Ice, Ice, Baby!

Since S is learning about winter and animals in winter this in school, we had a resurgence of wintry play activities at home this week. And what is winter without a bit of ice? I'm not a fan of walking on it and even less so of driving on it, but indoors or outside, I love using ice for play, sensory exploration, art and science!

Ice has been a popular play material here in many seasons over the years. It is safe for play and exploration with all age groups and as such, we often repeat activities from year to year. I highly recommend this approach--you can always learn more and experience new things through repeated exposure and exploration. We kicked off the week with one of my favorite Table Time activities, watercolor painting on ice! I've done this one repeatedly with students and with both boys over the years and it is ALWAYS fun!

You'll need to freeze some blocks of ice in advance (I recommend plastic containers for this) and then simply add in a pallet of watercolor paints and a brush.

Look at this arctic blast from the past!

You can expand the experience with the addition of water or coarse/kosher salt. It is always incredible to observe colors mixing and moving through layers of ice and how they shift and evolve as it melts. S has never lost his fascination with creating black and brown! I, however, was amazed to see how the paint melted through the ice block this year and when I went to tend to cleaning it up, it was back to clear with a painty puddle left behind in the tray!

Y really got into the experience this year and favored using his pointer finger in the paint instead of a brush. He was so amazed at seeing water develop as the ice melted. "Water! Water!" he gleefully repeated again and again in amazement.


Well, if ever there were a time to prove that great minds think alike, this week would be a stellar example. Early in the week, a friend sent a link to this fun ice skating penguins activity from Messy Little Monster. By that evening, my freezer was stocked with tiny penguins trapped in blue ice cubes and I'm not sure whether the fact that my husband said nothing about this should make me feel self-assured or slightly alarmed.

Either way, the boys loved their ice skating penguins at our Table Time activity the next morning. Y is still completely amazed at how ice melts into water. I am so eager and excited to see his young, scientific mind emerge and develop! To set up your own ice skating penguins, you can fill an ice cube tray about 2/3 of the way with water (add food coloring if you wish) and add a small plastic penguin or other small animals/people to each section. You'll want to top off your tray with more water in sections that are still a bit shallow and leave your little critters upright and sticking out. My friend also suggested the idea to use paint in the ice cube tray as opposed to water and turn it into an art activity! I'd love to try this out in the future and cover the tabletop with foil as our skating rink/canvas.

Well, remember how I mentioned great minds think alike? The very same day we took our penguins ice skating in the morning, S got to excavate some more trapped penguins from within a giant brick of ice at school! His teachers set up this fabulous and creative excavation station using a large brick of ice and penguins, a hammer and some golf tees.

I'm not sure if that's some coarse/kosher salt I see in the background and perhaps in the small cup alongside of S--but experimenting with how different substances and settings affect ice is a great way to sprinkle on some science to your ice play!

In previous years of teaching, I've engaged my students in setting up their own ice experiment and exploration. I froze some animal counters in ice cube trays overnight and in the morning, they decided upon what we would use in and around the classroom to explore melting rates of ice into water with the addition of:

• coarse/kosher salt
• sugar
• sunlight from a window
• water

Ice is such a simple (and cheap) and unique material to explore and create with. Winter is a natural season to inspire ice play but don't forget the wonderful opportunities in warmer seasons to cool off on a hot day! We'll be freezing up some more icy fun here in the weeks to come so stay tuned and, as always...

Happy Playing!

Beyond the Book (and Off to the Park) with Denise Fleming's "Time to Sleep"

We were not spared by last week's polar vortex and temperatures here dropped below freezing for several days in a row. It was the perfect time to be learning about winter and animals' behavior during that time--we all felt like hibernating here! S has been delving into these topics in school and I planned that this week we would delve back into some of our Winter Story Stretchers at home.

