Hummingbirds Hum (page 4)
- Start by asking children to share what they know about hummingbirds.
- Before reading the poem, ask children to listen for words in the poem that describe how hummingbirds move.
- After reading the poem, invite children to share what they heard.
- Talk together about the flowers in the illustration. Then talk about why hummingbirds have such long beaks.
The word "hummingbird" can be broken up into smaller words. Write these words in a list:
Go through the poem together and see how many of these smaller words appear in the poem. To help children focus on individual letters, count the number of letters in each word in the list.
Guess My Riddle (pages 26 and 27)
- Read the riddles aloud, inviting children to supply the missing word.
- After reading the first riddle, discuss the clues that helped them answer the riddle.
- If no one mentions that the words in the riddle rhyme, point that out, and then reread the riddle, asking children to listen for and identify the rhyming words.
- After reading and answering each riddle, ask children to discuss the clues and identify the rhyming words.
- Have children discuss the illustration. Ask them to look for and describe things in the scene that were not mentioned in the riddles.
Listening for and indentifying rhyming words helps children pay attention to the sound segments within words. That is an important early-reading skill.
Play With Shaving Cream (pages 32 and 33)
- For this activity, we suggest using a glass pan, but a large countertop or tabletop also works.
- After they use their fingers to make a design in the cream, show kids how to use the sides of their hands to wipe the surface smooth.
- Before food coloring is mixed into the cream, it can stain skin. Stir with a spoon to mix well. Once it's mixed, the colored cream won't stain fingers.
Messing about with shaving cream is a soothing sensory experience for most children (and most adults!). And clean-up is a snap!