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Digital book library

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Instantly access 25,000 high-quality books for kids

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Instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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What a fun way to discuss themes with an elementary school classroom.

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Book Creator - Love Learning - Book Creator app

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Teachers love it. Students love it. Book Creator is the simplest, most inclusive way to create content in the classroom.

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handwriting practice

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iWriteWords teaches your child how to write in an easy and fun way.

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We used things from around the house to do some hands on learning all based on the fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs-affiliate link. To complete our activity I made some printable activities that include fun activities for sequencing, pre-writing, stick puppets to retell the story, and a page to color and design your own house to keep the big bad wolf out.

This activity took a few trials and errors for us to get it right. Now that we finally did, I am excited to share it with you. It was really fun waiting in anticipation for the building materials to break. They would make a big crunching sound that would make my daughter giggle with glee. I thought about trying to blow things over like the big bad wolf, but I think smashing was much more fun while examining the effects of durability, weight, and pressure.

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Suggested Books:

Click photos: Affiliate links to more information on these books we love!

This activity is part of the Creative Preschooler Fairy Tale bi-weekly theme. For more fun ideas, make sure to check out the rest of the ideas at the bottom of this post and in case you missed it, our Creative Preschool themes have also included Shapes, Science Experiments, Learn About Food, Fine Motor Skills, Hair & Body, Ocean, and Maps/Geography.

The 3 Little Pigs Activity

Supplies:
Long noodles
Long pretzels
Building Blocks-affiliate link
Tissue box
Books
Scissors

Small flat object that is smaller than the tissue box hole. You can cut the box to make the hole larger to accommodate your object. You want the object to be able to fall into the box.

You can mix up the supplies with what you have on hand. Basically you want a weak, medium, and strong type of supply to represent straw, wood, and bricks.

Directions:
1. Examine the supplies and explain what they represent (straw, wood, bricks). Have the child try to break each supply and then talk about their findings (This was the easiest to break, this I couldn't break...)

2. Place a layer of straw on top of the tissue box. Place your flat object on the top of the straw, then place books one at a time at the very top. Keep track of how many books it takes until the straw finally breaks. Repeat with the wood. Our bricks didn't break at all, we noticed that our tissue box was collapsing under the weight because the bricks where so strong. My daughter even hopped on top of the books to try to get them to break and nothing happened.

When we were done with our 3 trials, we tested out different amounts of material, combinations of material, and whatever else my daughter wanted to try out. It was fun watching her think of new things to try and guessing what she thought the outcome would be.

The 3 Little Pigs Printable

Free Printable:
The 3 Little Pigs Printable
Download available via Google Drive. You do not need a Google account to download. Please share and pin our printable 🙂

Suggested Resources:

Click photos: Affiliate links to more information on these fun items!

More Nursery Rhyme Activities by the Creative Preschooler Team:

Thanks for joining us today!
Love, Katie & the Kiddos

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The 3 Little Pigs Activities + Free Printables -

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We used things from around the house to do some hands on learning all based on the fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs-affiliate link. To complete our activity I made some printable activities that include fun activities for sequencing, pre-writing, stick puppets to retell the story, and a page to color and design your own ...

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One of my all time favorite academic articles. Never want to forget it.

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create your own books

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These Bible Story Print & Fold books are quick and easy to prepare for your Jewish or Christian preschool program. Print & Fold books are a great way to communicate with parents the Bible story their children have been learning in class.

To prepare, all you have to do is print, make copies, and fold the books. No staples needed. The stories are simplified because each book has only 3 pages plus a cover.

The Old Testament stories can be used by both Christian and Jewish preschool programs and the New Testament stories can be used by Christian programs.
To download each book, click the images below. More to come! This page will be updated with new books as I create them.
Old Testament Bible Story Print & Fold Books

New Testament Bible Story Print & Fold Books

Clipart provided by: Kari Bolt & Educlips.

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Bible Story Print & Fold Books: For Pre-K & Preschool Kids - PreKinders

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These Bible Story Print & Fold books are quick and easy to prepare for your Jewish or Christian preschool program. Print & Fold books are a great way to communicate with parents the Bible story their children have been learning in class. To prepare, all you have to do is print, make copies, and fold ...

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Because I'm that mom.

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Get ready for adventure! Inspired by Jack and Annie's world travels through time, this is an unbelievable outdoor Magic Treehouse-themed boy's birthday party.

