Well, here’s a little astronaut trivia . . . The first two men to walk on the moon were Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin. Notice anything? Both men’s last names begin with A. Enjoy the book First Moon Landing by J. Patrick Lewis.

 

Scoop prepared pudding into a resealable plastic bag. Seal the bag.

Snip off one bottom corner and make it a squeezable astronaut treat! 

 

The Fantastic Cutaway Book of Spacecraft by Nigel Hawkes

Here in Space by David Milgrim

I Am an Astronaut by Cynthia Benjamin

I Want to Be an Astronaut by Byron Barton

Zoom!Zoom!Zoom! I’m Off to the Moon! By Dan Yaccarino

 

 

Bears in a Boat: Prepare a sail from paper and glue to the top of a craft stick. 

Fill the middle of a four-inch celery stick with peanut butter. Poke the craft stick into the celery stick. 

Nestle a few Teddy Grahams inside the boat. There you have it – bears bobbing by in a boat!

 

The Sails on the Boat (sung to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”)

The sails on the boat go whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The sails on the boat go whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

All across the sea.

 

Repeat the song using the words below to replace the underlined words in the first verse.

 

The Boat Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta

Ferryboat Ride! By Anne Rockwell

I Love Boats by Flora McDonnell

The Little Boat by Kathy Henderson

My Father’s Boat by Sherry Garland

Sail Away by Donald Crews

 

 

C is for cookie and cow! Read the book When Cows Come Home by David L. Harrison.

Encourage your child to brainstorm a list of foods made from milk. Then chant the sentence below together.

Each time you get to the blank, use a different dairy product to complete the sentence. How long can you keep it going?

“Cows make milk, and milk makes cheese.”   (yogurt, ice cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, etc…)

 

Use homemade or store bought round cookies. 

Allow your child to decorate the cookies using cake decorations to top them with a big letter C!

 

Counting Cows by Woody Jackson

Cow by Jules Older

The New Baby Calf by Edith Newlin Chase

No Milk! By Jennifer A. Ericsson

Two Cool Cows by Toby Speed

 

 

Doggie Directions Game: (This is a canine version of Simon Says.)

Your child could play this with a few friends or even an adult!

Give the person who will be the leader a name such as Dexter or Daisy Dog.

Play the game in the same manner as Simon Says, but say “Daisy Dog says” instead. 

Direct players to sit, speak, bark, lie down, roll over, chase their tails, shake, and so on.

 

D-O-G-S (spell out the word)

Dogs make really wonderful pets!

They like to play. They like to run.

Give them love and have some fun!

D-O-G-S-

Dogs make really wonderful pets!

Yea, dogs!

 

The Adventures of Taxi Dog by Debra and Sal Barracca

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

The Bookshop Dog by Cynthis Rylant

The Five-Dog Night by Eileen Christelow

Little Dog Poems by Kristine O’Connell George

McDuff Moves In by Rosemary Wells

Ten Silly Dogs: A Countdown Story by Lisa Flather

Why Benny Barks by David Milgrim

 

 

Little elves are always busy doing their jobs!

Explore careers with your little elf.

Recite the poem below using a different name of workers in the third line.

During the second sentence in the third line, have your child model (or pantomime) how the object is used in the job.

Continue as many times as you wish . . .

 

I’m a busy little elf and I’m here to say

That I do my job and I earn my pay.

I am a painter. I do my job this way.

And when my work is done, I head home for the day!

 

Prepare a batch of instant vanilla pudding.

Mix green food coloring into one half and blue food coloring into the other half.

Use graham crackers and several Keebler Elf Grahams.

To make the snack, spread the two pudding colors onto a cracker to create green grass and a blue sky.

Arrange elves on the cracker to complete the scene.

Excellent eats!

 

Child of Faerie, Child of Earth by Jane Yolen

The Elf’s Hat by Brigitte Weninger

The Elves and the Shoemaker retold by Bernadette Watts

The Oldest Elf by James Stevenson (Christmas related)

 

A familiar tune with just a few “fox-worthy” changes (sung to the tune of “The Hokey-Pokey”)

You put your front paw in.

You put your front paw out.

You put your front paw in and you shake it (them) all about.

You do a little fox-trot and you turn yourself around.

That’s what it’s all about.

