Song: Once I Was A Baby

One of my class's favorite songs is Once There Was a Snowman. As it warms up, it can get a little weird to be singing about a snowman. I mean, I know he melts and the kids don't really care but when it's 98 degrees outside, it gets obvious you're just desperate for any song.

So I was really happy when the lesson manual provided another little song that goes to the snowman tune. The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE this song. They will sing it five times straight and still be begging to sing it again. Here're the words:

Once I was a baby, baby, baby. (Pretend to rock a baby in your arms)
Once I was a baby, small, small, small. (Shrink down, like a snow man melting)


Now I’m growing bigger, bigger, bigger. (Grow back up)
Now I’m growing bigger, tall, tall, tall! (Throw your arms high in the air)

We sing the snowman and the baby song every class.

Lesson 8: I am thankful for the day and night

I am grateful for the lesson I am thankful for the night and day. My class is SUPER young so I have REALLY been looking forward to starting the creation lessons. I feel like the kids can understand these lessons so much easier. The concepts are much less abstract so it is easier to keep their attention.

I've realized that since my stake had stake conference I'm probably a week behind most of you. I'd love to hear what you did last week and hopefully I'll be even with you again sometime in the year.

Here's the plan for tomorrow:


During snack time I've started bringing a book or two from the library to read them while they eat. I do my best to make it relate to the lesson or be the scripture story in the lesson. This week I'm bringing Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes to introduce the idea of the night and The Sun's Day by Mordicai Gerstein to talk about the day. A few other good books about the subject are
Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Berger
Where Does the Sun Go at Night? by Mirra Ginsburg
When the Sun Rose by Barbara Berger
Goodnight, Goodnight by Ever Rice
Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

I'm going to have them around for the kids to read if they want.

Here's my lesson plan:


Show Picture of Earth
Ask What is this? The Earth. Who Made the Earth?
Show Picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus.
Why did they make the Earth? Because they love you! and they wanted you to have a place you could come live with your family.

(I'm going to try to do that same opening for every creation lesson until the kids have it down.)

Do you know what the first thing that Jesus created on the earth was?
Show picture of night and day picture from the gospel library.
Ask them what is in the picture. If they can't get it I'll tell them Night and Day!

Day:
I'm going to talk about day first. Is the sun or the moon out during the day? Yes, Jesus made the sun so we would have day. What does the sun do?
It gives us light, it makes us warm, it helps plants to grow. (Try to find pictures for each thing)

What do you like to do in the day?
Let kids answer.

NIght:
But Day doesn't last forever does it? What comes after the day, when the sun goes down? Night. Is the Sun or the Moon in the sky at night? Jesus put the moon in the sky at night. There's also something else we can see at night. Do you know what it is? If they can't guess, I'll pull out one of the foil stars. You can also see the stars at night. Jesus put the stars in the sky to help people find their way in the dark.



Tell story of three wise man, emphasizing that the wise men used the stars in the night to find baby Jesus. Show picture. Let the kids point out the star they wise men followed. That's why Jesus wants us to be like stars to show others the way to do what's right. Can you show your brothers and sisters how to do what's right? What can you do? (Answers like be nice, help mom, etc)
Sing I Am Like A Star Shining Brightly with foil stars.

If the kids are still paying attention I'm going to show them several pictures and ask if it is day or night until they have it down.

Then to get the wiggles that have been building up out, we'll do the God Creation finger play:

God’s Creation

God made the moon (make a circle with hands)
And winking stars (open and close hands)
And put them in the sky (reach up).
He made the sun (make a circle with arms overhead)
And trees (hold arms straight up)
And flowers (cup hands)
And little birds that fly (wave arms).
(From Fascinating Finger Fun by Eleanor Doan. © 1951. Used by permission.)

After that we'll play a Night and Day game:

When the lights are on it's day and I'll give the kids a command to run or march or hop or yell or clap.
But when I flip off the light switch, I'll yell Night! and the kids have to stop and pretend they're asleep.
When I flip the lights back on they can start again.

Craft:
Kt gave a great suggestion for the craft this week and I am going to use. Get black construction paper and the shiny star stickers and let each kid decorate their night sky. White and pink crayons should work on the black construction paper too.

That's my plan. I didn't use the story in the lesson manual about the night in the Americas when it didn't get dark because I think it would REALLY confuse my young kids. I think the three wise men story should be a good substitution. Any suggestions?

Apron Talk

The idea of wearing an apron came up a fair bit in the attempt to protect Sunday clothes from the natural affects of nursery. I wasn't a huge fan of the idea at first because in my mind, aprons seemed kind of dumpy too. But then I started looking at aprons and there appears to have been an apron revolution. You can find some really cool designs. If I had any skills on the sewing machine I would make the apron above. Isn't it pretty? You can get the pattern for free here

If you're like me and not so crafty, Etsy has a great supply. Here are a few that caught my eye:

here

here

here

here

here

here

here

here.

here

here.

Song: I Am Like A Star

I've found that every song goes better if the kids have something to hold or do. So today I'm making foil stars that the kids can hold up when they sing I Am Like A Star Shining Brightly.
To make the stars find or make a star stencil. Take an old cardboard box and trace and cut out the number of stars you need. I now need fourteen. Once you have your star forms cut, coat them in glue and wrap them in tin foil. If you don't want to waste your foil you can coat your stars in glue and dip them in glitter. The kids love glitter but it does get EVERYWHERE.

