Literacy

“Oh, The Places I’ll Go” Dr. Seuss Theme

June 26, 2019 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

The storybook “Oh, The Places I’ll Go! By Me, Myself”, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss is perfect for the last theme of the year and end of term class party! It’s the companion book to the Dr. Seuss title “Oh, The Places You’ll Go”, a popular book for gifting.

“Oh, The Places I’ll Go!” is an interactive storybook. It offers many opportunities for discussions and creativity. The topics encourage preschoolers to
-illustrate
-contribute thoughts
-make choices
-learn about resiliency

At preschool, the subjects in the book help give direction to group interactions. Preschoolers are super confident in their verbal skills near the end of the school year. They have so much to share! The book themed topics for discussion make it easy to include everyone’s thoughts in an orderly way.

Art projects, pictures of children, and discussion charts can be displayed at an End Of Year Class Party. This gives all classmates a chance to shine!

“Oh, The Places I’ll Go, by Me, Myself” Theme Activities

Suitcase Printable

Have children decorate a suitcase and add their name to the tag.

Download suitcase printable here.
Suitcase-Printable-1.png

“My Head Looks Like This” Adventure Themed Picture

Create a station with books about our heads, gel felt pens, and a “My Head Looks like This” printable for children to decorate.

Download “My Head” printable here.
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“I Can Steer Myself In Any Direction” Ocean Themed Photo Op

Display a beach scene background on a wall. Provide a self esteem building prop for children to be photographed with. Featured below: “I’m Sharktastic” photo prop.

“A Place I Will Go” Asian Small World

Set out Oriental blocks, an Asian animal set, and some pretend play people figures for children to create Far Eastern scenes with.

“Planet I Would Like To Visit” Chart

Read a book about planets. Set out a planetary small world.

Space themed table diorama with objects to rearrange. — A Space Themed Diorama

Afterwards, document the planet each child would most like to visit.

“My Favorite Way To Travel” Chart

Document each child’s favorite way to travel.

Dr. Seuss Inspired Hot Air Balloon

Have students use black felt pens to draw a large teardrop shape and add a small triangle at the bottom to create a Dr. Seuss style hot air balloon. Display the balloon shapes on a wall.

Musical Instruments

Offer musical instruments and/or have a musical instrument making station.

“Place I Love Most” Circus Small World

Set up a small world with circus performers and props.

“I’ll Be Famous” Trophy

Have children decorate a trophy coloring sheet.

Download trophy printable here.
Trophy-Printable.png

Display colored card stock trophy pictures on a wall with children’s names and a character quality they exemplify.

“I Will Hike In The Woods” Small World

Set out a forest/hiker small world. Balancing a hiker on a log placed across water adds STEM challenge to this sensory activity.

“I Will Move Mountains” Photo Display

Display 8 1/2 x 11 inch color copy pictures of the children building, fixing, discovering, creating, and performing. This is a fantastic way to feature children completing activities offered during the school year.

“Today Is My Day” Banner

Have children decorate a “Today Is My Day” card stock paper banner by adding stickers or sticker jewels. Add a wooden chopstick or sturdy straw for the handle.

The activities featured in this post are just some of the story extensions that could be offered. The possibilities for discussions, art, and small world play using the book “Oh, The Places I’ll Go by Me, Myself” are endless. The book also works well for Dr. Seuss Day.

This book makes a great gift and keepsake. It allows children to think about and document their hopes and dreams over time. The picture book compliments the very popular Dr. Seuss read “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.”

Both books are great choices for having teachers leave personalized comments at the end of the school year.

More Book Themes

For “Just Itzy” storybook inspired spider and nursery rhyme theme activities, click here.

For book inspired tree art, click here.

A Dr. Seuss Craft

For a paper plate “Cat In the Hat” Dr. Seuss inspired craft, click here for one by Glued to My Crafts.

St. Patrick’s Day Activities

March 12, 2019 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

It’s March, but there is still lots of snow outside in Edmonton. St. Patrick’s Day activities and the green color they surround us with are so welcome. Here’s three centers my class is currently playing in.

St. Patrick's Day rice noodle bin with leprechaun hats, green sieves

St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin

Spinach rice vermicelli noodles (broken up)
Green bowls, sieves and scoops
Green buttons, beads and bead garland
Shamrock and leprechaun shaped erasers
Green coins
Leprechaun mini hats
Shamrock ice cubes

The green vermicelli noodles are a great find, as they are “ready made” for this activity.