Planned by Heidi Rew, of Parties for Pennies, is full of incredible kid-powered adventures to celebrate Davey's 6th birthday.

Creative treehouse-themed decorating ideas, a really cool cake, and awesome themed party favors make for an event so exciting, it might make you wish you were a kid again so you could experience it.

Watch closely to collect all the clues for your mission: party planning inspiration.

See Also

Outdoor parties can require a little more planning, but Heidi imaginatively created a cool "treehouse" atmosphere at a neighborhood park.

A DIY portable backdrop frame holds themed fabric and a DIY chalkboard sign at the park's shadiest, least windy spot.

Sturdy wooden crates prevent themed decorations like oversized "reference books" (kraft paper-wrapped shirt boxes embellished with gold washi tape) and rolled maps, from blowing away.

A picnic blanket and throw pillows make a cozy area for kids to decipher clues or just hang out.

Kyle's Cakes' jaw-dropping treehouse cake and perfectly coordinating cupcakes look great presented on a vintage folding table with a burlap runner.

"Adventure Fuel" snack packs are full of brain food: pretzel sticks, carrots, cucumber sticks (Davey loves cucumbers), ranch dressing, a mozzarella stick, fruit leather, and a juice box—but before snack time, little adventurers took off on a scavenger hun t!

Solving clues just like Jack and Annie, they collected their party favors (aka adventure gear): a red backpack (like Jack's in the books), canteen, binoculars, and a homemade Adventure Passport Book with a cool branch pencil.

Heidi's mom, an amazing first grade teacher who also runs a kids' summer camp with her husband, helped lead party guests in fantastic themed activities inspired by books in the series.

They made fossils for Dinosaurs Before Dark; acted out Mummies in the Morning by wrapping Davey up like a mummy; and searched for buried treasure, like Jack and Annie in Pirates Past Noon.

Finally, as a nod to Midnighton the Moon, they made constellation creators out of toilet paper rolls and decorated them with stickers, markers, and paper. With a flashlight, it will project stars on the ceiling.

After completing all the activities, kids got a "stamp" sticker inside their passports and took home a few more stickers, for all their future adventures!

The Magic Treehouse book series' irresistible blend of magic, adventure, and mystery are extremely well-represented in this party's decorations, party favors, activities. It's the perfect celebration for both little readers and little adventurers, and it's full of fun party ideas for any venue, budget, or age.

Plan your own Magic Treehouse-themed boy's birthday party by shopping these party supplies:
(Amazon Affiliate Links)
For more boyhood adventure party ideas, check out these events.

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Magic Treehouse Book-Themed Boy's Birthday Party - Spaceships and Laser Beams

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Get ready for adventure! Inspired by Jack and Annie's world travels through time, this is an unbelievable outdoor Magic Treehouse-themed boy's birthday party. Planned by Heidi Rew, of Parties for Pennies, is full of incredible kid-powered adventures to celebrate Davey's 6th birthday.

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Tucking this one away!! So fun!

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Mummies in the Morning is the third book in the Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne. Our Pre-K Book Club enjoyed this book! The host mom started off the morning by asking the kids some Egypt, pyramid and mummy questions from information they learned in the book. The kids then did a mummy wrap, wrote their names in hieroglyphics and had a mummy snack. Stay tuned for books 4-8 in the months to come! Mummies in the Morning MTH Book Club #3 Pre-Kindergartner's to First Graders and their moms!

The mom that hosted this month had written a list of questions from the book and asked the kiddos the questions, making sure that everyone got a chance. She gave them a little hard candy when they answered correctly.

Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne

1. Ask the kids questions from information in the book.

2. Discuss any other key points or favorite parts of the book. You could also use this time to show pictures of Egypt and pyramids and discuss them.

A classic activity that the kids really enjoyed! Some kiddos really wanted to be the mummies all wrapped up and some definitely did not.

1. Kids get in partners. One partner is the mummy and the other is the wrapper. The mummy gets wrapped up from head to toe in toilet paper so they look like a mummy! We had a race.

*The kids can switch and do it again if both want a turn at being the mummy.

The kids had fun with this. Some wanted to write more than their names.

Pencils, crayons or markers

2. Teach the kids how to use the pictures that represent the letters to write their names. Kids have a turn at writing their names.

*They can decorate their names when they are finished or try writing their last names as well!