So, of course temperatures have risen from a frigid low of 17 degrees last Tuesday to a high this past Tuesday of 71! It was the perfect afternoon to go to a favorite park nearby where they recently remodeled the playground equipment. (I actually took Y on Monday to test drive the new slides while S was at school but we didn't tell him...shhhh!) I knew the park would be packed and crowded and that there was only about an hour left of daylight once we would get there. I also knew that very likely the boys would be more interested in the playground equipment than sitting down to a book together, but nonetheless, I packed my bag with Time to Sleep, a beautifully illustrated book about animals preparing for winter hibernation by Denise Fleming, a basket of animal characters and a couple more empty baskets we saved from a family trip to a U-Pick berry farm over the summer.

I'm big on literacy at home and in the classroom. However, I'm bigger on love of literacy than any other area of its development in young children. Reading together doesn't need to be a sedentary, indoor activity in my home (or in my classrooms). Taking books outdoors is a great way to extend the life and setting of a good story! It's also often challenging to get outdoors with our children in the winter months, and while we definitely stayed mostly inside during last week's polar vortex, it feels very important to soak up every bit of sun when we can be outside together. We can teach about winter and animals in winter through direct instruction indoors, but when we take the lesson outside, children can experience and explore the season in action and through all senses and learning styles.

We started our park visit at a picnic table, enjoying a little dinner and S actually asked to read our book. Y was feeling a bit more eager to try a swing, so you know what? I stopped reading in the middle of the book! And that's OK! I have actual memories of playing school as a child and reading a book aloud to my imaginary students when I would realize the book was too challenging for my current reading level or that I was bored of reading it and I would struggle as I put it down with the internal question of whether it was ever OK for a teacher to not finish a book. Furthermore, was it ever OK for a person to put a book down and not read it from cover to cover? I am here today as a fully literate and recovered reluctant reader who has a passion for early literacy to tell you--YES, it is OK to put a book down. Even when you are teaching. Even when you are a parent. Even for yourself. Whether or not you pick it up again later, the next day or never again. It is OK to put a book down.

S found seed pods, acorns (many of them emptied
by something or someone snacking before winter,
even dried corn kernels on the ground, and of course,
many interesting sticks--his current currency of choice.

At first, S wanted to use some items from nature and spaces near the playground to build dens for our animal toys and puppets to hibernate in. Then he saw the new climbing structure and our animals were restored to their cozy basket and hung from the hook on the handle of our double stroller to watch as the boys played, climbed, ran and slid for the final moments of daylight. Then, I did a sneaky parenting type of thing as it was time to go where I trick the kids into doing something slightly educational and lots of fun. I offered, as it was time to go, to go the "short way right to the car" or the "long way, around the pond to walk and gather nuts and seed pods and other treasures in our gathering baskets and pretend the we are going to hibernate!" (See what I did there? Guess which option they picked? Which would you pick?)

Nature walks like this are so valuable in so many ways. We work on skills like observation--where might an animal look for food to gather for winter? How might an animal move about to find things? We talk about the idea of gathering things from nature--leaving what is still alive and growing in a way that we found it, taking only small amounts of treasure for ourselves and leaving the rest of nature in nature (and not taking anything from areas that are under preservation restrictions or private property). We also work on basic safety skills like staying together, being aware of our surroundings and proximity to water or dogs and pedestrians or surface changes.
As a parent of young children, I find it is easiest to keep my boys buckled in our double stroller as we stroll around the pond. I know where they are, no one is running up ahead, there's no danger of falling into a body of still very cold pond water! Those fears grow in size with Y, who has a very different attitude about walking independently in public places than S did at that age. I remember practicing staying together in this park with S and he was so eager to listen when I would say or sing the directions to stop and wait. Y....not so much! He is a young man with a mission. The mission is always evolving. He is also a young man with a visual delay and low vision. Although he has glasses to support this, using his eyes as a resource is not his first mode of navigating the world around him. And he's busy. And fast. At least once a day, I am muttering the words "remind me to thank his physical therapist" through clenched teeth as he ascends to new heights and darts off to new distances... It takes so much energy and focus for me to refrain from constantly uttering the words "be careful!" I want him to observe and navigate his space with confidence. I also want him to be safe. I try to verbalize this in ways that encourage him to observe his surroundings while also maintaining a healthy level of cautious confidence.
For some little ones learning to navigate large outdoor or public spaces more independently, having something to hold and focus on like a gathering basket can be very helpful. Y preferred to abandon the basket and bask in the sunset. We both had a great opportunity to work together on staying together at the park last night and rather than avoiding these scenarios, I will intentionally be pursuing them continually with him (and perhaps toting along a soothing travel mug of tea for myself...)

