4.+Picture+Book+Program+1

Picture Book Program 1: Seasons This picture book program focuses on three of the four seasons. The books that I selected for this program are //Leaf Man// by Lois Ehlert, //The Snowy Day// by Ezra Jack Keats, and //It's Spring!// by Samantha Berger. (If //It's Spring!// seems to be too easy for the audience, any of a number of other books could be used. Among them are //Mouse's First Spring// by Lauren Thompson, //It's Spring!// by Linda Glaser, and //When Will It Be Spring?// by Catherine Walters.) Ask the children if they can name the seasons. Ask them to share some of the things that happen in each season. Read //Leaf Man// by Lois Ehlert. I will encourage the children to make sound effects as I read, like whooshing for the wind, gobbling when the turkey is mentioned, honking or quacking when the ducks and geese show up in the story, and so forth. Also, the phrase "A Leaf Man's got to go where the wind blows" repeats several times, so the children may pick up on that and say "where the wind blows" with me after the cue of "A Leaf Man's got to go." We'll also talk about what's happening in the pictures and what animals or objects we recognize on the pages. I'll ask if anyone can tell me what season comes after fall. Then I'll explain that we're all going to sing a song together about fall turning into winter. We will sing the following song to the tune of //Are You Sleeping?// It's a familiar tune, and it allows for the children to echo the words. There is also the opportunity for casual, spontaneous movements along with the song, like small arm or hand motions for wind, falling leaves, cold, and falling snow. It is autumn. (It is autumn.) The wind blows. (The wind blows.) All the leaves change colors, (All the leaves change colors,) Then they fall. (Then they fall.) Now it's colder. (Now it's colder.) Snow may fall. (Snow may fall.) Snowmen, sleds, hot chocolate. (Snowmen, sleds, hot chocolate.) Winter's here. (Winter's here.) Ask the children what they like to do when it snows. I will explain that I will read a story about a day when it snowed a LOT and we'll hear about all the fun things that a boy did during that day. Read //The Snowy Day// by Ezra Jack Keats. After the story, I will lead the children in the following movement activity. After winter, the weather warms up, and it becomes spring. Flowers blossom and grow. Grow like a flower. //(Sit up straight and tall.)// Show me your beautiful blooms. //(Stretch out hands to frame face.)// Grow taller. //(Slowly stand up.)// We see robins and other birds. //(Flap your arms like wings.)// Spring turns into summer. It gets warmer--even hot! //(Fan yourself.)// The sun shines. //(Make a circle with your arms over your head.)// Sometimes it rains. //(Wiggle your fingers down.)// Sometimes it storms with lightning and thunder! //(Move your hand in a zigzag shape for lightning and say "Boom!" for thunder.)// But then the sun comes back out. //(Make sun again with arms.)// Summer turns into fall. The weather gets cooler. //(Wrap your arms loosely around your body and rub your arms.)// The trees blow in the wind. //(Lift arms to be trees and sway gently in the wind.)// The leaves change color and fall off the trees. //(Swoop your arms and fingers down to be leaves drifting down from branches.)// Fall turns into winter. It gets even colder! //(Wrap arms tightly around your body and shiver and say "Brrrr!")// Sometimes it snows. //(Gently wiggle fingers down to be soft snowflakes.)// We can catch snowflakes on our tongues. //(Stick out tongue.)// We can make snowballs. //(Pretend to pack a snowball in your hand.)// We can make snow angels. //(Extend your arms and slowly move them up and down to make the wings of the snow angel.)// The flowers from spring and summer are now just seeds and bulbs below the earth. //(Scrunch down slowly into a ball to be seeds or flower bulbs, smaller and smaller, until you are sitting down.)// In the spring, the flowers will grow again //(sit up straight)// and the seasons will start all over. <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Read //It's Spring!// by Samantha Berger (or one of the other spring books, if it's more appropriate). Invite the children to share things they see in the spring. <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">To introduce the craft activity, I will talk about the fact that some of the things we see in spring and summer are butterflies and bunnies. We will then make stained-glass butterflies using clear self-adhesive paper (such as Con-Tact paper) and torn tissue paper. Each child will get 2 squares of self-adhesive paper. (One square will be plain, but one square will have a butterfly shape already traced on it so the child will just have to cut out the shape after the tissue paper has been applied.) The child will stick torn bits of tissue paper to the square of self-adhesive paper with the butterfly shape. I will help the child add the second piece of square Con-Tact paper so that the butterfly is laminated, and he or she can cut out the butterfly. <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Or we may make an origami butterfly that flutters its wings or a folded-paper (I'm not sure it's officially origami) bunny that flaps its ears. Examples of all three crafts can be seen below. <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">