Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins

Children enjoy all of the silly rhyming in this book while reviewing hands, fingers, and thumbs.

Materials

A paper divided into 10 places for fingerprints.

Vocabulary

Loop, whorl, and arch (kinds of fingerprints-see resources)

Before Reading the Story

Show the children the front of the book and ask the children what the monkey is pointing to (his hand). How many fingers are on his hand? Have the children count with you and then count the fingers on one of their own hands. Tell the children that you are going to play a number game. Hold up a card with a number on it (1-5). Ask the children to show you that many fingers. Play for a few rounds until the children get tired of and then introduce the story.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Reading the Story

Practice reading ahead of time so that when you read it, it flows likes a poem or song. Throughout the story pause occasionally and see if the children can pick up on the rhyming word to end a sentence.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, stories, and poems.

After Reading the Story

Go over the parts of a hand with the children. Name and point to each part. Have the children show you on their own hands. (palm, fingernail, cuticle, knuckle, joint).

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Discovery

Encourage the children to look at their hands through a magnifying glass. Examine the fingernails and the palms of the hand. Can the children identify which type of fingerprint they have by looking at the loop, whorl, and arch picture?

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Music and Movement

Put out your instruments today, especially any drums you have.

Creative Arts/Music; experiments with a variety of musical instruments.

Teach the poem, Wiggle Them. The children can do the actions as you say the poem.

Clap them, clap them, clap them so

Clap them high, clap them low.

Clap them very fast, and Clap them very slow,

Clap them, clap them out of sight.

Wiggle them…

Snap them…

Roll them…

Shake them…

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Sing Open Shut Them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNaiU0jAgbI

Open shut them,

Open shut them

Give a little clap.

Open shut them

Lay them in your lap.

Sing Where is Thumkin? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCTUHe8juoE

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Blocks

Ask the children if they think that it would be easy or difficult to build without thumbs. Then have them give it a try. Remind them that without thumbs many things would be difficult to do. Can the children help think of any? (brushing teeth, coloring, zipping, eating)

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment.

Art

Bring out more ink pads and let the children do finger print art. They can make patterns or you can have them decorate a tree (their fingerprints are the leaves), the inside of a flower (their fingerprints are the center), or whatever you decide depending on the season.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Library and Writing

Put out pictures of animals using their hands/paws to do things. Talk with the children about what the animal is doing and how they are different and similar to people.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Sand and Water

Today would be a good day to have the children review their hand washing technique. Call each child up to the sink and add a small amount of glitter to their hands. Have them scrub their hands clean.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Dramatic Play

Add gloves to the center.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing patterns and shapes, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Math and Manipulatives

Explain to the children that every person has their own set of fingerprints that are like no one else’s. Have the children press their fingers and thumb one at a time onto a stamp pad and then carefully and firmly press down on a piece of white paper. Let them compare how theirs is like or different from their friends.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Outdoor Play

Play Elbow to Elbow. Pair the children up. Call out a body part and the children in the pair must touch theirs together (elbow to elbow, hip to hip, finger to finger).

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Transitions

Name a body part and have the child point it out on their body.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment.

Resources

Five little Monkeys With Nothing To Do, by Eileen Christelow

The five little monkeys are bored but Mama keeps them busy helping to clean the house for Grandma Bessie. When Grandma Bessie finally arrives, something is terribly wrong; I wonder who could have messed up the house?

Materials

1-5 shape search cards
Collect an assortment of food delivery boxes/liquor store boxes both large and small.
Poster board with lines drawn from side to side six inches apart.

Vocabulary

Swamp (where the ground is always wet and muddy)

Before Reading the Story

Show the children the front of the book and ask if anyone knows what the mother is holding. Ask “what you use a broom for”? Have any of the children ever helped sweep the floor? Ask what other kinds of chores do the children do at home? Tell them that the story today is about five little monkeys who help get the house ready for their Grandma Bessie’s arrival.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Reading the Story

Take your time so the children can really look at the pictures. On page 24-31, ask the children what they see happening to the nice clean house.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children who they think messed up the house. Why is it important to clean up after ourselves? How do we know where to put our toys at school? (the shelves are labeled).

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully.

Discovery

Today would be a good day to review your hand washing techniques. Put up a poster and observe that the children know how to follow the steps.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth, and toileting.

Music and Movement

Do the classic finger play, 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, One fell off and bumped his head. Mamma called the Doctor and the Doctor said, No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Continue to 4, 3, 2, 1.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increasing ability to count in sequence to 10 and beyond.

Sing This Is The Way pantomiming different cleaning motions such as sweeping, making the bed, emptying the trash, washing the dishes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PcUIbqKPg

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Blocks

Challenge the children to make shelves from the blocks to put center toys on for display.

Art

Finger paint directly onto the table. Ask the children if they can draw a circle, square, triangle, house, etc. Let the children help wash the table when you are all through. This is a messy project but children seem to like the cleaning as much as the painting. And cleaning up messes goes along so well with today’s story.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Sand and Water

In the story the monkeys went to the swamp where it is always wet and muddy. Put dirt in the table today and let the children add water turning it to mud.

