Whole Child Development
(Click here to go to Jan Brett’s website.)
Jan Brett is a prolific as an author and illustrator! Her books are instantly recognizable, with her trademark style of using detail to draw you further into the story, weaving a story-within-a-story as she offers new vantage points in the borders or foreshadows the arrival of a new character.
If you’re looking for a simple book about bundling up for winter weather, written with captivating rhymes, Under My Hood I Have a Hat, by Karla Kuskin and illustrated by Fumi Kosaka, is your book! The nameless heroine of this story goes through her layers of winter wear as she and her dog come inside for hot chocolate. Then she names more as she piles them back on to head outside again!
The lines in this story are at the same time simple and fun. Here are a few favorites: “Under my hood, I have a hat, and under that, my hair is flat. Under my coat, my sweater’s blue. My sweater’s red. I’m wearing two.”
Snip, Snip, Snow! by Nancy Poydar tells the story of a relatable, spunky girl named Sophie, who can’t wait for the snow to fall! Her excitement turns to disappointment as the storm is stalled. In its place, Sophie and her friends begin cutting paper snowflakes, creating their own snowstorm. Caught up in their own fun, the first real snowflake almost goes unnoticed. The children run outside to enjoy the new snow! This story is so well-written and the illustrations really draw you in. The book also includes instructions for making paper snowflakes, just like Sophie did!
Here’s a combination of hibernation activities for your preschoolers that fit nicely together for a story time or large group activity.
Here’s a combination of hibernation activities for your preschoolers that fit nicely together for a story time or large group activity.
The story of Stone Soup is a popular old fable that has been retold countless ways. (If you need to brush up on the tale, you can find books at the library or online, and can even find online versions here and here.) You can help your children be a part of this timeless story as you do some story acting and then share some soup together!
I was first introduced to Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler’s The Hungry Thing at a workshop on phonemic/phonological awareness (learn more about that here). So, obviously, this book and activity are great for building those critical prereading skills. In this story, the Hungry Thing shows up in a town, asking for food. The people can’t figure out what he wants. When he requests “shmancakes” they each have a different idea about what “shmancakes” actually are. One boy makes sense of it all, reminding them that “shmancakes” sound like “pancakes”. So they give the Hungry Thing some and he eats them all up! This continues on to include “feetloaf” and “gollipops”, “boop with a smacker” and “tickles”. As I read this story, I always pause a bit, allowing the children to chime in with the appropriate rhyming word.
Young children are very emphatic about their food. They love it- they hate it. There are few in-betweens. Let them share their tastes and build their literacy by creating a group food collage. You can do this using a wall or a large piece of butcher paper. Provide the children with appropriate magazines and scissors in the writing area, as well as the standard markers, paper etc. Encourage them to cut out words and pictures of their favorite foods and place them on the food collage. They could even cut out foods they don’t like, and practice some symbolic literacy by making a circle and crossing out the food. (Just communicate that they are not allowed to cross out someone elses contribution.) Children may also want to bring in labels and cut-out words and pictures from favorite foods at home, or they may even want to draw their favorite foods. Allow a few weeks for this project to grow and take time each day to point out some of the contributions, discuss their differing tastes, and even take advantage of the environmental print that is sure to abound!
Having good manners is a key social skill. It’s also a bit of an abstract concept for preschoolers. Using picture books as a tool for teaching good manners goes a long way in making that concept more concrete as the children can see illustrations and hear dialogue that makes these concepts more relatable. I like to read books about manners, particularly table manners, before snack time so that the children have an immediate opportunity to practice. Here are just a few books on manners that I enjoy.
In More Spaghetti I Say, author Rita Golden Gelman weaves a silly tale of a monkey named Minnie who is so in love with her spaghetti she can’t possibly play with her brother. There’s a wonderful mix of rhyme, rhythm and hilarity as Minnie explains to Freddie, just how much she loves her spaghetti. She not only eats it (and pairs it with almost any other food) but plays in it, and even skis down it! As Minnie, and eventually Freddie, say, “I love it, I love it, I love it, I do!” This book is just classic! A fantastic, simple read that children love!
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