Winter Animals!

Theme for Wednesday, December 3rd: Winter Animals

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Movement Activity: Stand up and Stretch

Stretch up to the sky
Stretch down to the ground
Shrug your shoulders up
Shrug your shoulders down
Roll your hands in a circle slowly
Roll your hands in a circle quickly.

Transition Rhyme: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Book: Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser

Flannel Board Activity: Quilts Galore! From Busy Crafting Mommy

Five colorful quilts with patches galore,
One covered Rabbit and then there were four.

Four colorful quilts as pretty as can be,
One covered Kitty and then there were three.

Three colorful quilts with patches red and blue,
One covered Fox and then there were two.

Two colorful quilts made just for fun,
One covered Squirrel and then there was one.

One colorful quilt left out in the sun,
It covered Puppy and then there were none.

Here are the animals...

Covered with quilts!

Flannel Board: Five Hedgehogs; From Mrs. Andre's Library

Five little hedgehogs sitting on the floor
One fell asleep and then there were four

Four little hedgehogs, cute as can be
One rolled away and then there were three

Three little hedgehogs visited the zoo
One stayed with the bears and then there were two

Two little hedgehogs hungry for dinner
Race to finish.  We have a winner!

One lonely hedgehog wiggling his snout.
"Where are my friends?" he began to pout.

(bring other hedgehogs back)
"Where we are, here we are, don't you worry.  Let's go outside, hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Five hedgehogs!

Song: List of Dances from Jim Gill's CD Jim Gill Makes it Noisy in Boise, Idaho!

Book: Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

Song: Silly Dance Contest from Jim Gill's CD Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes

Craft: Hibernating Bear; From Kiboomu

We made hibernating bears! We glued brown and white half-circles onto the paper and then added eyes for the bear.  The kids decorated the paper with crayons and most of them added ears/nose/mouth to the bear!

Houses and Homes

Theme for Wednesday, November 12: Houses and Homes

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: Huff & Puff by Claudia Rueda

Movement Activity: Stand up and Stretch

Stretch up tall
Stretch down low
Shrug your shoulders up
Shrug your shoulders down
Roll your hands slowly
Roll your hands quickly

Transition Song: Touch Your Ears and Touch Your Nose

Book: The Napping House by Audrey Wood

Activity: Habitat Matching Game from Falling Flannelboards

We started with pictures of seven different types of habitats.  The kids then picked an animal and had to match it to its habitat.

It was a fun way to incorporate a STEAM activity into our storytime! (And the kids had a lot of fun with it!)

Song: Crazy Dance Contest from Jim Gill's CD Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes

Flannel Board Activity: Bird Houses; from Spectacular Story Time

We've done this one before, but I thought it would be a fun one to bring back!

Empty Bird Houses...

The birds are home!

Book: Ned's New Home by Kevin Tseng

Craft: Shape Houses! From The Measured Mom

We built our own houses today!

I put out triangles, squares, and rectangles and let the kids design a house.  They colored it in and added stars, grass, trees, etc.

Halloween Party!

Storytime for Wednesday, October 29: Halloween!

We had our Halloween party at the library yesterday.  It was so much fun - the kids came dressed in their costumes and we went trick-or-treating around the library!

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

Fingerplay: Five Little Pumpkins

Transition Rhyme: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Book: In a Dark, Dark Wood by David Carter

Flannel Board: Swish-Swoosh
Based on the book "Clip Clop" by Nicola Smee
From Storytiming

There's a great explanation on Storytiming's blog about this flannel board story.  Basically, I told the story using the words from "Clip, Clop" but I substituted the animals for Halloween characters and said "swish-swoosh, swishity-swoosh" as the refrain.

Song: Crazy Dance Contest from Jim Gill's CD "Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes"

Book: What's in the Witch's Kitchen? by Nick Sharrett

This book was a big hit with the kids.  They loved it!

Craft: Cat Masks

We made cat masks by glueing the head, ears and whiskers on the cat.  Then the kids decorated it and added the popsicle stick to make it look like a mask!