Library and Writing

Make a copy of the 1-5 number cards and cover with contact paper, or print out a set for each child. Ask the child to name the number of the card. Explain that the card has that many of the number hidden on it. Let the child circle to correct numbers, counting to make sure that on the number 4 card that they have circled four number 4’s, etc.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and writen numerals in meaningful ways.

Dramatic Play

Give the children damp paper towels and allow them to help clean the center, or better yet, the whole room!

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Math and Manipulatives

Cut out pictures of toys from educational catalogs. Ask the children to glue them onto the shelves (poster board with lines). Keep the shelves neat, glue on the lines.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; growis in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Outdoor Play

Fold or tape the ends of the boxes you collected so that it will remain closed. Let the children use these as large blocks for building outside. The more boxes you have, the better the creative building.

Transitions

Ask the children what they would like to do and have them tell you using full sentences. (OK little monkey Kerry, what are you going to do when we get outside?)

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; progresses in clarity of pronunciation and towards speaking in sentences of increasing length and grammatical complexity.

enlarge and cut out each individual number shape

Don’t Wake Up Mama! by Eileen Christelow

Today is Mama’s birthday and 5 Little Monkeys want to do something special. Follow the antics as 5 little monkeys prepare for a birthday surprise.

Materials

Birthday hats and any other “party” supplies you may have.
Pieces of wrapping paper.
Cake mix plus ingredients needed and a can of cake frosting
Birthday candles
Metal bowl or cookie sheet.

Vocabulary

Quiet (not noisy)
Loud (noisy)
Surprise (to catch somebody unaware/unexpected)

Before Reading the Story

Before reading the story, talk to the children about how some sounds are loud and some sounds are soft. Ask the children if they can help name some loud sounds and some soft sounds, write their responses onto a piece of paper labeled Soft Sounds/Loud Sounds (whisper, the tick of a clock, leaves falling down, fire alarm, airplane, thunder). Show the children the front of the book, notice the 2 monkeys with their finger by their mother, what do you think they are saying? Notice the Mama monkey, where is she? What is she doing? What are those things on her ears? Ask the children to cover their ears, what does it do to the sound of your voice? Read the children the title of the book in a very quiet voice while putting your finger up to your mouth and saying shhhh.

Literacy/ Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction non-fiction and poetry. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences, and comparisons among objects and materials.

Reading the Story

Encourage the children to put their finger to their mouth and repeat, ”Shhh! Don’t wake up mama!” where appropriate. Make the loud sounds loud while you read.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction non-fiction and poetry.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they can tell you what the story was about. Why did the monkeys not want to wake the Mama? What did the monkeys make in the kitchen? What happened to the cake? Who came to help the monkeys? What did they all do in the end? Sing Happy Birthday very loudly with the children.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation;demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic pay; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Discovery

Put out a metal bowl and a variety of objects (feather, cotton ball, small block, crayon). Ask the children to drop the items into the metal bowl and tell if it made a soft or loud sound. Have the children make a chart, loud sounds and soft sounds by putting the dropped object on the appropriate piece of paper.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Today would be a fun day to let the children help make cake or individual cupcakes. After they are baked and cooled, the children can use plastic knives to frost.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Music and Movement

Sing Happy un-Birthday to Us.

Happy un-birthday to us

Happy un-birthday happy un-birthday

Happy un-birthday to us.

Or…

Happy birdel daydel todel youdel

Happy birdle daydel todel youdel

Happy birdle daydel happy birdel daydel

Happy birdel daydel todel youdel.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, songs, stories, and poems.

Sing songs that change in voice modulation such as John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt or the Alphabet song.

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

Blocks

Add fire trucks and fire hats today.

Creative Arts/ Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Art

On a piece of paper make a large M, for monkey and B, for birthday. Show the children how to roll out the playdough or use pinches of play dough to cover the letters. This can also be done with the letters in the children’s names. Cover the name with contact paper if you would like to have it for an extended period of time.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shapes and sounds.

Library and Writing

Encourage the children to make cards to share with their parent or a friend. It can be a un-birthday card or just a card to express love/friendship. Help to dictate their words.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; progresses in abilities to use writing, drawing, and art tools, including pencils, markers, chalk, paint brushes, and various types of technology.

Sand and Water

Dampen the sand and add birthday candles so the children can pretend to make cakes. Challenge them to add 3 candles to their cake, 7 candles, etc..

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects..

Dramatic Play

Add some crepe paper and birthday hats and let the children play birthday party.

Creative Arts/ Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Math and Manipulatives

Put out pieces of wrapping paper and tape and encourage the children to see if they can wrap blocks like pretend gifts.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Outdoor Play

As the children play, encourage them to notice different sounds. Do you hear that loud truck? I hear a bird up in the tree. Do you hear the wind chime?

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Transitions

As each child prepares to go to the next activity ask them if they know when their birthday is. If they do not, tell them something to help them learn when their birthday is. Kerry, your birthday is in the spring when the weather starts to get warmer. Your birthday is April 9. Roger, your birthday is very close to Christmas! Your birthday is December 23. Have the children repeat the dates.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.