The Devil in the Toy Chest

In case you were wondering about the long silence on this blog, I apologize. Things got a little hectic. First there was Stake Conference = Break from Nursery, Hurray! Then I came down with the flu. Then I got in a car accident. Nothing serious, but it was thoroughly unpleasant. This string of bad luck has me thinking of all the stories about temple attendance. You know, how everything in the world will rise up to stop you. It has felt like everything in the world has risen up between me and my one, tiny, righteous desire to clean out the nursery toy cabinet.

I have spent weeks looking forward to this Tuesday. It was the day appointed to sort clean and organize the jumbled, mangled, and disfigured mass of toys inhabiting our toy cupboard. Sunday after Sunday the kids pull out every single piece of junk, throw it on the floor, step on it, trip on it, and smash it in order to find the three or four decent toys that all 12 kids want to play with. I was SO ready to get rid of the germy junk.

But after swells of nausea and the car collision, I was not in the mood to wade through infested mounds of plastic. With the assistance of my angelic friend who came along to help, I went anyway. It was a pretty good time. There is some sweet satisfaction in throwing out some of the toys that have haunted me. We ended up with four very large trash bags of junk. (I'm sorry great North Pacific Gyre--that's the oceanic vortex where plastic trash ends up) I wanted to bring my camera to document a few of my favorites but forgot. Here's a description of a few of the highlights:

Child sized baby doll: This thing might actually have survived the cut because baby dolls are so loved by the kids, but I hate it. I'm fairly certain it was used as a CPR dummy before becoming a "toy." It's just about as large as the kids, has on a pair of raggedy cut off shorts that are way way too small for it, and has these suspiciously hideous scratch marks on it's scalp. The really terrible thing about this toy is when seen out of the corner of my eye, lying prostrate on the ground, I have mistaken it for a crumpled child and rushed over to "save" it. Sadly, I have made this mistake more than half a dozen times.

Second most hated doll: She has hair the color of red jolly ranchers and neon blue eyes, a kind of neon blue that can look into your soul and fill it with a feeling of florescent doom. I would be fine if I could keep my distance from her, but one very kind little girl in my class always tries to get me to hold her. I do not know why. It's started giving me bad dreams.

Over a hundred magnets: I love magnets, but for some reason we had a huge bag of them--each a little smaller than a marble. PERFECT choking hazard. Is someone trying to kill these kids?

Every ugly figurine ever given out in happy meals in the last forty years. Some are fine; most made no sense. I liked the purple and yellow green octopus. Didn't like the Polly Pocket whose hair had all been pulled out.

There were a lot of really wonderful others but it's hard to remember them all. Still, by the end of the night we had made a lot more room, organized the toys, and wiped everything down with disinfectant. I think play time and clean up will be a lot more fun.

We do have a few really wonderful toys that are staples. They are:

Large wooden puzzles with pieces large enough for the kids to handle.

Very large hard plastic car and truck. These are just big enough that the kids try to sit and ride on them. It doesn't really work but the kids love them.

Balls. The kids love balls.

A toy kitchen. Great for fun and fights. Three kids always try to play with it at once, it's so much fun.

The baby dolls. No matter how ugly, they are cherished.

The baby stroller. The kids love filling it up with anything they can find and wheeling it around.

Fisher Price Cash register. I played with this thing when I was a kid so it warms my heart to see it still in action.

I have a little money in the budget to make a few responsible purchases. Any suggestions for toys for 1-3 year olds?

What to Wear?

After nursery today, I noticed my shirt was smeared with snot. Lots and lots of snot, in multiple places. I also had a piece of scotch tape and a blue foam sticker pig stuck to me. I pulled off the pig and the tape and I really hope all the snot washes out okay.

I know church is supposed to be Sunday best, but working in nursery has made me adjust my wardrobe. I've found myself reaching into the back of my closet for clothes that are old or ugly. I try to pair those clothes appropriately in order to avoid dumpiness but I can't say I get many compliments on my style. I feel a little sad because I know I look a lot better when I go to work than when I go to church these days.

What I need is a SUPER kid-proof outfit. If anyone could produce this outfit, I'm sure they could make a million, billion dollars. I think Project Runway should try to tackle it. Here's a few of the requirements:
Resistant to staining
Resistant to the absorption of any type of body fluid.
Flexible enough to run in place, jump up from Ring around the Rosy, do Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, lift screaming and kicking small children
Fit perfectly so I don't have to worry about accidently flashing or mooning anyone
Look Amazing
And I suppose it should look appropriately feminine, although pants seem to make a lot more sense.

I have a testimony of finger play

This week I turned the lesson over to my lovely and very capable nursery assistant so I'm enjoying a little more peace of mind than usual this weekend. As soon as I russle up a hiking companion I'll be hitting the trail.

Anyway, I looked through the lesson in the manual this week, 6: Heavenly Father Loves ME. It's a good one. It has a lot of finger play-little poems with accompanying hand motions. When I first started trying to do nursery lessons I thought the little finger play activities were impossible. I rarely knew the poems and I doubted the kids would know them or do them. Time for another slice of humble pie. I tried one just for fun and the kids LOVED it. It's by far, the MOST successful part of my lessons. The kids actually demand to do them over and over again.

Now just because I have developed a devoted adoration to finger play doesn't mean I'm able to remember the poems. Sadly, I'm not President Monson. So I cheat. I write the outline of my lesson and all the poems on a 5x7 note card. I used to hold the card in my hand but that can get in the way of the motions, so I tape it to my wrist. It's my personal game plan. The tape makes me look crazy but it's SO helpful. And next time I got to the sporting supply store I'm going to buy myself a real football wrist band. I expect it will be exactly what I need.