In Minnesota, the first false spring hit us in February which meant the snow melted and muddy puddles were EVERYWHERE. Everyone was covered in mud for days on end, houses were filthy, and children were happy. This led me to my storytime theme – mud.
Books We Read
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
The Bug in the Bog by Jonathan Fenske
The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems
Songs We Sang
The Worms in the Garden
The worms in the garden go wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,
The worms in the garden go wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,
All day long!
Repeat with: sun in the garden shines, the bees in the garden buzz, the plants in the garden grow.
Shake Your Sillies out by Raffi
Early Literacy Tip
Find rhyming words in every day life and play rhyming games where you come up with rhyming words – even nonsense words count when learning rhymes!
On a large sheet of paper, I wrote out some rhyming words from the book and underlined the last sounds to point out how rhymes worked. They then shouted suggestions to some other rhyming words.
Flannel Board Activity
Three Dirty Dogs
Three dirty dogs went out to play,
Splashing in the mud all day.
They rolled and wiggles – what a sight!
Brown, muddy fur from left to right.
I wash one dog till he’s nice and clean,
The shiniest pup you’ve ever seen.
Now that dog is clean – let’s see…
How many dirty dogs are left? Two dirty dogs left for me!
I wash one dog with bubbles and fun,
Now that clean pup makes just one.
All scrubbed up as clean as can be-
How many dirty dogs are left? One dirty dog left for me!
I wash the last dog- rub-a-dub-dub,
Clean little pup is in the tub.
All the dogs are clean-let’s see…
How many dirty dogs are left? No dirty dogs left for me!
I said this rhyme and as I did, I took a muddy puppy, pretended to wash it in the water, and flipped it over to the clean side. I left it up at the end and kids loved playing with this one.
Craft
I did not get a picture of this one, but I had the kids paint a piece of paper with brown paint to act as mud. Then, I traced circles using a play-doh container and the parents and kids cut circles out and glued them into the mud to become a caterpillar. I put out googly eyes and puff balls for extra decoration too.
For a better picture in your mind – see this video from Preschool Vibes.