Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Watch Out! It's a Jungle Out There!

I heard from around the web (thanks Teach Preschool!) that Kohl's had stuffed animals to go along with several of the Eric Carle books!  I was very excited to find out if this was true in my area!  I'm already lucky enough to own a few stuffed animals that belong to specific books I read often in my classroom.
"Where are you little green dragon?"
I use these stuffed animals to either introduce the book, engage the children in the book or with a simple activity after we read the book.   
"The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash"
Several of these stuffed animals have not been able to see the light of day in a few years since the books they belong with are a bit too difficult for the children in my classroom. 
"Elmer Plays Hide-and-Seek"
I'm usually able to find SOME use for them though!  For instance, Elmer has been used to introduce the story "Elmer Plays Hide-and-Seek.  He has also been used to sing the song Willaby, Wallaby Woo....an elephant sat on...you!" 
"The Rainbow Fish"
The children love being able to pass around one of the stuffed animals either before or after we read a story.  This is also one of the ways we can work on passing an object to a friend, turn taking and engaging with others (making eye contact and/or using words).
Horton
These stuffed animals also join us in the classroom often when we introduce letters and letter sounds.  I have several specific stuffed animals that help introduce Nursery Rhymes as well.
"Giggle, Giggle, Quack"
There are so many ways we can use these stuffed animals; as transitional items, to introduce a book or Nursery Rhyme, to work on making animal sounds, to engage the children in a song or to introduce letters and letter sounds.   
The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Grouchy Ladybug (as well as 2 other Eric Carle books)
Oh, YIPEEE, now we can add these stuffed animals that go along with the Eric Carle books!  I can't wait to use them in the classroom!

7 comments:

  1. LOL - Awesome! I picked up my set from Khols too! I just love them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I almost cried when I couldn't find one of the stuffed Hungry Caterpillars at first! (I had to dig down to the bottom to find one of the last ones!) whew...THAT was close!

    ReplyDelete
  3. LOL - I got the new set as soon as they set them on the shelf! I was like a crazy woman:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Every Christmas my dad buys the kids 2 books with the stuffed animals and they love them :) I wish we were in the states so we could've got some of them from Kohls

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kim- I've always loved giving books and stuffed animal sets as gifts...they really do make such great gifts for kids. What an awesome grandpa to think of these things :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Luckily Kim's dad is my father in law and my girls get their Kohl's sets for Christmas too :)
    We LOVE books at our house and they are a go to gift idea for all of our friends and family! If we can't match a book with a specific child...or aren't sure what their collection already holds hen we get gift cards for Chapters/Indigo ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. @lots of fun with my family- I agree! Books and gift certificates for books are a great gift idea! I always try to encourage the families of children in my classroom to order books/books on tape through Scholastic for the holidays- they're so economical and the kids just love them!

    ReplyDelete

Grab the "How Long is this Hall" Button!

HowLongisthishall?!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Total Pageviews

Popular Posts