Jungle Storytime, Thursday, July 7 @ 10:30

Books:

• Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae. Didn't use for this older group.
• Oh, No! by Denise Fleming
• The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman OR 
• Jungle Drums by Graeme Base. I USED my jungle drum, and shortened a couple of pages. 
• Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen
• Giraffes Can't Dance 
• Ananse's Feast by Tololwa M. Mollel. 

Songs: 

• 5 Little Monkeys teasing Mr. Crocodile, of course. But I had the little monkey fingerpuppets and gave them to five kids -- luckily I had a back up monkey for Luke and Jake, and I gave Diego the croc. The kids got chased around the room a bit, not wanting to surrender their monkeys, but it was all in good fun.
• Down in the Jungle (with the drum, so you can't go wrong)
• The Wheels on the Bus goes through the jungle -- and the animals are all on board.

Game: Lion Says

Here's a variation on Simon Says: Give commands to your kids. They ARE supposed to do what the lion tells them, and they AREN'T supposed to do what the monkey says. Then start having them jump up and down, roar, make scary faces, run in place, wave their hands in the air, touch the ground, etc.

Craft: 

Painting "Jungle colors and patterns". We squiggled a few lines on the paper with markers and then filled in the different areas with paints, experimenting with colors and different kinds of brushes.

Jungle Beads -- Big hit this year, I used up all my paper beads

Materials: 72" long piece of thin, strong string, floss threaders from the drugstore, beads.

Steps:

1. String on large eyed needle  and double back. Even up the ends of the two threads and tie a small bead there to hold the end about 3" from end, so there will be room to tie final knot.
2. The child can then thread on the beads of their choice. 
3. When they finish, thread the needle back through the end bead and tie in a knot.  
4. If desired, glue threads together with Elmers, just to give a finished look.