Refrigerator Breadsticks (the ones in the little tube that you pop open with a spoon)

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Mummies in the Morning (Magic Treehouse Bookclub)

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Mummies in the Morning is the third book in the Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne. Our Pre-K Book Club enjoyed this book! The host mom started off the morning by asking the kids some Egypt, pyramid and mummy questions from information they learned in the book.

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Dinosaurs Before Dark activity book

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dinosaurs before dark- magic tree house book companion

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Dinosaurs Before Dark- Magic Tree House Book Companion from PrintablePrompts on TeachersNotebook.com (58 pages)

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Dinosaurs Before Dark- Magic Tree House Book Companion from PrintablePrompts on TeachersNotebook.com (58 pages)

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Alphabet, phonics, spelling, and more!

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HOMER | The Essential Early Learning Program and App for Kids 2-8

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HOMER is the early learning program for ages 2-8 that is personalized to your child’s interests to help them fall in love with learning. Try it free for 30 days!

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Counting game to go with the book. I love cross curricular stuff!

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*This post contains affiliate links*

I think most of us have heard the story 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie'. If you have not, it is a tale of a mouse and a series of events that occurs as a result of him getting a cookie. It is a fun book to read & my daughter just loves it.

We often joke with our daughter & say "If you give a Mai A Cookie". This joke came up this week. "How about you give Mai 1, 2, 3 , 4 cookies, mama?" Nice try! She did not get 4 cookies, but she did give me an idea for a fun craft & counting activity.
What you will need:
Paper Plates

Construction Paper

Paint

Glue

Markers
Directions:
Sketch & cut a mouth hole out of a paper plate.

Paint your paper plate in brown & let dry.

Cut ears & a nose out of construction paper & glue onto the plate.

Draw in the eyes, mouth & whiskers with marker.

Glue around the sides & top of the back of the plate & glue to another paper plate. Leave the bottom unglued so that there is an opening at the bottom.

Cut 10 circles out of light brown construction paper small enough to fit into the slot on the mouse's mouth.

Draw chocolate chips on them.

Cut 10 squares of paper & number them from 1 - 10. Mai did such a great job writing out her number cards.

Now you are ready to play your game.

Mix up your number cards & have your child draw one. Have them feed the mouse that number of cookies. Another option is to make the cookies with a certain number of chocolate chips & feed them the cookie with the correct number of chips. Let your child decide which they prefer.

Feed your hungry mouse. My daughter wanted to feed both mice. She counted out the cookies for both mice & fed them both full.

When you have used up all your cookies. Just shake them out of the opening that you left at bottom.

I had a hard time pulling my daughter away from this. She was having a lot of fun with it. She gave both mice their cookies over & over again. And of course when you a give a mouse a cookie, don't forget, he is going to want a glass of milk to go with it.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

Like 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie'?, try the whole series of books.

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'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie' Counting Game - The Pinterested Parent

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This post contains affiliate links* I think most of us have heard the story 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie'. If you have not, it is a tale of a mouse and a series of events that occurs as a result of him getting a cookie.

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Hi! I am Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together.
Every year I look forward to my Eric Carle unit. I use his books throughout the year, but do an actual Author Study using his books in spring, and I can't wait to share some of my favorites with you.

One summer, I taught a Summer School class called "Reading and Writing with Eric Carle." I was so excited, and extra excited because my sister was going to help me! The first day, as my sister waited in the lobby for the last of the stragglers to arrive, a mom was sort of hanging around waiting. My sister asked if she needed anything else, and the mom said, "No, I am just waiting to see this Eric Carle guy." I won't ever forget that, because I guess I had lived in my Kindergarten bubble, just assuming everybody knew Eric Carle. He never showed up, so I had to teach the class...

Today, I am going to share my ideas for LUCKY 13 of Eric Carle's books. (Go get some coffee, tea, or other beverage and settle in for a while...) If you are superstitious, just pretend it's a baker's dozen- and you get a bonus book. That's better. If you don't have time now to read through the ideas, just PIN them for later and know they are here. Here we go!

We always start the year with color review and a take home book of Brown Bear, Brown Bear that we color for morning work. Here is a wonderful free book from docstoc.com that you can make with your class! I have the children color one page each day.

I do a "color-a-day" the first two weeks of school, and make a class books. So, I use a page from Brown Bear, Brown Bear for morning work. Here are some sample pages from our Class Color Books. We do a regular version- and a silly version, of course. These are the favorite class books we make all year long. The kids go back to these ALL the time. It's perfect to make in the beginning of the year, because the children really get to know the names of their friends.

