Circle Time Activity: Down on the Corner at the Bakery Shop

I made these color sticks the first year I taught a special day class kindergarten and used them with this cute repetitious song that teaches colors and backwards counting:

Down on the Corner at the Bakery Shop

Down on the corner at the bakery shop,

There were twenty little donuts with sugar on top.

Along came (student's name) all alone

She took a (color) one and ran on home.

I brought these up from the basement yesterday and am planning on beginning to sing this some with ER this week, but we'll only do ten little donuts.

I think the original song was with a lot less numbers but I had twenty so that everyone could have a turn. During the fourth line the student who's name I called out in the third line comes up and chooses one "donut"; that's how we all know what color to sing out.

I also used large number flashcards to show each numeral as we sang. Just another little way to reinforce number identification too. I wish I knew the source for this song, if you know please let me tell me so I can give credit where it's due.

I also occassionally used the color sticks to help choose partners for activities. Choose a stick and find the other student with the same color.

Storytime Art - Cupcake Holder Daffodils

It has finally begun to warm up a bit here in MI, we had a really nice day last Friday followed by a rainy weekend. I like rain and listening to it fall against the window panes when going to sleep so I didn't mind, especially since I know all that rain will help our spring flowers pop up and turn our grass a lush green instead of the brownish color it currently is.

Like many Michiganders, I'm ready for spring any way and my St. Patrick's Day unit goes hand in hand with Easter and Spring themes. So I'd already begun incorporating those themes into our studies on colors. Spring is also a good time to bring up Seasons in Michigan because there are normally four definite ones and spring is pretty easy to differentiate for even the youngest from winter.

To bring several of those themes together we recently Read I Am A Bunny. It's a colorful and simply written book about Nicolas the bunny and what he likes to do for each of the four seasons. The pictures are by famed children's illustrator Richard Scarry so it's very well done and a book I think any young child would enjoy. In the spring Nicolas likes to pick flowers and on that page he is depicted in a field of flowers with daffodils shown prominantly in the foreground.It tied in perfectly with the color we were also working on, yellow so we made this cute daffodil out of two cupcake holders - flatten one, yellow buttons, and some paper scraps I cut into stem and leaf shapes. It's very simple and requires few materials, I've made them before with yellow pom poms instead of buttons also. She was probably the most excited about getting to wield the glue bottle by herself for the first time. The control freak in me is trying to let go and allow her more independence, I'm taking baby steps! It took three days for the glue to dry completely.
To finish it up, I added this poem to add to the top of her picture. We sing it with our fingers representing the daffodils, but she has made the connection between the song and the art project we did. She'll go over and point to her flower, where I've hung it up afterward.

5 Little Daffodils Fingerplay

One little daffodil had nothing much to do,

Out popped another one, then there were two.

Two little daffodils were smiling at a bee,

Out popped another one, then there were three.

Three little daffodils were growing by the door,

Out popped another one and then there were four.

Four little daffodils were glad to be alive,

Out popped another one and then there were five.

Five little daffodils were wearing golden crowns,

They danced in the breeze in green satin gowns.

This Friday is our first day going live with ABC and 123: A Learning Cooperative, so I think this will be my last regularly scheduled ABC Learn with Me post on Tuesdays on my personal blog. I will still be sharing activities I do with ER on a regular basis - probably a weekly one at that, but I don't want to be locked into always doing it on Tuesday and Thursday.

If you did a fun activity with your child, remember we want to know and would love to feature it. Email us a link at abc123learning@gmail.com and don't forget to go over to Katie's A Listmaker's Life if you've done a language activity you want to share now on her Mr. Linky!

Here's a new weekly meme that I love cause it's so easy to join in! Show off your talent with us at Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House, on the Totally Talented Tuesday Post! Found her through all the SITS giveaways! Have you headed over to enter yet?

It is also part of Jennifer's The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman, Saturday Showcase. We'd love to have more participation over there, so if you've done a project with your kids please link up over there so we can all share! I have also added it to Sandy at Just for Fun's Friday Book Project.