 

Repeat the song, replacing the underlined words with back paw, fox ears, fluffy tail, and little nose.

 

This fox is the child-made edible kind!

You will need one slice of bread, some pimento cheese spread, two black olives, a plastic knife, and a paper plate.

Cut out a large triangle face and two triangle ears from the slice of bread.

Arrange the face and ears and then spread the pimento cheese spread over them.

Slice the olive in half and use those slices for the eyes.

The final touch is the whole olive nose.

 

City Foxes by Susan J. Tweit

Ice Bear and Little Fox by Jonathan London

Red Fox by Karen Wallace

Red Fox Running by Eve Bunting

 

 

Use a few plastic eggs for this activity.

Put a letter Gg inside a few of the eggs. (It can be a magnet letter, written on a piece of

 paper, molded from playdough, or anything else you can think of!)

Place the eggs in a basket. As you begin reciting the poem below, tell your child to pick

an egg from the basket. When you say “three”, have your child open the egg. 

If it is the one with a Gg, have him/her tell you a word that starts with Gg.

 

There is a goose egg on the loose!

Just which one it is . . . is hard to tell.

To find the egg that comes from a goose

We’ll have to look inside the shell.

One. . .two. . .three!

 

These goose nests look good enough to eat –and they are!

To make these sweet treats, melt one can of chocolate frosting over low heat.

Stir in one large can /bag of chow mein noodles.

Let the mixture cool slightly;

Put about ½ cup for each nest onto waxed paper.

Shape into nests and add five or six light-colored malted milk balls or jelly beans.

*Makes about 10 nests.

 

Note: Geese usually lay five to six eggs. They can be creamy white, blue, or greenish.

 

Boo to a Goose by Mem Fox

Catching the Wind by Joanne Ryder

The Day the Goose Got Loose by Reeve Lindbergh

Duck, Duck, Goose? Retold by Katya Arnold

Goose by Molly Bang

The Goose That Almost Got Cooked by Marc Simont

Just You and Me by Sam McBratney

 

 

Teach your child the accompanying hand motions for each line of this poem.

 

Some houses have windows and doors.

   (Trace square in the air.)

Some houses have ceilings and floors.

   (Point up, then down.)

Some houses are small,

   (Use hands to indicate small.)

And some have it all,

   (Sweep both hands upward in front of body, then to sides.)

But the best house, you know, is yours!

   (Point to “you”.)

 

Hide a number of small plastic houses (from a Monopoly game) or cut out pictures from the real estate section of your newspaper.

Encourage your child to find as many houses as possible in an allotted amount of time.

You may want to reward your child with a letter Hh treat such as Hershey’s Hugs candy!

How many houses did you find?

 

Building a House by Byron Barton

A House Is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman

Houses and Homes by Ann Morris

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

My House by Lisa Desimini

 

Before teaching your little one this poem, use washable markers to draw a green worm with two black dot eyes on each fingertip of one of his/her hands.

There you go - - five little inchworms!

 

Five little inchworms were creeping right along.

The first one said, “This is taking much too long!”

The second one said, “I’d rather stay and play!”

The third one said, “Let’s just rest today!”

The fourth one said, “Oh no, we have to eat!”

And the fifth one said, “This leaf could be a treat!”

So they munched and they munched with a “munch, munch munch,”

And the five little inchworms had a very tasty lunch!

 

Pencil a large letter I on a sheet of construction paper.

Provide a supply of green pipe cleaners or yarn cut into one-inch lengths.

Encourage your child to glue the fuzzy little inchworms to the letter I.

 

Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni

How Big Is a Foot? By Rolf Myller

Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy

Twelve Snails to One Lizard: A Tale of Mischief and Measurement by Susan Hightower

 

Bake a batch of cupcakes. Allow your child to frost them and use small jelly beans to make a Jj in the frosting. 

This is just Jazzy!

 

Fill a small jar with Jelly Belly beans. 

Have your child guess how many jelly beans are in the jar.

Count the beans and find out how close your estimate was.

Enjoy eating the different colored beans guessing what each flavor is! What fun!

 

The Jelly Bean Fun Book by Karen Capucilli

Jellly Beans for Sale by Bruce McMillan

 

 

Cut out a large construction paper crown. Look through old magazines for pictures whose names begin with Kk and cut them out.