Community Helpers, Part II

Community Helpers, Part II!

On Tuesday, I visited a preschool to do my second community helpers storytime for them.  We talked about specific types of community helpers, including veterinarians, carpenters, teachers, and more!

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: Bark, George! By Jules Feiffer

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Transition Song: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Book: Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop by Lisa Shulman

Activity: Police officer, police officer, what do you see?
Based on the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? by Bill Martin
From: Themed Storytime Ideas

Police officer, police officer, what to you see?
I see a farmer looking at me.

Farmer farmer, what do you see
I see a construction worker looking at me

(continue with other community helpers)

I printed out pictures of different community helpers and glued them on card stock.  Then I held each picture up as we named each community helpers.

Police Officer!

Farmer!

Song: Icky Sticky Bubblegum

Flannel Board: Down around the corner; From Storytime Katie

Down around the corner in the bakery shop
Were five yummy cookies with sprinkles on top
Along came ______(insert name) with a dollar to pay
He/she buys a cookie and takes it away!

(continue with 4, 3, 2, 1)

After we'd taken away all the cookies, I brought out cookie monster and we fed him the cookies!

Yummy!

Book: Dinosaur Vs. School by Bob Shea

Song: Tutti Ta, from Johnny Only's CD "Kid's Music You Can Dance To!"

Red, Orange, and Yellow

Theme for Wednesday, October 22: Red, Yellow, and Orange!

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds

Fingerplay: Way Up High in the Apple Tree; Adapted from Jen in the Library

Way up high in the apple tree (pretend to point to a tree)

Five little apples (hold up five fingers)

Smiled at me (smile)

So I shook that tree as hard as I could (pretend to shake tree)

And down came an apple (motion with your hand an apple falling)

Mmm it tastes good! (rub tummy)

Repeat with 4, 3, 2, and 1 apples

Transition Song: 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: Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington

Flannel Board: Chocolate Chip Ghost! From Storytime with Miss Tara

What color are ghosts?  They're white!  After I placed the ghosts on the flannel board the kids and I talked about what kind of food ghosts eat - we came up with white-colored foods like vanilla ice cream, marshmallows, and mashed potatoes.  

But then the first ghost finds a red strawberry!  He eats the strawberry and he turns...red!  I flipped over the ghost to show the kids the red-colored ghost.

Pretty soon all the ghosts have tried different-colored food: 

The second ghost ate chocolate

The third ghost ate bananas

The fourth ghost ate broccoli

The fifth ghost ate a pink-colored popsicle

The sixth ghost ate some blueberries

The seventh ghost drank some orange juice

And the eighth ghost ate a chocolate chip cookie.  What color did he turn?

Brown with chocolate chips!  

Movement Song: List of Dances, from Jim Gill's CD Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes

Book: Lemons Are Not Yellow by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Movement Song: Silly Dance Contest from Jim Gill's CD Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes

Craft: Fall trees!

We colored in our trees and then glued on pieces of red, yellow, orange, and brown paper.  I also handed out a basket for the kids to color and glue onto their pictures!

Community Helpers - Part I

Community Helpers! 

This month, I'm visiting a preschool to talk about Community Helpers.  Our first storytime was on Tuesday, and we talked about all the different types of people in our community and what sorts of jobs they do. 

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Flannel Board Intro: Name that Tool! From Ms. Kelly at the Library

This was a fun way to introduce the storytime theme to the kids!  I placed each tool on the flannel board and asked the kids what it was and which community helper would use it. 

Book: Kitten Red, Yellow, Blue by Peter Catalanotto

Action Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Transition Song: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Book: Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do by Kathryn Heling

Flannel Board Game: Pigeon, pigeon, are under the ______? From SLC Book Boy

I reused the flannel board I made for our transportation theme.  As I placed the vehicles on the flannel board, we talked about who drives them, and how they help people.  Then we guessed which vehicle our pigeon was hiding under!

