Itsy Bitsy Spider and Little Ms. Muffet

It was the first week of November.  Halloween is over, it is not really fall anymore, and Thanksgiving is several weeks away.  But we all still seemed to be in the Halloween mood.  I had intended on doing more with spiders during Halloween, but never found time to fit it in.  So we spent a week or so on spiders using the nursery rhymes, Itsy, Bitsy, Spider and Little Miss Muffet. 

I started out with the Rhyme on the board.  We sang/said it a couple of times, along with our actions and with my felt board.  Then we played a game.  This rhyme says "the" in it a lot and also "and".  I had previously hidden the word "the" and "and" around the room.  I sent the children on a scavenger hunt to find the words.  When the found one they had to bring it to me, read the word, and put it on the matching word in the rhyme.  The first time we did this they really struggled.  We played it again at the end of the day, and twice again the next day.  By the end of the second day, they were very proficient in identifying and reading the words "the" and "and"

I always leave my felt board up and pieces during center time for children to come back to and explore in their own way.

Also during center time I set up our own "water spout".  Most kids don't know what a water spout is and why/how the spider got "washed out".  I actually specifically remember being confused by this poem when I was a preschooler.  So I thought some demonstrating and exploring would help.

For Miss Muffet we did the rhyme with the felt board.  And then we took turns acting it out.  I didn't get many picture from this day because my camera batteries had died.  But I had a costume, and a tuffet, and a bowl and spoon.  Then I had a big plastic spider on a string.  Each child had a turn being the spider and Miss Muffet.  They loved screaming and running away.  For our question that morning I had asked the kids if they liked cottage cheese, and then at snack time we all had cottage cheese, then I reasked the question - 2 kids changed their votes. :)