BLAST Early Learning

One Book Every Young Child 2012

Books:

Open-ended Questions for Otis and the Tornado :

• What does lonely mean, and why do you think Bernard felt lonely?
  
• Why do you think Grumpy Giles is so grumpy?
  

 

Song:

Five Sleeping Otters
(Tune of Five Green and Speckled Frogs)

 

Five sleeping otters

Floating on the water

Dreaming of most delicious fish

Yum!  Yum!

                                                                                                             

One heard a loud snore

Could not sleep anymore

Then there were four sleeping otters

Shhh! Shhh!

Song:

Boom, Boom Ain’t It Great to Be an Otter
(Tune of Boom, Boom Ain’t It Great to Be Crazy)

 

Boom, boom ain’t it great to be an otter

Boom, boom ain’t it great to rest all day

Hunting and playing all night long

Boom, boom ain’t it great to be an otter

                                                                                                   

Verse 1:

Lying in the sun all day

Floating on the water

Catching rays all day long

That’s the life of an otter

 

Verse 2:

Otters getting hungry

Now it’s time to eat

Crayfish, frogs, fish, and clams

What a tasty treat

 

Verse 3:

Swimming, diving, splashing

Playing in the water

Having fun all night long

That’s the life of an otter

Vocabulary Word:

lonely: adj. alone

“Bernard was sad and lonely.”
(taken from Stop Snoring, Bernard! by Zachariah OHora)

Activities:

Math: Graphing

Materials Needed:

• -Pictures cut out of the 5 different animals from the story: otter, alligator, elephant, bat, giraffe
• -Butcher paper
  Activity:
• Talk to the children about the different characters in the story and ask them which one was their favorite. Then, let them come up and choose the picture of their favorite animal from the book and graph it on the butcher paper. After the graph is finished, compare which animal was the most favorite and which was the least favorite. Talk to them about why they chose their favorites.
  
  Art: Coffee Filter Painting

Materials Needed:

Coffee filters

Washable markers in blue, green, and purple

Spray bottles with water

Plates

Picture of otter cut out

Crayons

Glue sticks

Activity: Let the children color their otter picture. Then put a coffee filter on a plate for each child. Let the children color their coffee filter with the markers. When they're finished they can spray it a few times with water. When the coffee filter dries, glue the otter on top of the filter.

*note: A little water goes a long way.

Science: Animal Print Matching Game
Materials Needed:

2 sets of double-sided animal cards (32 cards total) copied onto cardstock (animal pictures on one side; prints on the other side)

Activity

Spread all the cards out, footprint side up. Have the children take turns matching the animal track pairs together. To check to see if the pairs are correct, children can flip the cards over to see if the animals on the other side match. Keep going until all the matches have been made. Alternately, you can start with the animal side up to match, and then flip the card over to see the print made by each animal.

 

Literature: