This food activity is for use with Eric Carle's "The Very Busy Spider." You will need a sandwich style cookie for each child, a pack of black shoestring licorice, a pack of jellybeans, and a tube of black cake decorator icing. Cut the licorice into 1.5" pieces. Give each child a paper plate, a cookie, eight pieces of licorice and two same colored jellybeans. Have the children create spider legs by inserting the tips of the licorice pieces into the cookie sandwich filling. Use the icing tube to squeeze two dots of icing on the top of each spider cookie. Allow the child to press the jellybeans into the icing dots to make eyes.
Use fish shaped crackers for this activity that goes with Dr. Seuss' "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish." Give each child a small cup of rainbow fish crackers and a paper plate. Ask the children to take out one fish and put it on the plate. Then ask them to take out two fish and put it on the plate. Ask them to count out five fish to make a school of glad fish.
This snowy snack is for use with "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. Give each child a paper plate containing three marshmallows, one gumdrop, one pretzel stick, one strip of licorice and 2 tablespoons of white icing. Have the children use the icing as glue to stack the three marshmallows into a snowman. Have them break the pretzel in two and insert in the sides of the snowman to make arms. Attach the gumdrop hat with icing and tie the licorice into a scarf. Visit each child individually with a tube of black decorator icing and squeeze eyes and a mouth onto the snowman.
These cookie flowers are to be used with "Miss Rumphius" by Barbara Cooney. Give each child three ring shaped cookies, three small circle shaped candies and three pieces of green shoestring licorice. Have the children create three flowers on a paper plate by using the ring cookie as the flower, the candy as the flower's center, and the licorice as the stem. If possible, use blue, purple and rose colored candy centers to resemble the flowers in the book.