Week Five - Jack & Jill

I guess I didn't think about the fact that finding books that go along with all of these nursery rhymes would be difficult when I decided to do a nursery rhyme theme.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, and that's what I'm telling myself! :)   The theme this week was Jack & Jill.  I really couldn't find any books that I liked that I could use to go along with it, so I just used a couple of my favorites. 

For the craft however we did make "Pails".  I had in mind getting the heavier duty cups, the kind I remember having at baby or wedding showers for my friends, etc.  However, when I went to look for some, I couldn't find any (we don't have a party supply store in my town).  So my boss found these for me (I think just at Walmart).  They are really nice sturdy cups (they are the kind that have the plastic lid that goes on it for hot drinks).  I punched two holes on the cup (as you can see), and the kids practiced their hand-eye coordination skills by pushing the pipe cleaner through the holes on both sides, and making a handle.  I let them decorate the outside of the cup however they wanted. I had some foam letter stickers left over so they could put their first initial on it, and then some jewels to glue on.  They liked it.  They especially liked it when I told them they couldn't have a pail without something in it, and I put a pack of Smarties in each pail before they left. 

For our fingerplay this week, I did find something using the names Jack & Jill in it....

"Two Little Black Birds"

Two little black birds

Sitting on a hill.

One named Jack.

The other named Jill.

Fly away Jack.

Fly away Jill.

Come back Jack.

Come back Jill.  

I made little finger puppets for myself out of black felt, and the kids just held up their pointer fingers.  We then varied the words in the verses and did some actions with "opposites"

Two little black birds sitting on a wall,

One is SHORT and the other is TALL.

Fly away short, fly away tall.

Come back short, come back tall.

or

Two little black birds flying in the sky,

One flies LOW and the other flies HIGH.

Fly away low, fly away high.

Come back low, come back high.

We stood up and practiced some different opposite movements to get a little wiggle time in between books, and the last one I did was "we are standing up now, ...what is the opposite of standing up?"  SITTING DOWN....and the kids sat back down on the floor.