Socks & Shoes

Since the weather is turning, sandals are getting put away and socks and shoes are coming out.  I don’t know about you guys, but I really don’t like wearing socks or shoes.  Sandals are okay.  I can see my toes and I can feel the breeze, but socks get all sweaty from being in shoes and shoes can get tight or itchy or just bleh.  So we had to read some books about socks and shoes.

BOOKS:

We read A Flock of Shoes by Sarah Tsiang and Jenny’s Socks by Carol Murray.

I like A Flock of Shoes; it has some real promise in it.  The illustrations (by Qin Leng) are gorgeous and the text has just a hint of quirk.  I did want more quirk but I’ll settle for what it came with.  Jenny’s Socks was okay – a little too simplistic for storytime (plus it had a weird two page spread of patriotic socks – felt forced to me).

FINGERPLAY:

We did 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe with a few simple actions between the books.

FLANNELBOARD:

We played a sock matching game.  I borrowed this idea from Miss Mary Liberry but sadly didn’t have enough time to make cool felt socks or a washing machine.  (I admit I was scrambling a bit to get this storytime together since I had only worked two days the week before, was at a conference and only had one day before storytime).  I did print off some awesome socks and laminate them.  I would do felt socks if I did this again (or something similar) because the paper plus the little felt square on the back just doesn’t stick to the flannelboard as well as a bigger piece of felt.

CRAFT:

Of course, since we played a SOCK matching game, we had to do a SHOE craft.  I found this craft via pinterest (of course).  The original craft has kids cutting out the shapes themselves, but we don’t do that because it’s too time-consuming and parents sometimes freak out when you give their three year old scissors.

The circles are binder reinforcers that we were complaining about having because we never use them.  And we drew in our shoelaces with white crayon.