Materials
- Mary Wore Her Red Dress and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers by Merle Peek
- paper in a variety of colors
- markers
- boots and shoe patterns
- scissors
- glue
- mini stickers
What to do
1. Read Mary Wore Her Red Dress and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers by Merle Peek to the children.
2. Draw stick figures on paper (without faces), one for each child. On each paper write the words, "_______ is wearing _____ ______ with ______ on them."
3. Ask the children to cut out boot or shoe shapes using the patterns and any color paper she wants.
4. Encourage the children to glue the cut-out shoes to the feet of the stick person. They can decorate their stick person and shoes to look like themselves or someone they know.
5. Ask the children to dictate a sentence about the shoes on their stick figures, for example, "Mary is wearing red shoes with flowers on them." Write the child's words underneath the picture.
6. Make a classroom book by stapling all of the pages together. Let the children make a cover for the book and then add it to the classroom library.
7. Read Mary Wore Her Red Dress and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers again. Afterward, read the children's classroom book and sing the words using the same tune.
8. This can be adapted using other clothing items, such as coats, hats, mittens, pants, shirts, or socks.
-Sandra Nagel, White Lake, MI
Instructions
1. Make or buy an apron similar to one used
for backyard barbecuing. This apron
works best if made out of felt, corduroy,
or other fabric with a nap. Sew pockets to
the lower edge to hold materials.
2. Find pictures of a familiar story. Choose a
story you like or want to use often, as the
children will request it often. Make sure the
pictures or symbols are brightly
colored and large enough for all
the children to see well. Coloring
books are great to use because the
pictures are already large and can be
colored brightly. Pictures cut from felt are
also good to use because they don't need
Velcro.
3. Attach Velcro to the back of each picture
so that it will stick to the apron.
4. Before you tell a story, put on the apron
and put the pictures for the story in the
pockets. As you tell the story, reach into
the pockets for the appropriate picture
and stick it to the apron. This helps make
the story interesting.
5. The apron is also great for sequencing
songs and fingerplays.
