Virtual Book Club for Kids: A Week of Friendship

Greetings fellow Book Dragons!

We wrapped up our second week of the Virtual Book Club for Kids with Should I Share My Ice Cream by Mo Willems and it was definitely a great time! This week was all about friends, sharing, and ice cream!

We set up an ice cream parlor using pom poms and Maddox loved scooping the ice cream into everyone’s bowls! Jackson wasn’t quite sure what to make of the situation, but he enjoyed feeling the pom poms.

One for you, two for me!

Where’s the real stuff?

I love using our flannel board for storytelling, so I borrowed Totschooling‘s name recognition idea, but cut out bigger pieces using felt so that Maddox would have an easier time manipulating the letters. The ice cream template can be found at Sunflower Storytime as well as a great rhyme that I chanted while Maddox placed the pieces on the board.

FLANNEL STORY/RHYME:

Ice Cream Scoop
First we need a cone, nice and crunchy.
Then we need some ice cream, sweet and yummy.
Scoop ’em up, stack ’em on, up to the sky.
We love ice cream; my, oh my!
First comes vanilla, cold and sweet.
Then comes chocolate, a delicious treat.
Here’s some strawberry with sprinkles and a cherry too!
A super-duper scooper cone Just for you!
One scoop, two scoops,
Three scoops, four.
We love ice cream Let’s have some more!

Source: Kid ‘n’ Kaboodle

Another day we got out the Play doh and Maddox played ice cream parlor using a mat from This Reading Mama. He didn’t use it too much, but he enjoyed having it there to look at and we talked about the letter ‘I.’

Perhaps the highlight of the week besides reading the book over and over again was using this great printable from The Measured Mom to reinforce counting and number recognition. He really enjoyed how colorful these were and played with it multiple times throughout the week. I’ll definitely be laminating this to extend its life, especially since Jax has such a desire to tear and crunch anything that is paper!

Another activity that took no time to throw together included this great sharing game that increases fine motor skills from Views from a Step Stool. I ended up using small pom poms instead of the water beads because it’s what I had on hand. This was highly useful while cooking dinner one night and everyone was getting under my feet or whining about something. Maddox was distracted for a bit and I got food on the table! I will definitely keep this around for future use as a busy activity for restaurants, doctor’s visits, and other patience testing moments!

And finally to cap off the week, it just so happened that my book club was meeting at a cafe that also sold frozen yogurt! For an afternoon mother and first son date day, we went to the library and he accompanied me to book club for some frozen treats!