Our story hour theme this month was birds. We began by reading three books:
Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming begins with seven eggs hatching one spring morning. All seven of the baby birds open their mouths wide and cry for food. Mama bird works hard to get food for each of them, and once she finally manages to get them all fed and napping in the nest, they wake up crying for food again. The exhausted Mama bird says, "It's Daddy's turn to fly." and we see an illustration of the Daddy bird resting on a branch. I thought the whole book was cute, but the end really made me laugh!
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard is the story of a bird who wakes up grumpy, and because he is too grumpy to fly, he decides to walk. Along the way, other animals join Bird on his walk and eventually he forgets all about being grumpy. I think this is a great book for curing a case of the grumpies!
Our last story hour book was Birds by Kevin Henkes. I love anything and everything by Kevin Henkes, and this is one of our favorite books. We have used it more than once for book projects and it's a book that we like to read over and over again. It's simply about birds and it's a fun way to work on colors, sizes, and more.
As you know, birds do not have hands and fingers, so we had to use our imagination to think about how birds would paint. I have done this activity with my own children several times, and it is inspired by a page in the Kevin Henkes book mentioned above. With the sky (blue construction paper) as a canvas, I told the little birds (children, there were no real birds in attendance at the story hour) to dip their feathers (craft feathers) in paint and go crazy.
It's okay though, they had fun and enjoyed creating their art. That is all that matters.
Thank you to all of my little friends who listen so well and always create works of art. A huge thank you to the moms, grandmas, and caretakers who bring their children and help me clean up! Last, but not least, a super huge thank you to Cuppers Cafe for hosting us each month and for providing free drinks and cookies for all of the children!
I am linking this post to stArt (story + art = a great start) at A Mommy's Adventures. Click on over there to find more art projects inspired by books.
9 comments:
This story hour you run sounds so neat! Too bad we're not close enough to just run over!
Your bird craft is really a fun activity for the kids, and we love that Birds book by Kevin Henkes!
This story hour you run sounds so neat! Too bad we're not close enough to just run over!
Your bird craft is really a fun activity for the kids, and we love that Birds book by Kevin Henkes!
I LOVE your story hour posts. It's a great idea to let the children paint with feathers. It made me want to play with feathers too.
Grumpy Bird is one of my favorites. I just love his grumpy little face!
When I saw the title of your post, I was nearly 100% sure you were probably going to talk about Henkes' book. Did you know his wife illustrated his Birds book?
We read "Seven Hungry Babies" earlier this year and really enjoyed it as well. It is super cute!
What an awesome idea to paint with feathers! Those books look great too!
My kids rejected my attempt to get them to paint with flowers. But, they were all about the painting with their hands, or painting their hands.
These bird books look great! Two of them are at our library so I requested them--thank you!
I know you loved that story hour, but I hope you'll enjoy your break from it too. You planned some wonderful activities for the kids there and I know you will be missed!
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