Y was quite fond of the snail in the book, insistent
upon wearing the finger puppet for most of the
evening. S and I were so amazed to learn that
snails seal up their shells for winter hibernation!

Learning about winter and animals in winter can be such an exciting way to actively embrace a season that is often thought of as barren and dormant. There are definitely barriers this time of year, whether you live in a climate prone to winter weather and especially if you live in one not prone to winter weather. Nonetheless, getting outside and reading--and playing--together is a great way to fight off those seasonal blues and soak up the learning and vitamin D while you're at it. My original plan with this book was to gather the toy animals indoors and pitch our play tent and allow the boys to build dens, nests and sleeping spots for each one and maybe for themselves. I'm so glad that some unexpected sunny days led us outdoors instead, story and story basket in tow. We've left our target book out in our living room library shelf and the story basket set in front. Story drama through the use of small toys, puppets or play acting is a great way for children to expand on what they have learned through reenacting story sequences or adding on their own elements.





If you'd like to expand upon this particular story stretcher, a teacher friend of mine did a beautiful STEM setup using toy animals from the book and a collection of natural and nature-based loose parts for her students to build dens for the animals to hibernate. It's also a great book to use alongside this simple clay sensory bin and play about animals in winter. We've mixed in forest and arctic animals, but you can choose one or the other, or specifically the animals in the book. The clay becomes a perfect medium for observing animal tracks as well as for constructing dens, caves, nests or even igloos.

I hope this leaves you with a bit of whimsy and inspiration. Whether you're indoors and avoiding an arctic chill or outside soaking up unseasonable summer temperatures in the middle of winter, it's the perfect season for reading together and, as always, happily playing!

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Welcome to Our Vet & Pet Center!

We did it again and revamped our dramatic play theme here! Our Ice Skating Rink was so much fun but the boys had begun to slow down with their play about it. I could tell it was time for a change, and even though I had not initially planned to switch things over until after the Winter Break, I decided this was the perfect time to shift the scene. We're home anyway, might as well have something to keep everyone busy and engaged. We are still enjoying our Winter Story Stretchers (and will be back with more in the days to come), but today I want to take you on a little tour of our new Vet & Pet Dramatic Play Center!

Some of our resident pets...
Cutting up recycled magazines or catalogs
can be a great way to make "shavings" for tanks and
cages. Even recycled cardboard tubes or collected
rocks and stones make great accessories and
recycled containers can make great food dishes

Ok, to be totally honest, we're not exactly "pet people" here. We just said so long to the last of our pet goldfish, may it rest in peace, whatever its name was... We love the idea of having a fish or something similar to teach a little bit about caring for another living being and the responsibilities that go along with it. The boys do love looking at the fish and we will likely get a new fish pretty soon. The boys love visiting zoos, farms and even pet stores to see animals. S is rather afraid of dogs and cats outside, but is equally curious about them. He and Y both love playing doctor and having a veterinary center in our play area seemed like a good combo!

I had some help and inspiration from these great resources by Pocket of Preschool:

• Pet Vet Animal Hospital Dramatic Play Set
• Pet Store Dramatic Play Set
• Pets Math & Literacy Centers

I love using credits and taking advantage of sales on teacherspayteachers.com to support other educators while saving myself some time and energy here as I set up play and learning experiences. You certainly don't need these materials to set up your own Vet & Pet Dramatic Play center at home or in your classroom, but it's a great way to gain ideas, inspiration, supplemental activities and a variety of great printable resources to encourage reading, writing, math and organization.

