Wednesday, December 21, 2011

L is for... Ladybugs and Llamas


     Welcome back!  It seems I have taken a mini-vacation, when in actuality; things have been so busy I haven’t had much time to blog!  A couple of weeks ago we covered the letter Ll.  This is a fairly easy letter in terms of finding books and crafts.  Just off the top of my head you could do leaves, lions, letters, lights and lawyers.  Ok, ok, that last one might be hard to create, but I promised a friend of mine from college who is almost finished with law school that he would make my blog during the letter L.  Happy Benny?  I, however, chose instead ladybugs and llamas

          The ladybug letter craft was interesting this week.  Although I had a couple of add-on parts, the bug and the antennae, I think what made this letter look the most like a ladybug was that I colored the letter L red and then put black dots all over. 

Materials:  Index card with capital L, red construction paper cut to look like a ladybug, pipe cleaner to look like antenna, and crayons



Front of card


Back of card


1)    Color the capital L to look like a ladybug.



2)    Trace the capital and lower case Ll on the back of the card.



3)    Glue the lady to the letter L.  Color black dots on the ladybug.  Glue the antenna to the ladybug.


With the older kids, I created a craft out of thin air.  I absolutely love the Llama,Llama books by Anna Dewdney, so I know we were going to create something with a llama.  After a little internet research on what llamas look like, I ended up with this.


I free-handed the llama shape.  I then gave each kid a bunch of cotton balls and had them glue them all over the llama to look like wool.  I also gave each child one googly eye to put on their llama once all of their cotton balls were firmly glue down.  Lastly, I put crayons out and if the kids wanted to, they could draw a scene behind their llama.  Although the whole craft was fun, I especially liked the last part because it made each kid’s llama craft different.
Books this week were an easy pick!  They were also really fun.  I just happened to come upon the most perfect ladybug I could think of.  Five Little Ladybugs by Karyn Henley was great because it was not only a story, but it is actually a finger play that I was able to teach to the parents.  Anything that allows your parents something to take home is always an added bonus in my book!  This book was also perfect because although it starts out spring-looking, it actually ends in SNOW!  Which living in Indiana in December means that we tend to get lots of snow, except this year!  I am not complaining, but my kids are!


As mentioned, the books I chose for the four to six year olds was from the Llama, Llama series by Anna Dewdney. I really wanted to read the Christmas book, however, I waited too long and it was checked out.  So I went with Llama Llama Mad at Mama.  This. Book. Is. Hilarious!  I have read a few others of Dewdney’s, however, I have somehow missed out on this one.  What a shame because I think every person, man, woman, and child, can relate to this book!  Can you tell that I loved it and would highly recommend it?


Music this week was the same as it’s been the past couple of weeks.  I did add a new song called, “Action Dance,” by Kate Kuper and Neal Robinson.  My 2-6 year olds loved this song so much they asked to do it again!  Don’t you love when that happens?  This song and many of her others can be purchased on iTunes.


That seems to be all for this installment!  Next time we will celebrate my absolute favorite holiday, CHRISTMAS!  Come back for some great Christmas ideas!









    


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