Glue them to the crown. Name all the pictures and enjoy being the king of Kk!

 

If I were a kite,

I would fly so high.

I would fly so high

That I’d touch the sky!

 

If I were a kite,

I would fly over a tree.

I would fly over a tree;

Then I’d fly out to the sea!

 

If I were a kite,

I would zigzag through the rain;

I would zigzag through the rain;

Then I’d hide under a plane!

 

If I were a kite,

I would fly down to the ground.

I would fly down to the ground;

Then I wouldn’t make a sound!

 

A Cap for Kimiko by Virginia Kroll

Lucky Song by Vera B. Williams

Moonlight Kite by Helen E. Buckley

One Seal by John Stadler

I’m a Little Lizard (sung to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”)

I’m a little lizard

Long and thin.

(Green) is the color of my skin.

I like to live outside where I can run,

Eat little bugs, and rest in the sun!

 

Read A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni

*Change the color for added verses of the song.

 

Amazing Lizards! By Fay Robinson

Chameleons Are Cool by Martin Jenkins

The Iguana Brothers by Tony Johnston

Lizard in the Sun by Joanne Ryder

The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle

 

The Marshmallow Song (sung to the tune of “A Bicycle Built for Two”)

Marshmallow, marshmallow,

I have to tell you, it’s true.

I’m half crazy over the love of you.

I love you in my hot cocoa.

I love you roasted on fire so.

But you’re the best

Besides all the rest

‘tween two grahams and a chocolate bar!

 

After singing “The Marshmallow Song”, it goes without saying that you’ll just have to make those irresistible campfire treats!

Give your child a whole graham cracker and instruct him/her to break it in half.

Have him/her put a section of a chocolate bar on one half and a large marshmallow on the other.

Microwave both halves on high for about ten seconds.

When cool enough to handle, press the marshmallow half onto the chocolate half.

Be fore-warned . . you just might need to make “s’more”!

 

Marshmallow Kisses by Linda Crotta Brennan

 

Crack open some peanuts; then use the shells for a nifty letter N project.

Draw a large letter N on a sheet of construction paper. 

Then have your child glue peanut shell halves along the lines of his/her N.

 

Write the numeral 1 to 10 on separate index cards and fill a large bowl with an assortment of nuts.

Have your child count out nuts to match the number on each card.

 

Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane by Victoria Sherrow

Hopper’s Treetop Adventure by marcus Pfister

Koi and the Kola Nuts by Verna Aardema

Someday a Tree by Eve Bunting

 

Encourage your child to make up movements to go along with each verse of this rhyme about odd looking ostriches.

 

The ostrich is an unusual bird,

So let me tell you why.

The ostrich has two little wings,

Yet he cannot fly!

 

His tiny head sits atop

A long and skinny neck.

He bends it to the ground, you see,

To find bugs and food to peck.

 

With feathers all around his body,

So big and fat and round,

He rises up on tiptoes

When he runs across the ground.

 

But the oddest things about the ostrich,

If I could say a little,

Are his two long, skinny legs

That bend backward in the middle!

 

Read Zella, Zack, and Zodiac by Bill Peet

Invite your child to create his/her own special ostrich.

To make one, cut off the top two inches of a paper plate. Cut and decorate the smaller section to resemble an ostrich head. 

Color the large section on the plate black to create the body. To make the neck, cut out a one-inch-wide strip from the length of a paper towel tube.

Glue small pieces of cotton on the strip (neck); then glue the head to one end of it. Cut the remaining section of the tube into two ostrich legs.

Color the legs; then staple the neck and legs to the body. Finally, glue on white tail and wing feathers.

Have your child attach her ostrich to a large paper bag so it that it stands up. Then invite him/her to use the ostrich to retell this story or to make up

his/her own ostrich tales. Later, have him/her collect O-shaped items in the ostrich bag.

Big Egg by Molly Cose

The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks by Verna Aardema

Ostriches (New True Books) by Emilie U. Lepthien

 

 

This little piggy played piano.

This little piggy painted the sky.

This little piggy played Ping-Pong.

This little piggy baked a pie.

And this little piggy went pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter . . .

All the way home!

Toast an English muffin half for each pizza.

Spread pizza sauce on the muffin.

