storytime katie

We switched it up at morning storytime today and had bedtime stories! I was a little bit nervous that I’d hear, “No bedtime!” from one of the kids, but they really enjoyed this theme.

I started off by reading “Pajamas Anytime” by Marsha Hayles.

This is a super cute story about a little boy who wears pajamas for all different kinds of occasions — not just for sleeping. We sat very attentively for this book, and I was super proud of my kids!

Next, I did our flannelboard activity, which was “Hey Diddle Diddle.” We used to have a great nursery rhymes program for little ones, but we lost the staff necessary to maintain it. So, I’m trying this storytime session to incorporate nursery rhymes. (Especially since we just bought such good flannelboard nursery rhyme kits!)

I introduced our next book by asking if the kids were ready for bed. As expected, they gave a mostly resounding “No!” But then I said that we were going to read a story all about someone ready for bed. And that story was “Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for Bed?” by Barney Saltzburg.

The kids *loved* this one. They keep shouting “YES!” to every question and I had one kid shout out, “You can’t feed cookies to a fish!” It was so nice to see them engaging with the pictures.

We were a little wiggly by now, so we practiced our “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

And did a modified version of “Ten in the Bed,” starting with five instead of ten.

There were five in the bed (Hold up five fingers)
And the little one said, “Roll over, roll over!” (Make rolling motion)
So they are rolled over and one fell out. (Hold up one finger & surprised face)
// Count down until
There was one in the bed (Hold up one finger)
And the little one said, “I’ve got it all to myself!” (Spread out arms)

By then, we were pretty worn out so I read “Race You to Bed” by Bob Shea.

I love Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series and this is another hit for me. The kids really liked racing and while we did have one squabble (someone took someone’s toy car!) during the book, we were definitely eager to see if we would beat rabbit to bed.

Then we talked about what we sleep with, and I confessed that I still sleep with a teddy bear before going into “Teddy Bear.” Since we were pretty tuckered out already, I just went with a simple version instead of the full version I had planned. I love having activities that can be shortened or stretched out depending on how wiggly the kids are during the storytime.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground
Teddy bear, teddy bear, reach up high
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the sky
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your knees
Teddy bear, teddy bear, sit down please

Finished up our book reading with “Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me” by Eric Carle.

I had never read this Carle book as a child, but it is easily one of my favorites as an adult. Pages fold out and up and down, and the kids were absolutely delighted with the pop-out moon spread. This was a hit as far as I’m concerned and I can’t wait to try and find another storytime to use it in.

What bedtime storytime would be complete without singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star?” Which is exactly how we ended before moving to our craft.

We made a slightly different version of this craft: Night Sky – Sprout Online. I ditched the foil because I was worried about some of my little guys putting it in their mouths, and instead used colored paper.

My teen volunteers punched out the stars using a scrapbooking set of punches. (I highly recommend using paper punches whenever possible. I keep a set of three different sized circles and now three different sized stars at the library just for preschool crafts. Makes it way easier than cutting out ten circles per kid for a train craft.)

This week, I decided to go ahead with a pets theme!

We read “Bark, George” by Jules Feiffer first.

The kids sat really still for this book and loved the animals noises. I had one three-year-old who was determined to guess every animal that comes of our George’s mouth, but boy was he stumped by the ending!

Next, we went ahead and read “Pet Wash” by Dayle Ann Dodds.

The adults at my storytime were really chuckling at this one. It would have been a great pick for preschool storytime, but my group skewed way too young for this book to be a real success. We did like when the baby brother showed up to get a wash. One of my two-year-olds laughed hysterically at this part.

Next, we took a break from books and did our flannelboard — “Five Little Puppies.” (We used the BINGO dogs that I had made for farm storytime last spring — I made the B-I-N-G-O removable in case I needed the dogs for something other than BINGO.)

And then, we practiced our “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” which is the action rhyme that I’m hoping to have them memorize throughout the whole eight week session.

Then, I picked up a book and we sat back down for “Posy” by Linda Newberry and Catherine Rayner.

The kids were pretty restless during this one, but I brought them back to the story using my favorite technique — counting! We counted how many Posys were on each page. They LOVE counting, and I love using it.

Since we were wiggly, we did “The Wiggles.”

I finished up storytime by reading “Pet Shop Lullaby” by Mary Ann Fraser.

This was a great choice as the final book. The kids were tired from wiggling and head-shoulder-knee-toeing, so they sat very quietly for this excellent story about a hamster who can’t sleep in the pet shop.

We sang a few songs at the end — “How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?” and our “ABCs” and they moved on to our craft:

From DLTK’s Crafts — Paper Cat Craft.

My first storytime this fall — and I was so excited to do my first alphabet storytime. There are some fantastic alphabet books and crafts, but I had the hardest time finding songs and fingerplays.

I started off storytime by reading my new favorite alphabet book, “LMNO Peas” by Keith Baker.

This is such a great rhyming story all about peas and who they are. Astronauts, voters, and tons more — these little peas are everything imaginable under the sun. And a quick heads-up to all of my friends expecting babies — you will be getting this book from me!

Together, we stood up and learned “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” for the first time. I introduced this rhyme by having everyone find their heads, shoulders, knees, and toes before I started singing. And I did have some kids working through the song, just a step behind me.

Next up, I did “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin.

This is our Chicka tree, and the letters are Velcro that stick to the tree. I really wanted to do the activity tree as I read the story, but I had very young kids at this storytime, so I left the tree out with all the letters on top of it while I read the book. If this had been preschool storytime, I would have ditched the book and just used the tree to tell the story.

I found this great action rhyme and just modified it a bit to work in my storytime:

Action Rhyme: “Alphabet Beat”
First clap your hands. Then stomp your feet.
Everybody do the alphabet beat.
Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a,
Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a,
Wave your arms high. Swing your arms low.
The alphabet beat is the way to go.
Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b
Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b
Move to the left. Move to the right.
The alphabet beat is way out of sight.
Car, Car, Car – c – c – c
Car, Car, Car – c – c – c
Now give a high five to a nearby friend.
The alphabet beat has come to the end!
Credit: Preschool Storytime Outlines

I read “Alligator Alphabet” by Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer next.

The bright colors really caught the eyes of the kids, and they really enjoyed this title. Next, I lined up the alphabet on the flannelboard and pointed to the letters as I said them. And then, I went to A again and asked what starts with A. I was hoping for apple, and thankfully a mom jumped in to give me a segue to the fingerplay:

“Way Up High In the Apple Tree”
Way up high in the apple tree (stretch arm up high)
Two red apples smiled at me (hold up 2 fingers)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (make a shaking motion)
Down came the apples, (make a downward motion)
Mmmm–were they good! (smile and rub stomach)

I finished up alphabet storytime with “The Sleepy Little Alphabet” by Judy Sierra.

A great, quiet read to cap the storytime, but we weren’t finished yet — what alphabet storytime would be complete without singing the “ABCs?”

Our craft for this week was a simple alphabet caterpillar from DLTK’s Kids.

(Well, it was simple for the kids and parents — not so simple for my teen volunteer who had to painstakingly cut out enough for each child to spell out their name! My teens are really awesome at cutting stuff out for storytime.)