This month my friend Chrissie hosted Mommy and Me Book Club at her house. She did a wonderful job and I am excited to share all of her creative ideas with you!
This month's book was Thanksgiving at Our House by P.K. Hallinan. It has a sweet message about being thankful for our family and friends at Thanksgiving time.
For our Gathering Activity, the kids hunted around the room for turkey feathers with their names on them. Once they found their feather, they stuck it onto the turkey.
Then we did a few little finger plays/songs. My favorite was "10 Little Pilgrim Girls" sung to the tune of the older children's song ten little Indians.
Next we read the story and talked about things we are thankful for. One little boy said "Jesus" and several kids mentioned their friends by name. It was very sweet.
For Snacktime, each child got a little counting mat for their popcorn and marshmallows. They matched foam stickers to the typed numbers and then counted out their popcorn and marshmallows to match the corresponding numbers.
Then they ate some of their treats and also created a toothpick/marshmallow/popcorn/craisin turkey. My son LOVED adding the popcorn... even though it was really hard to poke through the toothpicks. He was better at doing it than me! He said, "mom, how about you're in charge of the marshmallows?" 🙂
This activity reminded me of EJ's cute gumdrop turkeys from last November.
For another Craft activity the kids made handprint TP roll turkeys. Chrissie got the idea from over at No Time For Flashcards and the kids seemed to like them- especially the painting part. Our group was too little to cut the hands out completely all by themselves, but some of the older 3 yr olds did their best to try and it was fun to see how they turned out.
Painting handprints
Adult model
Kid creation- love it!
For Activity time the kids watched a short video clip of some Native American dancing and drumming.
After that, our teacher did some drumming for the kids and the kids clapped and copied the drum patterns. (Her drum is from Africa and is not a Native American drum, but still made some awesome music.)
To finish up the activity time, the kids took turns drumming while their friends danced around and played freeze dance. It was a great activity to practice listening skills as well as move their bodies.
Our Closing activity included a simple goodbye song and then the kids got to have some play time while the moms chatted a bit.
My favorite part of the morning was listening to the kids share what they are thankful for! I also loved having some time to spend just with my son while his little sister was taking her nap.
Have you started your own Mommy and Me Book Club?
What books are you reading in November?
Do you have any suggestions for me for December?
Thanks for posting this! I feel honored to have some ideas featured on your blog. (I'm also glad that I don't have to spend the time writing up a post about it!) 🙂 I was going to go out and get one of your book recommendations but I ran out of time and had to settle with that one that just happened to be left at the library. I think it actually worked out okay, though! It was age appropriate and had a cute message.
That's a wonderful group you have there! I love all the ideas you shared!
Wow, these are some really great ideas! Thanks for linking up to Thinky Linky Thursday. I love the drums and the native american dancing. It helps kids understand that there's more to thanksgiving than turkeys. I also love the answers the kids gave for what they were thankful for!
Sounds like fun! I really need to get to planning one in my community!
This looks like fun, I wonder if it's too late to reserve that book at the library. My kids haven't been interested in the ones we've tried :-).
I want to come play too. A mommy and me book club sounds like great fun!
I want to play in your group as well! What a magnificent activities you have organised, well done. It looks beautiful.
Angelique 🙂