Berries!

The Plan

Books

The Berry Book by Gail Gibbons
Jamberry by Bruce Degen
One Little Blueberry by Tammi Salzano
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Five Strawberries”
Five red strawberries, sweet to the core.
Bear came and ate one and then there were four.
Four red strawberries, growing near a tree.
Bear came and ate one and then there were three.
Three red strawberries, for you and you and you.
Bear came and ate one and then there were two.
Two red strawberries, sitting in the sun.
Bear came and ate one and then there was one.
One red strawberry, left all alone.
Bear came and ate it and then there were none.
Credit: Abby the Librarian

Action Song: Pop Goes the Berry (Tune: Pop Goes the Weasel)
All around the strawberry fields,
We picked some juicy berries
We brought them home and washed them off,
Pop! Go the berries! (have kids jump up on “pop”)
Credit: Jbrary

Fingerplay: At the Cottage Door
One, two, three four,
(Insert child’s name) at the cottage door.
Five, six, seven, eight,
Counting cherries on her plate.
Credit: Childhood

Puppets: “The Mouse & the Red, Ripe Strawberry”

Craft

I Pinterested up strawberry crafts and kept seeing adorable ones with buttons like this one and this one. We didn’t have any black buttons, but we did have a MESS of leftover self-adhesive jewels and buttons, so I decided to go ahead and use them up!

How It Went

The kids had a great time, and LOVED the puppet show of “The Mouse & the Red, Ripe Strawberry.” As for books, I think that “The Berry Book” was the favorite — even though I paperclipped some of the pages since it was long and non-fiction for older readers. Craft was highly successful! I had two little girls who completely covered their strawberries in buttons and jewels.