Paint paper rolls brown to make cocoons. Make a big deal about putting the caterpillars into the cocoons and waiting – maybe a week or so - but it's hard to wait(!) When the kiddies aren’t around, clip your wings onto the clothespins to make butterflies and roll back up into the cocoons – when you are ready, the butterflies can emerge for the cocoons.

Another favorite,“The Very Lonely Firefly,” is a book with a great message and one kids love – and get! Fireflies are fun to make – paint craft sticks with glow-in-the-dark paint, attach eyes and pretty tissue paper wings – when they are all dry, you can turn the lights off and have your fireflies find their friends!

“The Grouchy Ladybug” is also fun to do with kids – they pick right up on the repeating lines and LOVE to join in -with attitude - on the ladybug’s lines. It combines time of day (the o’clocks) and size (increasing animal sizes) with lots of animal names – fun! List the animals to practice recall - a great literacy extension. Make a ladybug and go over symmetry in nature as a science extension – use a paper plate or card stock and attach wings with a fastener – make sure your dots are equal on each wing!

Check my previous post "I Love Eric Carle!" for more ideas!  Have fun!

I Love Eric Carle!

I LOVE Eric Carle's stories - his messages, style and illustrations are so comforting for children - and so interesting! There are lessons in every story, whether it is about colors, numbers, time, feelings ... all wrapped in beautiful language and outstanding collage pictures.

You are probably already familiar with some of Eric Carle's stories - "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", "The Mixed-Up Chameleon", "The Grounchy Ladybug", etc.  There is a link to his website at the bottom of my page for a complete list!

Doing an "author study" on Eric Carle with younger children is easy, fun and exciting - after reviewing his books and style, I am always amazed at how much they remember. See my blog entry "Get Into Books" for ideas of how to start your author study and make sure to spend time examining the illustrations!

After you have read and reread the books, examined the pictures and found some favorites, get ready to create! Eric Carle's style of illustration is fun for kids is try themselves ... and here's how:

First, prepare some paper ... using paint, crayons, construction paper, tissue paper ... whatever you have on hand! You will need to make your paper in different colors and patterns. Try blue paper with horizontal yellow lines and green paper with brown swirls on it - make all different colored backgrounds paired with many different patterns or designs! Eric Carle uses tissue paper and paint (there are directions on his site) but I have found that, when working with younger children, thicker paper holds up better for this. If you have a few children working on this, tear completed sheets in quarters and swap for lots of variety!

When your paper is all patterned, you can plan your shapes. Think about what you want to make and then decide what shapes you might need to make that object. For example, an animal - a horse! You will need a body, a neck, head and legs, as well as any decorative parts. This is a great opportunity to go over shapes and even to use stencils or tracing materials to practice with. Freehand, of course, is a great option, too! You can either cut or tear your paper into the shapes you need and then assemble them on paper.

I made a teddy bear using many different circles and a house with some squares and triangles ... what will you make?

So .... this is how Eric Carle makes his illustrations - and now you can too!

The most important thing is to use your creativity - everyone has some! And have fun!

Get Into Books!

Reading stories together is a wonderful way to spend time with your child – stories open up doors into new worlds, increase vocabulary and reading together is a great sharing time. So, take it a step further! Young children can learn many things from exploring authors more in-depth - and, teachers and parents can pick up a thing or two as well! Besides reading just for enjoyment, which is wonderful, there are many components of early literacy to explore, such as rhyming words, repeating lines and parts of a story. There are also varied methods of illustration to discover.

Here's the plan: Pick out a favorite author to explore - one that your child is already familiar with would work well - and assemble a group of books from the public library, your own library, or borrow from friends.

Over the course of a few days, take a "picture walk" through each book, browse the books (thumb through without too many details), and read each book more than once. Give your child the job of "noticing." "Noticing" will get them involved in the book (book “detectives”) and encourage them to look for rhymes, characters, illustration techniques, and repeating sounds or words. “I heard something that rhymes with “blue” – did you hear it?” or “I keep hearing the same word in this story … what do think it is?”

Ask your child to find the name of the main character, which will be repeated in the book, and see what letters are in the character’s name. Notice what things are the same about the author’s books – and what are different! “Eric Carle seems to have a lot of animals in his books – let’s check them all and see!” or “’The Cat in The Hat’ has a lot of rhyming words – let’s see if the other Dr. Seuss books do, too!”

Look for similarities in the illustrations that carry over from book to book with different authors and illustrators. Dr. Seuss books have a very particular style of illustration and are fun to look at! Eric Carle books have a paper collage style that is easily identified, while Margaret Wise Brown’s books, “Goodnight Moon” and “The Runaway Bunny” have some shared illustration that good noticing will pick up!

Check out author websites and look for extension activities – there are often coloring sheets, puppet outlines, project ideas, etc. on these sites! I have links to a few at the bottom of my blog page. Extend the book with conversation as well – discuss your favorite part of the story or your favorite character, modeling for your child a deeper interest in what is going on between the covers of the book. Open up the world of reading – and writing – for them, by asking what they would change or do next in the book! Spend time … and have fun!