We had such a wonderful turn out at the Springville playgroup last week! We started out by running around the gymnasium. We must have had about 15 kids. We all decided to get our wiggles out by screaming as loud as we could running from one side of the room to the other. Then we had lots of bouncy balls. We played "catch" and we even got the preschoolers and toddlers to gently toss the ball to the babies.
Once we took care of their wiggles we moved on to singing time to grasp the children's attention. We sung the "Little Turtle: Tiny Tim" song and "Ring-a-round-the-Rosie." Both songs were great to get the children's attention because of the gestures that go with them. Once we cooled down from playing hard, it was story time.
We first read the book, Animal Action ABC.
This book was such a fun way for all the kids to get together and act out what animals do. Each verbs were introduced alphabetically, so it was also a good learning tool for the alphabet.
We then moved on to our theme. The weather. We talked about what we see when it's rainy out, and when it's sunny out, but what about a windy day? The children all agreed that they couldn't see wind, but they could see what it did to trees and hear what it did to their windows at home.
Then we moved onto this book. The Wind Blew. 
To help the children's listening skills, we had a little activity that went along with this. We had pictures (and words for the older ones who can read.) that went along with the items the the wind blew in the story. We had the kids find the items in their little zip log bag full of pictures to match the items in the story. We gave away the pictures so that they could go home and tell their family the story about what the wind blew too.
Finally for craft time, we had the kids blow their own wind with a straw. We then put some slightly watered-down paint on a paper that matched their hair color and had them blow the paint with the straw. Once they were satisfied with their "wind-blown-crazy-hair," we had them draw faces and bodies to go with the crazy hair. It was a great way to teach the children that even with something you can't see, like wind, you can still feel and see the effect of what it does.
We hope that more can join us for our fun at playgroups in Springville on Thursdays from 10am at the LDS church building located off of 900 E and 200 N. (Next to Art City Elementary School).
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