A closer peek at our play area

In addition to the above resources, I included the following in our Vet & Pet Center:

• plush and plastic toy animals such as fish, turtles, frogs, lizards, dogs, cats, snakes, spiders, rabbits, mice, birds, etc.
• plastic shoeboxes and a critter cage we had at home for pet cages/tanks
• recycled catalogs for cutting "shavings" for the bottom of pet tanks (and now my boys will NEVER see the Amazon toy catalog! Phew!)
• rocks, sea glass, gravel, stones and mosaic tiles we had for our "fish" tank
• toy doctor tools
• a real stethoscope
• a scale (we have a kids' scale from Learning Resources, but you can make a pretend one from cardboard, use a bathroom scale or even a food/kitchen scale)
• a toy pet carrier we got as a Chanukah gift, but you can make one from a cardboard box or recycled shoe box
• recycled containers with lids and empty pill containers with labels covered/removed for pretend food and medicine
• I bought some food dishes, brushes, leashes, and collars from The Dollar Tree
• Scrubs/lab coat we had in our dress up bin (both purchased secondhand from a thrift store)
• toy cash register, toy money, toy walkie talkies
• towel, sponges, empty spray bottle, toy scissors, brushes for the grooming station (and even a hose on our toy kitchen sink made from recycled durable medical equipment)
• pencils, pens, clip boards, dry erase markers, notepads, receipt book and printed appointment reminder cards I made for writing
• crepe paper for making bandages, bandaids, cotton swabs, large wooden craft sticks for tongue depressors, toothbrushes, cotton balls, disposable gloves and pipettes for medicine droppers (I raided our medicine closet and craft supplies)
• pompoms for "food" and a scoop--I store these loose in one of our drawers for easy access and the boys bring over containers and food dishes to fill
• books about pets from our local library
• a couple of dollar store calendars with great photos of pets
• transparency paper for printing pet x-rays and light table (optional)

You don't need all of this! You can use what you have and what you can easily and inexpensively get. The only new items I bought were all from the Dollar Tree pet aisle and everything else we already had or it came from my recycling bin.

I love incorporating writing opportunities into our dramatic play, particularly for my early writer. The printable appointment book and groomer check list from the resources listed above are great for this. I also made appointment reminder cards and stuck a blank receipt book and sticky note pad to our toy cash register with double sided tape There's even a role of stickers, because if we like getting a sticker after a check up or hair cut, probably our toy pets will, too! In addition, peeling and sticking stickers and using pens and pencils for doodling are ways that Y can work on the fine motor skills necessary for writing when he's older.

We included a waiting room area and small pet store in our Vet & Pet Center. A plastic lap desk makes for the perfect exam table or grooming table. Some collected supplies from our actual medicine cabinet (like bandaids, cotton balls and swabs, and disposable gloves are a fun and realistic addition for our veterinarians on staff. Crepe paper rolls are perfect for cutting or tearing bandages. We happened to be out of white, so green it is! The boys were especially fascinated by using our light panel to view the "real" x-rays I printed onto transparency paper from the vet dramatic play set I linked at the top of the post. You can probably find images for free and even regular printer paper is generally thin enough to make a great x-ray--especially if you use the cheaper quality!

Well, I am dog tired after setting this all up! I think it will keep us busy at play here for a while. We will be back later this week with more winter themed story stretcher fun and a great multi-day process art activity that is fun for the whole family! Until then...

Happy Playing!

Beyond the Book: "Rosie's Walk" by Pat Hutchins

When S asked to do a story stretcher with a book about a farm, I had a few in mind. Over and over again, I kept going back to the classic tale by Pat Hutchins, Rosie's Walk. Rosie the hen leaves her chicken coop for a little stroll. As she moves about the book through pages of bold illustrations, she is blissfully ignorant of a very determined fox following closely behind her. This book is great all on its own or as part of a farm theme. My favorite aspect of using this book with children is that it can truly get them moving. Reading need not be a sedentary activity--and while you're at it, you'll be teaching and learning some great prepositional and directional language!

