BLAST Early Learning

Wild and Tame

Books:

The Secret by Lindsay Barrett George

Mr. Snail tells a mouse his secret, and the mouse passes it on to the beetle who tells the turtle, and so on, until the secret gets back to Miss Snail.

 

The Great Fuzz Frenzy
by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

When a tennis ball lands in a prairie dog town, the residents find that their newfound frenzy for fuzz creates a fiasco.

 

Eye Guess: a Foldout Guessing Game
by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes

Uncover eight animals in this lift-the-flap book.

 

Rhyme:

Five Little Snakes

Five little snakes
Hid under Mom’s chair.
My brother grabbed the red one,
Leaving four there.

Four little snakes
Swinging in a tree.
The blue one slipped and fell,
Leaving only three.

Three little snakes
Wondered what to do.
The yellow one took a nap,
Leaving only two.

Two little snakes
Basking in the sun.
The brown one slithered off,
Leaving only one.

One little green snake
Lonely as could be;
Went looking for some fun,
And came and played with me.

Song:

The Animals in the Jungle

(Tune: The Wheels on the Bus)
The parrots in the jungle say
squawk, squawk, squawk,
Squawk, squawk, squawk,
squawk, squawk, squawk.
The parrots in the jungle say
squawk, squawk, squawk,
all day long.

The monkeys in the jungle say
ooh, ooh, ooh,... all day long.

The tigers in the jungle say
grrr, grrr, grr,... all day long.

The elephants in the jungle go
stomp, stomp, stomp...all day long.

I say in the jungle
Let’s get out of here!...till I’m back at home

Vocabulary Word:

Frenzy: n. acting crazy, out of control behavior.

Example: "They twisted it. Braided it. Danced, and paraded it. It was a fuzz frenzy."  (taken from The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel)

Activities:

Lion Paper Plates

Have the children paint a paper plate yellow or brown. After the paint has dried, have the children use a hole punch around the rim of the plate. Supply the children with yellow, orange, and brown yarn pieces, about two inches in length. The children should place a piece of yarn in a hole and tie it. Continue until there is yarn all the way around the place. At this point the children may cut out the facial features to make a mask, or glue on facial features.

Tiger Stripes

Supply each child with orange and black paper. Have the child tear the black paper into thin stripes, then glue onto the orange paper.

Lion, Lion, BEAR!!!

Played like "Duck, Duck, Goose" except the children will go around the circle, and say "Lion" instead of "Duck" and "Bear" instead of "Goose."

Zoo Animal Picture

Punch holes in a styrofoam lunch tray to make animal cages. The animals are cut out from other paper and glued onto the dray. Use black yarn to thread through the holes to make the bars on the cage.

Swinging Monkey

Hang a heavy string from the ceiling or door jamb. Tie on a stuffed monkey by the hand. Invite the children to swing the monkey. Can they make it go in a circle? Side to side? How do they change the movement?

Animals Are Coming

Invite the children to put their ears to a table top and lightly tap with their fingers. What do they hear? What does it sound like?

Feed the Elephant

Glue a picture of an elephant to the side of a cardboard box. Cut a hole for the mouth. Invite the children to roll a number cube and feed that many peanuts to the elephant.

Spots on a Giraffe

Provide yellow and brown paint and invite the children to paint giraffes.

Literature:

Hilda Must Be Dancing by Kama Wilson

Hilda Hippo tries other, quieter, activities when her jungle friends are disturbed by her dancing, but nothing else makes her happy until Water Buffalo suggests swimming and she finds a new way to express herself.

 

Do You Still Love Me? by Charlotte Middleton

Upset when the arrival of a new pet, a baby chameleon, seems to displace his role in the family. Dudley the dog finds a way to prove himself indispensable.

 

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Each animal arriving from the zoo as a possible pet fail to suit its prospective owner, until just the right one is found. Movable flaps reveal the contents of each package.

 

I Love It When You Smile by Sam McBratney

A grumpy little kangaroo is having a bad day until his mother finds a way to make him smile.

 

 

Where Have You Been? by Margaret Wise Brown

In rhyming verse, various animals tell where they have been.

 

 

Guess Who Hides by Sharon Gordon

Clues about the turtle’s physical characteristics, behavior, and habitat lead the reader to guess what animal is being described.

 

Earl The Squirrel by Don Freeman

Earl the squirrel learns to gather acorns on his own.

 

 

The Very Best Daddy Of All by Marion Dane Bauer

Pictures and rhyming text show how some fathers, animal, bird, and human, take care of their children by bringing them food, playing with them, and keeping them safe.

And Tango Makes Three

by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

At New York City’s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.

 

Animals Nobody Loves by Seymour Simon

In 26 giant photographs-of a roaring grizzly, a piranha’s razor-sharp teeth, a rattlesnake’s poisonous fangs– Seymour Simon reveals the truth about nature’s most misunderstood animals and lets the reader decide what to really think about nature’s grossest, fiercest, and most fascinating survivors.