Sprinkle grated cheese over the sauce.

Add black olive eyes, a pepperoni slice nose,

a strip of green pepper or carrot for the mouth

and triangles cut from ham for the ears.

Bake at 400 degrees until the cheese melts.

 

The Pig in the Pond by Martin Waddell

All Pigs Are Beautiful by Dick King-Smith

Five Little Piggies by David Martin

How Big Is a Pig? By Clare BEaton

Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore! By David McPhail

 

 

Quietly sing this song to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

 

Quiet, quiet, not a sound.

Quiet, quiet all around.

Not a whisper, not a peep;

Every noise is fast asleep.

Quiet, quiet, not a sound.

Quiet, quiet all around.

 

Munch this soundless snack . . .

 

¼ c. mini marshmallows

1/8 c. raisins

l Tbsp. peanut butter chips

 

Mix all ingredients together and chew quietly!

 

A Quiet Night In by Jill Murphy

Quiet, Wyatt! By Bill Maynard

Shhhh by Kevin Henkes

Too Quiet for These Old Bones by Tres Seymour

 

Play this game with your child. Take turns being the rooster.

The rooster decides on an object that is visible to all playing the game.

The rooster says, “Rooster sees something that is (color of object)”. 

The person who correctly guesses the item becomes the next rooster.

 

Use this rhyme to teach your child that farm life includes lots of activity.

Each time you recite the rhyme, invite your child to pantomime a different farm activity.

 

Rooster’s on the roof.

Sun’s on the rise.

It’s time for me

To open my eyes.

 

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Oink. Baa. Moo.

Get up. Get going.

There’s so much to do!

Cook-a-Doodle Doo! By Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

Cock-a-Doodle Moo! By Bernard Most

How the Rooster Got His Crown by Amy Lowry Poole

Rooster’s Off to See the World by Eric Carle

Silly or serious, these sock puppets invite creative letter Ss fun!

Use a clean sock and slide a small paper cup into the toe of a sock.

Show your child how to make the appearance of a mouth in his/her puppet

by putting his fingers in the paper cup and his/her thumb in the heel section of the sock.

Decorate the puppet with wiggle eyes, puff paints, and other assorted craft supplies that you have on hand.

 

Edible socks? Well, just this one time!

Cut out a sock shape from a large soft tortilla. 

Spread cream cheese on the sock cutout.

Decorate the sock with thinly cut vegetables, cold cuts, and cheese.

You can roll up the sock before eating it if you’d like!

 

Caps, Hats, Socks, and Mittens by Louise Borden

Fox in Socks by Dr. Suess

Socks by Janie Spaht Gill

Whose Socks Are Those? By Jez Alborough

 

Your little one will pounce on this art activity!

You will need a nine-inch paper plate, two large wiggle eyes,

six white pipe cleaner pieces, scraps of black and pink construction paper,

glue, and orange fingerpaint.

To make the tiger, fingerpaint the paper plate orange.

When the paint is dry, make thick stripes across the plate with glue.

Cover the glue with small, torn pieces of black construction paper.

Tear two large ear shapes from black construction paper and glue them to the rim of the plate.

Then tear a nose from pink construction paper and glue it onto the center of the plate.

To complete the tiger, glue on the wiggle eyes and pipe cleaner whiskers.

 

Grab the tiger by the tail with this terrific tiger treat.

Insert a craft stick into a banana half.

Spread softened, orange-tinted cream cheese over the banana.

Then wrap a long string of black licorice around the banana to create stripes.

A snack to satisfy the greatest of growling tummies!

 

Horace by Holly Keller

I Don’t Want to Go to Bed! By Julie Sykes

My G-r-r-r-eat Uncle Tiger by James Riordan

Tickling Tigers by Anna Currey

 

Make some unique underwater art!

Use a clean baby food jar.

Have your child fill the jar with blue-tinted water and then sprinkle in her choice of

sequins, bits of Mylar wrapping, and plastic or metallic confetti.

 

The secret to this simple snack is the presentation!

Give your child a clear plastic tumbler and some fish and shell stickers.

Have him/her attach the stickers to the outside of the cup.

Then pour blue Kool-Aid into the cup.

Invite your little one to drink in the resulting underwater scene-

first with their eyes, then with their mouths!

