PeeWees: Harry the Dirty Dog (week 2)

Week 2 of Harry was as good, if not better, than the first.  This was the first book I've done where I had more ideas and activities than we could possibly do, and they were all also pretty successful!  Yippee!

Arrival:  We played with the plastic dogs from last week, and this time with "tunnels" for them to crawl through and play in.  (One of the things Harry does to get dirty is play tag with the other dogs in an empty lot that has some old pipes they crawl through.) 

Circle Time:   We sang the welcome song, and the alphabet a few times.  We counted out the plastic dogs several times - up to 10 together, and then from 11 to 20 I said the number and had them repeat it.  This was hard for them to do.  Maybe I wasn't explaining it well, because some would say it with me, some after, and it was jumbled.  I finally got them to echo me if I said it loud and with my whole body shifted, as if to show my turn, your turn.  It was tricky, but I think repeating the teens is helpful.

Book:  We used the prop bags again, starting with, "Everyone get your Harry out!"

 They love wearing the construction hats, for the page when Harry plays where they're fixing the street.

 This is everyone flip-flopping and flop-flipping.  Then rolling over and playing dead.

 Our favorite part is when the family realizes it's Harry under all that dirt.  Together we shouted, "It's Harry!  It's Harry!  It's Harry!" over and over again.  Here they are brushing him "lovingly."

Snack:  Sliced apples and alphabet cookies (Harry has a big H on his doghouse.)  Everyone got at least one of the letters in their names.

Art:  As you see on the scanned page above, "Harry's bath was the soapiest one he'd ever had."  So we did some soapy art today - bubble prints!  I added food coloring to bubble-blowing solution, and had them blow bubbles onto thick watercolor paper, held upright on easels.  Each kid had a color, then we rotated them, so by the end everyone had had three of the colors, and none were the same. 

 Blowing bubbles is a challenging, but not frustrating, task at this age.  Sometimes the pigmented soap just splattered from the blowing, but sometimes they would get a real bubble to blow and land on their paper, popping to make a colored circle.  Everyone liked blowing the bubbles; no one lost interest sooner than the others, as sometimes happens.  But I have to say, I think Henry got the most personal satisfaction out of this - every time he got a good bubble, he shouted, "I did it!!!"

 Using food coloring makes pale colors - you can add tempera paint to the soap to make stronger colors. 

Activity 1: As you can see on this page, Harry has a large "H" on the side of his doghouse.  

 So we made our own doghouses, with decorations...

 ...and initials, using the same alphabet cookies we'd had for snack.

 And fruit leather for the doors.

Break:  While I cleaned this one up, they ran around to "Who Let the Dogs Out" again.  Classic.

Re-read:  Since reading the book with the props bag takes a long time, I did our re-read at this point, to make sure there was time for it.  Then I could ax our second activity if needed.  But the second time through the book went more quickly - they knew what prop or action went with what page, and towards the end, we added even more actions, like shaking our heads when the family said, "Oh, no, it couldn't be Harry!"

Activity 2:  Since this book is a lot about getting dirty, and getting clean, I wanted to do something tactile on that theme without too much disaster, so we washed pennies.  Everyone got a bowl of soapy water and a handful of pennies.  I showed them how to hold a penny and scrub it with a toothbrush scrubbing brush - the more you scrub, the more bubbles you make!  And you get the pennies clean!  

 Again, this was challenging - the fine motor demands of holding a wet penny in one hand, and scrubbing it with a long-handled brush with the other, were not everyone's favorites, but they gave it a good go, and they really liked lining them up on the towel once they were clean.  

 

 Right at the end we cleaned up and did our goodbye chant, also trying another one Lisa found in a Highlights magazine.  But mostly they just wanted to run the track in my house, so I let them for the last few minutes before moms arrived.  These two weeks were the best I've ever had with these guys, partly because we're all really in the PeeWee groove, but mostly because Harry the Dirty Dog is such a great book!  Everyone got to take their Harry dogs home - I hope they like them as much as Poppy loves hers!