This year, we read From Head to Toe in the beginning of the year, and we talked about things we CAN do. I took each child's picture holding the "I" and "can" card and put the pictures around our class reminders. We did an interactive writing lesson with our "I can" statements.

My sister worked in a Kindergarten classroom, and she made this class book. I love how she made the background of the photographs look "Eric Carlish." I am going to try this next year!

This book is how I introduce two things for the year- first, my love of Eric Carle. Second, after we read this, I talk about how the spider couldn't be disturbed while he was busy spinning his web. I have a little spider beanbag that I leave on my reading table while I am working with a reading group, so my independent center workers know that when that is on my table, I am busy like the very busy spider and can't be disturbed. It is just one more way to try to explain to them to work independently and save questions for me until I am not a busy spider.

Mine is a little smaller and made of felt, but you get the idea.

When we learn the letter "O," we read Eric Carle's Opposites book as one of our many books.
We make a class Opposites book of our own. The children love to take the class books home to share with their families. I laminate the pages and use book rings, and the books hold up really well. The pictures below are from a few years ago. You can make them as plain or fancy as you want.

This Color Wheel Activity from Heart of the Matter is so much fun to do to go along with Hello, Red Fox.

Eric Carle's 10 Little Rubber Ducks is a perfect introduction to our Duck Detail lesson.

This story was written based on a newspaper article that Eric Carle read. Here is a link I found that tells a little about the article that inspired him. A load of bathtub toys fell off a cargo ship and ended up floating all over the world, so it inspired Eric Carle to write this book. This book is great for teaching numbers to 10, ordinal numbers, and direction words. It is wonderful for retelling the story. You can have cut out, numbered ducks and the children can tell what happened to each duck, or each child could be a certain numbered duck and retell his/her part. Here is a Smart Exchange Lesson for retelling this story.

The children have been doing very well adding details to their illustrations. Now we are working on adding details in writing. I tell them that a detail gives the reader more information, and 'information' is something that the reader knows. For example, if I say, "I am thinking of a number," the children would come up with 17 different answers. But, if I say, "I am thinking of a number that you write with a one and a zero, that rhymes with 'men.' " All hands go up with the right answer! (Hopefully!) They "turn and talk " to teach a friend what a 'details' are and what 'information' is.

We play 'The Detail Game.' If a detail applies to the student, he/she stands. I start by saying, "I am thinking of a person," so everyone is standing. Next I may add a detail like, "This person is a girl." Then, "This girl has short hair," "This girl has a pink striped shirt," etc until only one student is standing because I have given so many details that we figured out who I was describing.

Next, I have the children close their eyes and picture the sentence that I say. I say, "I see a tree." I ask several students what they pictured in their heads, and all are different. Then I have them close their eyes again and describe several scenes with details: "I see a Christmas tree decorated with colored lights, lots of candy canes, and a bright gold star on top." or "I see a tall maple tree with read and yellow leaves blowing in the fall wind on a sunny day." You get the idea. We talk about how with more details everyone can make a picture in their mind that is similar. They love this activity. Then, you can choose a student to tell a descriptive sentence for everyone to visualize.

We do a similar activity that combines using details in illustrations and writing, where the students illustrate the sentence, "I see a dog." We have lots of variety in our illustrations of that sentence. Then on the back of the paper, they illustrate the sentence, "I see a small white dog with black spots sleeping on a blue rug by his toy bone," just to see how much more similar our illustrations are with more detail.

I have lots of these rubber ducks, so we can do a lot of word problems with addition and subtraction with the ducks to go along with this book. I think the writing is my favorite lesson we do with the book.

I found lots of these little rubber ducks at a garage sale, and I put eight out for the children to choose to describe.

They will choose one duck to write about and add at least two details to describe the duck they choose. I try to have similar ducks, like the ones with the blue books, so they need to also describe the hat color or another characteristic to help us pick the right duck.

I also do this activity using different balls I have in the classroom and put up front- so if two of the balls are red, one is spiky and one is small or something like that for extra details.

I give the children a paper folded in half with only several lines on it for writing. I tell them we will make the illustrations in our heads by just using the words they write. This helps them to understand how details help you form pictures in your head.

After they write, I let them turn the paper over and draw a detailed illustration so that we can double check our answer with the picture!