A story walk is a great way to take the text right off the page of this book and take your little readers into the world of story drama! S talked last week about wanting to make a bird costume and since Rosie the Hen is the protagonist in this book, I knew he'd get a kick out of making a hen hat to wear. We already had a fox hat from when S was a baby. It is definitely more Y's size at this point and I foresaw that S might feel jealous so getting to make his own hen hat was a definite bonus. Costumes are a great addition to story stretcher activities. They can really bring the story alive and engage your young readers. Alternatively you can use toys/props or make your own puppets. I combined text written on sentence strips and laminated pictures from the book that I printed and laminated from this great website to set up a story walk along our living room floor. When S woke up and came downstairs from his nap, he immediately saw our story map lining the hardwood floor and was excited to add the finishing touches to his hen hat.

We created our hen hat by stapling together a couple of strips of white cardboard. I covered the front with clear contact paper, sticky side out, but stapled a second layer of cardboard to the inside of the hat so it wouldn't stick to anyone's hair! In advance I drew on eyes and attached the beak and waddle--older artists can help with this and even younger ones if you have a bit more time on your hands!

S made a great Rosie and was definitely ready for a walk. Y was a great, albeit sleepy little fox...

Our story walk took us from one end of our living room to the other, with all roads leading to home in our kitchen set, where Rosie arrives safely in time for dinner. The printed and laminated pictures are a great addition to a movable story map like this or can be used with velcro as a flannel board set, made into stick puppets or glued onto a paper collage story map. If you want to take it outdoors, you could even set this activity up outside using sidewalk chalk and/or props. It's unbearably hot here right now, so story stretchers are a great way to entertain us indoors for a bit!

I included a basket of some supplemental
 farm themed reading 

I especially love how story stretcher activities inspire and encourage dramatic play. We happen to have some great farm themed toys and books as well as a felt board set I found at a secondhand store a while ago. Including music and movement to children's book extension activities is also a great way to get moving while building vocabulary, rhyme awareness and other early literacy skills. S and Y both love a song we frequently hear at our local library's story times, "Knock Knock Knock" by Michele Valeri from her album "Little Ditties for Itty Bitties."

 That flannel board set made a great addition to listening to and singing that song. We added each of the animals to the board as they "knocked" on the door and then continued the song on our own with other farm animals. Thrift stores can be a great resource for play and learning materials like flannel board sets. And you can also make your own set by printing and laminating pictures and adding velcro to the backside. Flannel boards are such a fabulous supplement to reading children's literature and greatly appeal to visual and tactile learners. They can also be used by children to retell and invent their own stories and nursery rhymes.

Arts and crafts are another favorite story stretcher activity here. I had set up a couple of simple farm themed activities for S. 

Our marble roll "pig in the mud" (brown paint) was a lot of fun!

S loved sticking cotton balls onto this contact paper sheep. I showed him how
 they can be stuck on whole or pulled apart like sheep's wool.

S especially likes the part where we hang up his finished artwork!

S really wanted to use his scissors today, so on the fly I set up a cutting practice activity to find some hidden farm animals hiding in the "grass:" 

I drew a simple barn on white paper, sneaked a few farm animal stickers at the bottom of the page and stapled on some construction paper grass to the bottom as well. S got busy cutting the grass with his scissors to reveal the hidden farm animals and then colored the barn and some rain in the sky!

I often conclude our story stretchers with a related sensory bin--another great way to encourage dramatic play and theme expansion. I set up this bin with popping corn kernels. For those who prefer not to use food in sensory play, you can sub in your favorite non-food fillers. Shredded brown bags would look great or even hay. Alternatively, you could always use the popping corn for its intended purpose when you're done playing. I store and reserve this for repeated use in our sensory bins as well as craft projects.
For some further reading, I printed out a very simple emergent reader about farm animals from this website. I am not a huge fan of using emergent readers in the traditional sense, however S (like many kids) loves the feeling of reading to me all by himself. Simple books like this and building sight word recognition are one component of early literacy. Some early readers really catch on to sight words and learn well in this way. Others do better with sounding out words and phonemic awareness. There are many right ways to learn how to read, but fostering a lifelong love of literature is the most important goal for me both as a parent and an educator. S enjoyed reading this booklet to me and to Y repeatedly and coloring in the animals. I demonstrate to him the first time how to track his finger underneath the words. Even if he is not yet recognizing words, he is learning that text on a page is where the story comes from! It can be helpful if using printable emergent readers like this one to have a copy for yourself and each of your emerging readers and to sit facing the same direction.

