Toddlebots - February Update

I love to read!  You love to read!  We all LOVE to read!  The Toddle Bots have always been interested in looking at books and love listening to stories. We often use a story as a transition before lunch and we always have a story to calm their bodies before nap, but with February being Manitoba's I Love To Read Month I decided to challenge myself into incorporating as many books as possible into the program!

I'm happy to say that every activity we did this month had a book as part of it, or as an introduction to it.  Some of the Toddle Bot favorites included "Roaring Rockets" (Tony Mitton) where we used cut up shapes to make our own rocket ships.  "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"( Bill Martin and John Archambault) where we made our own palm tree and added the letters to it. When the tree got heavy and the letters fell, we dusted them off and helped them up again! We made our own "Very Hungry Caterpillar(s)" (Eric Carle).  We mixed paint colors to form new colors just like the chameleon in "A Color of His Own" (Leo Lionni) and we read all about feeling in "I have Feeling" (Jana Novotny Hunter) and played an emoji matching game. 

We teamed up with our friends on the Littles side to make cookies just like the one the mouse eats in "If you give a mouse a cookie" (Laura Numeroff) as well as each child on younger floor brought in a vegetable and together we made "Stone Soup" (William Rubel) for everyone to share at snack!

I worked hard to incorporate literature into our traditional Valentines activities as well; we made stain glass windows in our window after reading "Rain Rain Go Away" (Caroline Jayne Church), we read "Llama Llama I love You" (Anne Dewdney) and made valentines.  We read "I love you forever" (Robert Munsch) and made a special Valentines canvas for our families.

 

Once a week the Toddle Bots were asked to bring in a book from home for show and share.  They did such a great job with this!  They were excited to show their book to all their friends and sat so well while we read each childs' book. This was such a great way to hear new stories. (and for Shawna to get new ideas for our classroom library!)

The staff also took story time to a fun level by acting out stories such as; Goldylocks (Robert Southey), Mortimer (Robert Munsch), and MMM Cookies (Robert Munsch).  I used puppets and magnets to tell stories with my own twist on them like Red Riding Hood, The Three Billy Goats, The Three Little Pigs, Humpty Dumpty and Five Little Monkeys.

At circle I found out that the Toddle Bots LOVED interactive books so we read a lot of them, some of their favorites included "Don't Push The Button" (Bill Cotter), "Mix it up" and "Press Here" (Herve Tullet), "There is a Monster at the End of This Book" (Jon Stone), "Tap the Brightest Star" and "Touch The Magic Tree" (Christie Matheson) and "Construction Site" (Sally Sutton).  The Toddle Bots loved to use their fingers and hands to make things happen in the books, and I loved watching as they would touch a color or button and then look back at their finger when something happened on the next page!  I highly recommend "Don't Push The Button" and "Mix it Up" for all children!

We kept track of books we had read by placing small photos of them on the wall and the Toddle Bots were frequently found looking at the pictures, they knew which books had come from home and who brought them, they also pointed out their favorites from activity, circles, and nap!

By the end of the month we had 85 books on our wall!  What a successful show of literature! 

February was a busy but fun month! 

Can't wait to see what March will bring us!