The dump truck!

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

Song with Puppets: Old MacDonald

We sang "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," and I pulled out a puppet each time we got to one of the animals.  We had a cow, horse, dog, pig, and tiger on our farm today!

Book: Bear About Town/Oso En La Ciudad by Stella Blackstone

Song: "List of Dances" from Jim Gill's CD Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes.

Next week, we'll be reading more stories about community helpers!

Pumpkins!

Theme for Wednesday, October 15: Pumpkins!

Opening: Open, shut them

Book: Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman

Fingerplay: Five Little Pumpkins; From Sunflower Storytime

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun."
Then Woooo went the wind
And OUT went the lights
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Transition Song: Touch your ears and touch your nose

Book: Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas

Flannel Board: Five Giant Pumpkins; From Read Rabbit Read

Five giant pumpkins sitting on the floor
One became pumpkin pie and then there were four.

Four giant pumpkins orange as they can be
One became a jack-o-lantern and then there were three.

Three giant pumpkins, enormous, it's true
One became a carriage for Cinderella and then there were two.

Two giant pumpkins underneath the sun
One got first prize at the fair and then there was one.

One giant pumpkin sitting all alone.
I picked it up and carried it home!

I made the five giant pumpkins by glueing paper pumpkins onto felt pieces.

And then I glued each "thing" the pumpkins had become onto the back of the felt.  As I read the poem, I flipped over each pumpkin to reveal what it had turned into!

Song: We had a request for "Tutti Ta" from Johnny Only's CD Kids Music You Can Dance To!

Flannel Board: Jack-o-Happy; From So Tomorrow

This is jack-o-happy
This is jack-o-sad
This is jack-o-sleepy
This is jack-o-sad
This is jack-o-broken
Into pieces small
Baked into a pumpkin pie
That's the best of all!
YUM! YUM!

Here's our pumpkin pie! 

Book: Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor

Song: We had another request for "Penguin Dance" from Jack Hartmann's Get on Board the Transition Train!

Craft: Pumpkins!

The kids made pumpkins this week!  Some of the kids colored their pumpkins with crayons, some of them glued on the orange and black paper to make a jack-o-lantern face, and some did a combination of both.  Lots of the kids made two pumpkins so that they could take one home and leave one at the library!

Hats!

Theme for Wednesday, October 8: Hats!

Opening: Open, Shut Them

Book: Who Took Farmer's Hat? by Joan L. Nodset

Fingerplay: My Hat Has Three Corners; From Anne's Library Life

My hat has three corners (Join thumbs and index fingers to form triangle and place on top of head)

Three corners has my hat (Raise three fingers)

If it did not have three corners (Raise three fingers and shake head)

It would not be my hat. (Join thumbs and index fingers to form triangle and place on top of head)

Transition Song: 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 one, two, three

Now sit down so quietly.

Book: A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke

Flannel Board Activity: Find Cat in the Hat's Hat (I'm not sure where I saw this originally).

The cat in the hat is looking for his hat!  We went searching for it, and look what we found first!

A king's hat!  But, that's not that cat's hat.  What else do we have?

A party hat!  But that's not it either...

A ski hat?  Nope!

And finally, the cat in the hat has found his hat!

We went through about eight different hats, and after each one, I asked the kids who's hat I'd found instead.  Usually, I do this flannel board during the holidays with Santa, but I thought it would be a fun one for our 'hats' storytime this week!

Flannel Board Game: Kitty cat, kitty cat, are you in the baseball hat? From Miss Mary Liberry

I made a couple different kinds of hats and hid a cat under one of them.  Can you guess where the cat is hiding?  

Under the top hat! 

Book: Twelve Hats for Lena by Karen Katz

Song: Silly Dance Contest from Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Songs and Other Contagious Tunes

Craft: Witch! From I Heart Crafty Things

Since it's October, I thought it would be fun to make a witch with a hat!

We colored our witches and glued on the hair, googly eyes and hat!