S is excited and eager to be choosing the themes and/or titles for our story stretchers lately and all of these factors are nurturing his own love of literature. We will be back with another story stretcher activity next week. Until then, happy playing!

"Goodnight Gorilla" Story Stretchers: a short stretch for when you're short on time!

 Remember when I thought I wouldn't get to post until after Shavuot? Well, cooking and baking in bulk when I could during the last week and having a lot of help from my husband over the holiday weekend allowed me a bit of extra time. I don't know about you, but around here "extra time" is a luxury! There's always something to be done (and many things undone) and we still need to find time in there to spend with the kids. Especially as we prepare for Shabbos or a yom tov (Jewish holiday), I feel it's so important to try as hard as we can to demonstrate a) a sense of joy (or at least calm) as we prepare and b) to include in that routine time to play with and spend with our children. We want for them to grow up feeling the joy and excitement that comes with a holiday and Shabbos and not just the lengthy list of to-do's and to-don'ts! Additionally, making time to play with the kids as we prepare is also like an investment plan--if we "pay now" and play a bit, we can "save later," when they are playing independently and not acting out because they crave our attention. So what can you do when you're short on time? A story stretcher!

That's right, you can do a story stretcher activity without a lot of preparation time, materials or time to spend! Many of the children's book extensions I've presented on this blog are detailed and lengthy. We have spent entire days taking our learning and play beyond the book and into the playroom, the art table, the kitchen, even outside. We are about to center our entire summer around story stretcher activities and yet, there's no reason at all that you can't include children's literature into your play activities when you're short on time and/or materials and resources. Treat these play activities like working out--you can do a triathlon session with your story stretchers (particularly if that engages your little ones) or you can take a 15 minutes and have a quick stretch. If you're looking for ideas, you can revisit the above links on this blog and rather than doing all of the activities, choose one or a few that interest you. You can find a lot of great ideas on Pinterest simply by searching the title of your favorite children's books. You can check out ideas in books I've listed below. Many are probably available in your library system (either for checkout or in-library resource use) or you can purchase them, often used, from Amazon.

• For Preschool Aged Kids: Story S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-R-S: Activities to Expand Children's Favorite Books by Shirley Raines and Robert Canady
• More Story Stretchers: Activities to Expand Children's Favorite Books by: Shirley Raines and Robert Canady
• Picture Books Plus: 100 Extension Activities in Art, Drama, Music, Math and Science by: Sue McLeaf Nespeca
• For Infants/Toddlers: Story Stretchers for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos: Experiences, Activities, and Games for Popular Children's Books by Kathy Dobbs and Leah Curry-Rood 
• For Older Children: Story Stretchers for the Primary Grades: Activities to Expand Children's Favorite Books by: Shirley Raines and Robert Canady
• 450 More Story Stretchers for the Primary Grades:Activities to Expand Children's Books by: Shirley Raines

When it comes to choosing a children's book for your story stretchers, you can go by ones suggested here or on another blog or in one of the above resource books. Our local library system even puts together preschool backpacks with a theme and corresponding picture books, materials and activity ideas. Perhaps your library has something like this in stock. You can also pull your children's favorite books off the shelf and create activities from there. Story Stretchers are a great way to infuse new life in those books that are growing a bit stale after reading again and again and again...