St. Patrick’s Day Play Kitchen

Pretend play is hands down one of children’s favorite activities to do. When effort is put into adding details to a play kitchen, children respond with delight.

St. Patrick's Day tableware, play food, jewelry and decorations.

St. Patrick’s Day pretend play items:

St. Patrick’s Day themed plates and napkins
Shamrock felt decorations (to use as cookies)
Shamrock felt garland (taken apart to be “pretzels”)
Green and yellow pom poms (play food)
Green and white flowers
Shamrock shaped tray
Green serving utensils and ice cube tray
Shamrock table scatter
Bead necklace
Gold coins

St. Patrick’s Day Creating And Writing Center

The items in this creating and writing center are:

Felt pens in varying shades of green
Shamrock ink stampers
Shamrock paper punch
Leprechaun hat and shamrock tracers
St. Patrick’s Day erasers
St. Patrick’s Day stickers
Sticky note pad
Green stencil rulers
Paper and pencil
Gold coins
St. Patrick’s Day glasses
Flowers and Irish blessing for decoration

For more St. Patrick’s Day activities, click here.

To find out how the city of Chicago celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, click here.

World Book Day Story Book Feature: Just Itzy

March 6, 2019 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

World Book Day is held every year on the first Thursday in March. It is a celebration of authors, illustrators, and books. And it is most of all a celebration of reading.

The impact of the picture book “Just Itzy” spanning my preschool story time, a teacher aide’s home, and three children and their classrooms makes the story worthy of a shout out for World Book Day!

The “Just Itzy” Story

“Just Itzy” is written by Lana Krumwiede and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli. This story was one of the many books about spiders I chose last Fall in gathering resources for a Spider theme. It is an entertaining read about a spider named Itzy Bitzy and his first day of school. In the story Itzy wants to catch his lunch instead of taking a lunch box that had been packed for him. In learning to make a spider web to trap food he becomes part of the nursery rhymes “Little Miss Muffet”, “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly”, and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” By the end of the tale Itzy builds a successful spider web AND rescues his big brother Gutzy who had been teasing him about his “smallness.”

The Story’s Reach

My class enjoyed the story. The teacher aide liked “Just Itzy” so much she borrowed the book from a library for her three children. After numerous readings at home, the story was further enjoyed at her children’s school:

Both grade school children took the book to school to show it to their teachers and classmates.
One teacher had the teacher aide’s child read the book to the class.
The teacher in the kindergarten class ordered the book, and it fit in perfectly with the Fantasy theme the students were working on.

The teacher aide said that for weeks afterward their family would add humor to their day by chanting “Keep your eye on the fly,” a saying Itzy’s “spindergarten” teacher taught the class about never giving up.

“Just Itzy” Story Centers

Spider Small World

This small world has

a play grass base
Safari Toob flowers
different sized toy spiders
a toy fly
a cupcake liner spider web
translucent pipe builders

It is winter in our city at the moment. This activity would be great in the summer using a patch of grass and some real flowers!

Spider Light Table Activity

An opportunity to reenact the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” nursery rhyme on the light table or regular table with

a large plastic spider web
small toy spiders
a toy fly
translucent pipe builders

Most spiders at this center are very tiny so they fit in the pipe builders.

Spider Web Sensory Bin

Items in the bin:

black rice
black rotini noodles
black beans
plastic spiders
loose parts such as buttons, beads and hair ties
spider web made from rope

Toy tweezers would be a work well with this activity.

Little Miss Muffet Spider Craft

Click here for a cute “Little Miss Muffet” handprint spider craft by messylittlemonster.

Is there a story book theme you would like to see featured on the blog? Share below!

For a post on Book Inspired Tree Art, click here.

Book Inspired Calendar Art

October 9, 2018 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

The topics cat, pumpkin, and mouse are delightfully intertwined in the featured storybook and calendar art activity!

Pumpkin Cat by Anne Mortimer

Reading the book Pumpkin Cat by Anne Mortimer gave me the idea for this calendar art activity. In the story two unlikely friends, (a cat and mouse), are paired. Cat wonders how pumpkins grow, and mouse shows the various stages of pumpkin growth. At the end of the story mouse carves out a jack-o-lantern as a surprise for cat. The last page of the book gives detailed instructions about how to grow a pumpkin.

Art Activity

For the art activity, children paint a pumpkin, using red, yellow and orange paint. Color mixing is a part of the fun. When dry, the pumpkin and a construction paper mouse are glued to a calendar picture featuring one or more cats. Preschoolers enjoy choosing which cat picture their pumpkin will be displayed on!