*Best when served with fish-shaped crackers!

 

Look Who Lives in the Ocean by Alan Baker

My Home Is the Sea: Who Am I? by Valerie Tracqui

My Visit to the Aquarium by Aliki

Swimmy by Leo Lionni

The Underwater Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta

 

Decide on a definition of a village . . . a small group or community of homes.

Draw a person outline on a piece of paper. Use various art supplies that you have

on hand to decorate the pattern to resemble a village worker of his/her choice . . .

(baker, butcher, tailor, peddler, cobbler, weaver, doctor, postmaster, innkeeper).

Then glue a craft stick handle to the back of his/her puppet.

Use these puppets as props for the Village Workers song below.

 

Sing this song to the tune of “London Bridge”.

 

The village baker bakes the bread,

Bakes the bread, bakes the bread.

The village baker bakes the bread,

Village baker.

 

Additional ideas:

Butcher, cuts the meat

Tailor, sews the clothes

Peddler, sells his wares

Cobbler, makes our shoes

Weaver, weaves a basket

Doctor, makes us well

Postmaster, gives us mail

Innkeeper, rents a room

 

Appelemando’s Dreams by Patricia Polacco

Daisy Rabbit’s Tree House by Penny Dale

Ogbo: Sharing Life in an AfricanVillage by Ifeoma Onyefulu

Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

A Village Full of Valentines by James Stevenson

Encourage your child to work up some actions to go along with this walrus rhyme.

 

Waddle like a walrus,

Step, two, three.

Show your tusks,

As long as can be.

Wiggle your whiskers.

Flap your flippers.

Then ready, set, dive

Into the deep blue sea!

 

Give your child a yarn worm for this game. 

Walk around your house looking for things that begin with Ww.

If your child finds something that begins with Ww,

he/she should wiggle the worm in the air.

 

How many things did you find?

 

Walrus (Nature’s Children series) by Laima Dingwall

The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll

Sing this song to the tune of “Bingo.” 

When you spell extra and you get to the X,

have your child make an X in the air with his/her arms.

After the song, tell something special about yourself!

 

There are some things

That make me me

And really like no other,

E-X-T-R-A, E-X-T-R-A, E-X-T-R-A,

I’m extra special me!

 

Send kisses and hugs all around!

Discuss how Xs and Os are often used to represent kisses and hugs.

Use sponges cut in X and O shapes and different colors of paint.

Give your child a sheet of paper and encourage him/her to print a

pattern to give to an extra special person in his/her life.

 

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Eggbert: The Slightly Cracked Egg by Tom Ross

An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni

Isaac the Ice Cream Truck by Scott Santoro

 

Were are yams grown? In someone’s yard, of course!

Help your child mix up their own individual serving of this yummy yam treat.

Heat a can of cut yams.

Let them cool a little; then drain them.

Give your child a small serving on a plate.

Have him/her mash his/her yams with a fork.

Then have him/her stir in a pat of butter and eight mini marshmallows. YUM!

 

Divide a large sheet of paper into two columns.

Label one column “Yuck” and the other “Yum”.

Add a corresponding frowning and smiley face, if desired.

Then draw or glue a food picture in each column to indicate his/her feeling about the

food. Use as many pictures as you want for this activity.

 

Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole

Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges

 

Zoom into this Zany art technique!

Provide your child with a gallon-size resealable plastic bag and a 10 ½ inch square of white paper.

Instruct your child to slide the paper into the bag.

Then, dip a few cotton balls and cotton swabs into different paint colors and drop them into the bag.

Help your child zip the bag; then have him/her shake it so that the cotton balls and swabs spread paint all over the paper.

When he/she finishes creating the zany art, have him/her remove the cotton balls and

cotton swabs. Then press out the air and zip the bag again.

Display the “Zip-It Art” masterpiece.

 

To make a zoomer, color a toilet paper tube.

Then have him/her cut out construction paper wings.

Tape a piece of waxed paper over one end of the tube and tape the wings to the tube.

Hold the open end of the tube to his/her mouth and “zoom” around the room.

 

Cosmo Zooms by Arthur Howard

Mama Zooms by Jan Cowen-Fletcher

Zoom, Zoom, Fire Engine! By Iain Smyth

 

**Ideas adapted from The Mailbox (The Education Center)