We spent Memorial Day morning at our local zoo. It is always great fun to visit the zoo and a bit hard to leave (especially when you are going home to a pending naptime!), so I coaxed a very tired S toward the parking lot by reminding him that we would have some really fun activities in the afternoon. Now I just had to come up with those really fun activities...and with Shavuot beginning tonight and cooking and baking to work on, I was short on time. I decided to stick with our theme from the morning and choose a book from our shelf about zoo animals. Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman immediately came to mind. For one thing, the book does not have a lot of text--this would mean even if S wanted to read it again and again and again (as he often does and he did), I could manage it and eventually pass it on to him to read independently. It's also a great book to play about and you don't need a lot of materials to extend this beyond the book:;

Short Stretch: 

Dramatic Play: Goodnight, Zoo! Pull out some plastic zoo animals and baby wash cloths for blankets and you can tuck in your own zoo for the night! We added a wooden barn house we have and S got such a kick out of re-enacting the story with our animals and tucking them in for bed. You can add in other zoo themed toys as well if you wish, like little people for zoo-keepers, tractors or trucks for transporting the animals around the zoo, blocks for building with... If you don't have plastic zoo animals, you can print or draw pictures of animals and laminate them or tape them to wooden blocks. Alternatively you can gather your children's stuffed toys and some baby blankets and play about zoo animal bedtimes in this way! 

Dramatic Play: You Be the Zookeeper! Using stuffed animals and toy food, a toy doctor kit, a plastic bin for "bathing" and anything else you (or your little zookeeper) can think of, play about taking care of and feeding all of the animals in the zoo. We recently did this with stuffed dogs after S had a FaceTime call with his cousins who were engaged in a story stretcher activity of their own and playing about being dog groomers and veterinarians. He wanted in on the fun, so we pulled out our own toys at home and he was busy all afternoon!

Medium Stretch:

If you have a little more time, choose one or a few of the following, depending on how much time you have and what materials you have on hand: 

Playdough Zoo: You will need plastic zoo animals, playdough (homemade or store bought are fine), and craft sticks for building and playing about your own zoo.

S built a scene very similar to one illustrated in the book, Goodnight, Gorilla!

Then he played for a while about giving his lion a lot of playdough hair and a hair cut! I'm beginning to see a striking resemblance...and S is playing a lot about his upcoming haircut when he turns three!

Zoo Animal Paint Stomp: You will need plastic zoo animals, paper and washable paint in the colors of your choice. Let your little artist dip their animals' feet into the paint and stomp them across the paper. You can see different animal footprints this way and your little one may also have some fun dipping other parts of the animals into the paint! I've done this activity a few times with S, and it's always a big hit.

Take It Outside! Bring your plastic animals outside to play in the dirt or the mud, the sandbox if you have one, or even the sprinkler, water table or kiddie pool. One of S's favorite parts of our zoo visit yesterday was seeing a rhinoceros taking a mud bath.  We didn't have the time yesterday, but I'm sure he would love to give his zoo animals a mud bath of their own in the play garden.

Obviously an older photo of S, but proof that story stretchers can be enjoyed at all levels of pre-literacy!

Bath-time at the Zoo: Before we go to bed, we need a bath! Your little zoo-keeper will love washing toy animals in a basin of soapy water, at the sink, or even in his/her own bath. If you want to add on to this activity, you can include shaving cream to the washing station and then let your little ones wash and rinse it off.

Animal Antics: In this gross motor game, you can use pictures, flash cards, toy animals picked from a bag/basket or just call out an animal to your young actors and have them move and make sounds in the style of the animal. Younger players may need specific instructions like "slither like a snake" (for a single step direction) or "slither and hiss like a snake" (for a multi-step direction) and may also need a demonstration. More advanced players can even play this charades style and try to guess the animal being acted out.

"I'm Thinking of an Animal, Can You Guess What it Is?" This game always makes me feel nostalgic! My grandpa, OBM, used to play this game with us (and subsequently our parents) whenever we had to wait for something like dinner in a restaurant or our turn in a line. He would think of a zoo animal and give us three guesses to figure out what he was thinking. Then he would offer a descriptive clue and three more guesses and so on, so forth, until we guessed the animal. Whomever correctly guessed first would be the next "thinker," and many a time of waiting was passed by more easily because of this simple little game!

Music & Movement: We love Raffi's song "We're Going to the Zoo," and nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than hearing my toddler sing it to the very best of his abilities from his car seat as we travel to the zoo for a visit! You can listen to and sing your own favorite zoo and animal songs and action rhymes.

