Thursday, January 31, 2013

Story Time Review

Purple is...
This week we continued our lessons on colors with an exploration in purple. We read The Perfect Purple Feather by Hanoch Piven, Purple Pride by Chrisianne Jones, Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, Purple Little Bird by Greg Foley, A Pig Called Pete by Alan Bowater, and Purple: Seeing Purple all Around Us by Sarah Schuette. I had also pulled the book The Purple Kangaroo by Michael Ian Black but we didn't have time for this one.

We used a simple cut-out puzzle of a purple cow and recited the poem, I Never Saw a Purple Cow. Since our craft involved a whole bunch of left-over die cut letters we used them to do The Purple Letter Hokey Pokey. We also had an activity where I recited a poem and the children used the purple die cut letters to follow the directions. It goes like this:
Put your purple shape in the air, Hold it high and leave it there.
Put your purple shape on your back, Now lay it on your lap.
Hold your purple shape in your hand, Now everyone please stand.
Wave your purple shape at the door, Now lay it down on the floor.

You could actually use this poem with any color. Substituting color names as needed. We sang and moved to the song, Mr. Knickerbocker by Greg & Steve's CD, Fun & Games.

For our craft we did the old stand-by tissue paper "stained glass" activity. For a twist on this craft, I used my die cut alphabet letters and cut the word "love" out of purple papers. Reminiscent of the  Robert Indiana, LOVE sculpture in John F. Kennedy Plaza in Philadelphia.  Then when the children completed gluing the tissue paper to the waxed paper we glued the purple paper on the top before hanging them in the window. They turned out beautifully and I told the children that they would make a great Valentine's day decoration to hang up in their windows at home. Check out that pile of snow outside the window! Valentine's Day is still a way off, I hope we have less snow by then.

Next week: Blue

Michele Schumann
Children's Librarian

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