Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Dinosaurs

Theme for Wednesday, August 20: Dinosaurs!

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen

Action Rhyme: STOMP, STOMP, STOMP From Hummingbird Educational Resources

The first big dinosaur went stomp, stomp, stomp
I said to the first dinosaur, "Stop, stop, stop!"
The second big dinosaur went run, run, run
I said to the second dinosaur, "Fun, fun, fun!"
The third big dinosaur went thump, thump, thump
I said to the third dinosaur, "Jump, jump, jump!"
The fourth big dinosaur went whack, whack, whack
I said to the fourth dinosaur, "You stay back!"
The fifth big dinosaur went creep, creep, creep
I said to the fifth dinosaur, "It's time to sleep."

Transition Rhyme: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Touch your ears and touch your nose
Now bend down and touch your toes
Wiggle your fingers and turn around
Now bend down and touch the ground
Clap your hands, count 1, 2, 3
Now sit down so quietly

Book: Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea

Flannel Board: Five Huge Dinosaurs; From In the Children's Room

Five huge dinosaurs, fierce and mean.
The first one said, "I eat things that are green."
The second one said, "I hatched from an egg."
The third one said, "I have really strong legs."
The fourth one said, "I fly through the air."
The fifth one said, "I give everyone a scare!"
Then THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, along came a T-rex that day
And five fierce dinosaurs ran away!

Action Rhyme: Dinosaurs From YLPL

Dinosaurs lived long ago.
Some walked (stomp in place)
Some swam (pretend to swim)
Some flew, you know (flap arms at sides)
Some were big (reach up high)
Some were small (hold hands low)
Some were gigantic (stretch arms out wide)
V-e-r-y tall! (stretch arms up high)

Book: Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont

Song: We are the dinosaurs from Laurie Berkner's Whaddaya Think of That?

Craft: Dinosaurs!


I cut out a dinosaur and the kids colored it in and glued on different colored spikes!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Beach Time!

We visited the beach today for storytime!

Theme for Wednesday, August 14: The Beach!

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root

Movement Activity: Stand up and Stretch

We stretched as high as we could and as low as we could.  
We wiggled our fingers and our toes.
We shrugged our shoulders up and down.  
We made a fist and rolled our hands in a circle.  We started slowly and then sped up!

Transition Rhyme: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Touch your ears and touch your nose
Now bend down and touch your toes
Wiggle your fingers and turn around
Now bend down and touch the ground
Clap your hands, count 1, 2, 3
Now sit down so quietly.

Book: How Will We Get to the Beach? by Brigitte Luciani


Flannel Board Activity: Beach Bear

We talked about what we wear when we go to the beach.  I had the kids help me get the bear dressed in the right clothes!

Flannel Board Activity: Popsicles! From: Storytime Katie


Since I didn't have the song that went with this flannel board, we simply talked about the popsicles instead.  We had a smaller group tonight, so I was able to have each kid choose a popsicle from the bag.  We pretended to eat the popsicle and then talked about what color our tongue would turn (i.e. you eat the purple popsicle, your tongue would turn purple!).  Then the child picked out the blue tongue from the pile and stuck it on the boy's face.

 
We also talked about what flavor we thought each popsicle would be.  We decided that the purple one was probably grape-flavored!

Book: Sally Goes to the Beach by Stephen Huneck

Song: Shake Your Sillies Out from The Wiggles' CD Yummy Yummy

Craft: Leis 
This craft took a little bit of figuring out on my part.  I cut out the flowers for the kids to decorate.  Then I had them punch a tiny hole in each of them. (I had to use the tiny hole puncher because otherwise it made too big of a hole).

Then I took a straw and cut it into thirds.  I realized that you needed a small piece of straw to go in between each flower, otherwise the flowers would lump together.

I used twine to make the necklace part of it and wrapped some tape around the end to make it easier for the kids to string the flowers and the straws.  Once the kids were done making the leis, I tied the ends of the twine in a knot and made a necklace for them!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Let's go Camping!

Theme for Wednesday, August 6: Camping

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: One-Dog Canoe by Mary Casanova

Fingerplay: Five Little Hot Dogs (with a flannel board!) From: Fun with Friends at Storytime

Five little hot dogs, frying in a pan (hold up 5 fingers and wiggle them)
The grease got hot and one went...BAM! (Clap hands loudly)

(Continue counting: 4, 3, 2, 1...)

Zero little hot dogs, frying in a pan (hold up a fist)
The pan got hot and it went...BAM! (Clap hands loudly)

Transitional Rhyme: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Touch your ears and touch your nose
Now bend down and touch your toes
Wiggle your fingers and turn around
Now bend down and touch the ground
Clap your hands, count 1, 2, 3
Now sit down so quietly.

Book: The Woods by Paul Hoppe

Action Song: A Ram-Sam-Sam; From: Mill Valley Public Library

Hand Motions
A ram-sam-sam = make two fists and pound them, one on top of the other
Gooly, gooly, gooly, gooly = make two fists and roll them in a circle
A raffi, a raffi = raise hands over your head and wiggle your fingers

Lyrics
A ram-sam-sam 
A ram-sam-sam 
Gooly, gooly, gooly, gooly
Ram-sam-sam

A ram-sam-sam
A ram-sam-sam
Gooly, gooly, gooly, gooly
Ram-sam-sam

A raffi! A raffi!
Gooly, gooly, gooly, gooly
Ram-sam-sam

A raffi! A raffi!
Gooly, gooly, gooly, gooly
Ram-sam-sam

I love this song because we did this for my very first summer reading in Ridgeland, Mississippi! 
I've seen a few different versions of the hand motions, but these are the ones I've traditionally used.

Song: Alice the Camel (with flannel board!) From: So Tomorrow

Alice the camel has 5 humps
Alice the camel has 5 humps
Alice the camel has 5 humps
So go, Alice, go!
Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!

(Remove a hump.  Repeat as you count down 4, 3, 2, 1 humps)

Alice the camel has 0 humps
Alice the camel has 0 humps
Alice the camel has 0 humps
Alice is a horse!

I asked the kids at the very end what they thought Alice looked like, and they said "horse" right away!

Book: Foggy, Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt

Action Song: Tooty Ta from Johnny Only's CD Kids Music You Can Dance To!

Craft: Picnic craft!

We made a picnic craft today!  I created a checkered template on a blank sheet of white paper in Microsoft Publisher.  The kids decorated the squares and glued on delicious picnic food!