Next, we share the written descriptions using the Elmo on the Smart Board. We read a description, and I have one student come up and choose the duck that has been described. The kids are so proud of their details- and it also is a great opportunity to point out the beautiful capital letters, spaces between words, neat printing, and punctuation marks!

Here are some examples of our activity:

Here is how we double check!

My new favorite nonfiction book about ducks is Just Ducks, by Nicola Davies.

We read this book through one time, reading all that the little girl in the book knows about ducks. The second time through, we read the smaller print with more facts about ducks.

After reading this book, we do a Science activity to demonstrate how ducks waterproof their feathers. In Nicola Davies book, she explains how ducks have a special oil gland right above their tail, and when they 'preen' or clean themselves with their beaks, they spread this oil all over their feathers and they become water proof. I usually have the children cut out a duck pattern from a paper grocery bag to use for this activity. But this year, I found a great freebie by Jaclyn McCullough at her TPT store. I printed out this page on card stock and the activity worked well, plus the children could label the parts of the duck on the paper before we did the activity.

After the children label the duck's parts, I have them dab a bit of vegetable oil on the duck's back. Then, they spray water on the duck with a spray bottle and see that where the special oil is, the water beads up and doesn't soak through the duck like it does where there is not the special oil. I let the children tape on a feather to their duck just for fun. I staple a little paper onto the duck with an explanation of what we learned about how ducks' special oil glands help them become waterproof when they preen, so parents can help the child remember the process when the child explains it at home.

Thank you, Jaclyn, for this duck!

I always use The Grouchy Ladybug as an introduction to telling time. It is great for so many activities!

Here is a free ladybug clock from docstoc.com that is cute.

I just add two construction paper half circles with a brad so they open over the clock when it is made, and the children can dab on black spots. The children picked up telling time to the hour and half hour very quickly this year. We also have been practicing counting by 5's, so this made that very relevant for them.

After reading the story and practicing on my big clock for a while, we went outside to see just how big the blue whale was compared to the ladybug. I had a piece of rope 45 feet long (the length of a average whale) and a red button.

One child held our "ladybug" where another child held one end of the rope.

Then, we s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out that rope to see how long a whale was.

The children were amazed- but THEN I told them that the blue whale was twice that long or about 90 feet long! So we stretched all the way down the side walk. That button looked pretty small!

When we came inside and sat back on the rug, we discussed the "grouchy" part of the story. We turned and talked about what made us grouchy. I learned that LOTS of things make five and six year olds grouchy. Each child wrote what made him or her grouchy on a speech bubble. Later that day, we cut out ladybugs, glued on our grouchy face picture, six legs, and two antennas, and made dots with a cotton swab. I love this activity. Here are some favorite grouchy faces:

I can totally relate to, "I can't remember things." I love how her one leg is kicking.

This one may be my very favorite, because he said he was grouchy when his mom goes to work. When I asked him why, he said, "because my mom works like a million whale lengths away from home!"

During free choice time, I had the children come to my table to paint ladybug rocks for their gardens. We had talked about how good ladybugs are for the garden- and, from the story, they knew that ladybugs loved eating aphids!

First, I drew the outline on the stone. OK- backing up, very first, my husband and I went to the creek to find many beautiful oval stones, perfect for bug-making! Then, I drew the outline:

The children picked their favorite bug stone. I had lots of different sizes, so this was fun for them.

They drew a little face on the front part and wrote their name on the bottom with a Sharpie. Then, they painted the sides red and the back section black. They put the black dots on right then with a cotton swab. I thought they would have to wait until it dried, but it worked just fine to do it all at the same time.

When they were all dry, I shellacked them so they would be more weatherproof outside in a garden.

My own children made these when they were young, and they lasted for years outside once they were sprayed. We also made "Lonely Fireflies" with glow in the dark paint on the back end! Yes- they glowed in the garden!

For our Science lesson, we watched the videos on my Eric Carle Prezi about the ladybug lifecycle and the different types of ladybugs like this one:

And who doesn't love the Ladybug Picnic song?

The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse is a simple story, but so inspirational for fostering the children's natural creativity and imagination.

Eric Carle lets children see that it is OK - even WONDERFUL to paint a red crocodile, a purple fox, and a polka-dotted donkey! This book is a perfect illustration lesson for Writer's Workshop in the beginning of the year. It lets the children feel free to experiment and try new things.