BIG S-T-R-E-T-C-H: When you've got a day to fill or want to take up a number of days with a story stretcher theme, you can combine activities and repeat ones that your little ones like especially. If you want to do more with Goodnight Gorilla, you can combine and extend the above activities.

• You can add on some arts and crafts, or set out some recycled materials, paper scraps, google eyes and art supplies for your children to create and build their own zoo animals. Paper plate masks, paper bag puppets and toilet paper tube animals are some of my favorites. 
• You can check out other zoo themed books from the library, both fiction and non-fiction.You can search YouTube for zoo themed videos.
•  You can add a zoo field trip to your story stretcher as well if you have access to one or visit animals in another location, like a farm, petting zoo, pet shop or museum.
•  If your child takes an interest in a particular animal, you can extend your activities to focus on that and learn more about it. 
• You can write and illustrate your own version of Goodnight, Zoo using family members and pets or create a bedtime social story to demonstrate your own bedtime routines and traditions.
• You can create a play and act out the story with family members and/or friends. Children can use (or create) animal costumes and pillows and blankets for props. 

I love using children's literature as a basis for our play because for me, it takes the guess work and planning aspect out of it. The themes are right there in the pages of the book and if I don't have ideas already, someone else probably has either online or in a resource book! Playing about children's literature can be as abstract as you wish--it needn't be very specific to the book itself, but rather, can include themes or concepts from the book. The best part is that you can expand on children's books through multi-sensory play (art, science, dramatic play, sensory play, cooking, music/movement, field trips and more) and it does not need to break the bank. Libraries are a fabulous resource in our communities. Many offer story times catered to various age groups (especially in the summer!) and have programming based on the story stretcher concept. You can often find or create materials at home to play about a story and use them again and again. When we use play and creative activities to expand on stories our children love, we also teach them how to expand and creatively think in their own play and exploration. We open up a world of pretend play and imagination that will carry them through life with a love for reading and perhaps, even writing!

Happy Reading and Playing, and if you celebrate, Happy Shavuot!

Make it at Home Monday: Alice the Camel Brown Bag Puppet

It's Monday and we're still learning and playing about Israel in honor of Yom Ha'atzmaut. We've recently renewed our family membership to our local zoo. One of my son's favorite attractions there are the camels, an animal native to the desert climate of Israel! He loves to sing the popular children's song/action rhyme, "Alice the Camel," a cute little ditty that demonstrates counting backward with a humorous surprise at the end:

Alice the Camel
Alice the camel has five humps,
Alice the camel has five humps,
Alice the camel has five humps,
So go, Alice, go!

Alice the camel has four humps...[continue in this fashion, you can also use your fingers as you count backward]

Alice the camel has no humps,
Alice the camel has humps,
Alice the camel has no humps
Now Alice is a horse!

If you have a group of children with you, grab a large sheet and you can act out the song with children as "humps" who take turns moving to the front as they are counted "out" to be the head. This was a favorite activity in my classroom teaching days!

Alternatively, you can make your very own Alice the Camel brown bag puppet to use as you sing. 

You Will Need:
a brown paper lunch bag
a google eye
brown construction paper
scissors
glue
markers, crayons and anything else you'd like to add for decorating

Instructions:

1. Trace or copy the shape of a camel to brown construction paper. If you do not have brown construction paper, you can use white paper and color your camel or you can use another brown paper bag. If free-handing a camel silhouette is not your strong suit (it's not mine!) you may want to use an image printed from the internet or a stencil. Older crafters can assist with this step and cut out the camel shape. For younger crafters or those who are short on time, you may wish to prep the camel in advance. 
2. Glue your camel to the rectangular bottom flap of the brown paper bag so that when you insert your hand into the bag, you can flap your camel up and down. Glue on the eye and decorate your camel as you like. You may wish to draw on a mouth or other details. My little artist even enjoyed decorating the bag!
3. Once dry, use your puppet to sing "Alice the Camel" or put on a puppet show!