I love Eric Carle's interview about writing the book.

Hello Kids has a page with 15 different horse coloring pages. You could let each child choose a horse and paint or color it any way he/she wanted, and then write about the horse on the back of the paper.
Here is a picture of some of the pages.

This is a really fun activity that the children love, and it gets the families involved as well. I send home a note to parents telling them that we will be reading Eric Carle's book, The Apron. I explain that it is a story about Eric Carle, when he was eight years old, working for his uncle at his job as a plasterer. He loved the workman's apron with a pocket so much that his aunt made him an apron of his own, and he spent a few days as his Uncle Adam's assistant.

I ask the parents to send in something with their child that represents the job that the parents do- a "tool of their trade," sort of like the apron was for the plasterer.

I always have a wonderful response to this. One of my all time favorites was a mother of three busy boys who sent this in:

The children just love sharing and listening to each other when they share what they bring. This is always one of my favorite lessons. Here are some examples of "tools of the trade" that were shared:

Daddy works for the cable company.

Mommy is a nurse.

Mommy is a great cook and daddy builds houses

Grammy is a seamstress, who can EVEN sew on buttons, and Poppy is a golfer. ﻿

Daddy works at a quarry.

Daddy works on helicopter engines.

Her mom wrote me a little note with this heart that said that she had wanted it to say, "My mom and dad's job is to make love in the house," but mom thought it may be better to say, "My mom and dad's job is to love us." ﻿

Not really sure about this one... She brought balls in and said daddy juggled for the circus. I am going to check this one out. She also said, "So I guess, if you are at the circus and you see my daddy, maybe, um... don't wave. "

One of my favorite things about the book is a handwritten letter in the back from Eric Carle explaining that this is a true story that happened to him when he was eight years old. The children really see first hand how "real" authors use real life events as ideas for stories.

I always like to read Eric Carle's A House for Hermit Crab near the end of the year, as my children get ready to move on to their new "home" in first grade.

We have great talks about making new friends and learning new things in first grade, but always knowing that our kindergarten friends are there for us all the time.

The other thing my children pick up on in this book is that it follows the hermit crab through the months of the year. My class loves the Macarena Months song from Dr. Jean, so we sang this after we read the book.

I show the class some video clips of actual hermit crabs. I put several (as well as Macarena Months, or course!) on my Eric Carle Prezi. One of the favorites is this one where the hermit crab decides he wants to live in a Lego shell!

I found this adorable hermit crab craft at Tippytoe Crafts! I love the handprint idea and the eyes on the pipe cleaners! I am going to do this next year!

We didn't have time for much of a craft the day we read this story, but during free choice time, I made some shells and had lots of sea stickers and blue paper to cut like water, so the children got creative!

Our favorite activity was our Hermit Crab Game. The children sat in a circle on the rug. I chose one name stick to be the child who closed his/her eyes in our back section of the room (behind a book shelf). I chose another name stick to be the crab and hide in the shell. We practiced this game before we actually played. I had one child peek- so he knew who was under the "shell," and we saw how it really took the fun away from the game. I also had the children practice being completely quiet and not giving away any hints about who was the crab. They got very good at this, and were actually annoyed if anyone made a peep! (I LOVED this game.) One child was the "clue giver," if the child guessing needed a hint. This was great practice for noticing details about friends and describing each other. (For example, "It is a girl." "This person has red hair." "This person's name starts with a B." "This person wears glasses.") Here, the boy in the green was "clue giver" while the one in the orange shirt was guessing!

Sometimes I divide the name sticks in half, and we play one round where half get to guess and half get to be the crab, then later, we switch, so that everyone has a chance to do both.

When the crab was under the "shell" and we were ready for our guesser to come out, we all sang, "The crab is in the shell. The crab is in the shell. Hi ho the derry-o, the crab is in the shell." That just happened. Not planned. But so precious!

This is a very versatile game. We also like to play it around Christmas- when the person under the blanket is the present, and we say, "The present is wrapped!"

The first time we played it, I got under the blanket as the last child guessed. The kids said, "This is a HUGE present." Kids are so good for keeping you humble.

I use this little creation all the time. I just hot glued one plastic cup inside a larger clear plastic cup. After I draw a name stick from the inside cup, I put it in the outside cup so I know I used it.

The Very Lonely Firefly is worth reading, just for the ooohs and aaahs on that last page where the fireflies start blinking! I always leave one side of the lights off when I read this book for an extra big effect.

I like to make a quick graph to see how many children call these "fireflies" and how many call them "lightning bugs." I am usually always in the minority with "lightning bugs," except for the few who then feel sorry for me and try to switch their answer to make me feel better. I love any excuse to make a quick graph so we can practice "how many more." My kids are always very good at most, least, more, less, but "how many more" is sometimes tricky for them. Just a couple weeks ago, everyone finally got it! We match up the ones we can, and whatever votes are left without matches are the "how many more."

My kids LOVE to know things they think maybe even grown-ups might not know- so today I taught them that the male, or boy, fireflies fly around and blink up in the sky, but the female, or girl, fireflies blink in down in the grass and don't fly. I had the children turn and teach each other this fun fact, and we acted it out with our hands up high blinking for the boys- and down low blinking for the girls. I bet lots of moms and dads learned something new at dinner tonight.

We watched the life cycle of a firefly on my Eric Carle Prezi, and the children were excited to learn that they are called "glowworms" before they are fireflies. Another fun fact!

We made some of our own fireflies to hang up in our bedrooms. First, the children colored the fireflies beautifully- all except the back end. Then, with a cotton swab, the children paint the back end of the firefly with glow-in-the-dark paint. The paint needs to be quite thick on the back, and then it will really glow great!

I also printed this sheet on card stock, and cut out some of the bigger fireflies so the children could make a firefly to clip on something in their bedroom. For the back end, we dipped the cotton ball into the glow in the dark paint, then glued it onto the firefly. I just used Elmer's glue to glue the firefly onto the clothespin. You could also use hot glue, but Elmer's worked fine.

This is them actually glowing!

When I handed back the dried firefly pictures to take home, I had the shades pulled and I turned off the lights at the count of three, so everybody's paper glowed. I loved the sound of eighteen "ooooohhhhs!"

I have also made the garden bug fireflies, like my grouchy ladybug stones, and painted the back end with glow-in-the-dark paint, and they have worked well glowing outside in the garden!

During Writing Centers, we talked about times we felt lonely and then wrote about them.

I got a kick out of the clever ways the children spelled "nobody." I had never seen this way before:

I love these painted rocks that go along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar from Thrive 360 Living. The children would have the best time retelling the story with these stones. There is a fun summer project for you!

This necklace from Buggy and Buddy is adorable, too!

I also love these caterpillars from ABC and 123.

Make it Cozee shared her printables at her site that you could use for so many different things!

I also have a post ALL about clouds HERE with lots of ideas to go along with Little Cloud.

Also, the preview to my Eric Carle Prezi is my Little Cloud Prezi, so you can see what the Prezi is like.

There are so many fabulous crafts and activities to go along with each book at Eric Carle's Official Site on the page called the Caterpillar Exchange .

I know this was a LONG post! I hope you found some new ideas to try with your Eric Carle books. My post yesterday at my blog was full of more wonderful FREEBIES to go with 22 of Eric Carle's books that are featured on my Eric Carle Prezi. Just click on the picture above to go to that post!

On my Prezi, I found the best links and videos to go along with each story, as well as extension videos and links, since Eric Carle books are a great way to introduce science topics. Underneath each book , I put some suggestions of other books that go well with that book.

I also made a Complete Author Study for Eric Carle, which includes the Prezi, 17 Writing Prompts for 11 of Eric Carle's books (plus 14 prompts to use with any book), and QR Codes for each book! I love this packet because when I do the author study, we make a book putting all of our prompts together. It's a great review of all of his books for the kids, too!

I would love you to stop over check out those freebies to add to your collection of Eric Carle resources! (Or just save the post as a resource to know it is there.) I would also LOVE you to stop by and follow my blog and my facebook page, Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together, and say, "Hi!"

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Hi! I am Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together. Every year I look forward to my Eric Carle unit. I use his books throughout the year, but do an actual Author Study using his books in spring, and I can't wait to share some of my favorites with you.

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This website has everything from alphabets to even math. I love finding APPS that help with reading skills.

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Introduce the Spanish language to young children with Endless Spanish! With the help of the adorable Endless monsters, kids will have fun learning frequently used Spanish words, including their context and usage!

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Great article on why preliteracy skills are valuable

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How your child’s early experiences shape his learning success.

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I love the BOB books and so glad to have found APPS