Sheep!

Today, in honor of spring ALMOST creeping up on Chicagoland (well, it’s in the upper thirties, heh), storytime theme was sheep! And on a special note, I woke up with a very hoarse voice — this was my first storytime without the ability to really change my voice and let me say I don’t ever want that to happen again!

After our welcome song, I went ahead and held up my first book, asking the kids if they knew what animal we would be reading about today. Of course, I had one of my boys shout out, “SHEEP,” so I was good to go with “Wee Little Lamb” by Lauren Thompson.

This is a super cute story about a shy lamb who keeps hiding behind his mother despite other animals asking him to play. This book turned into a “who can shout the new animal the loudest” game, and while I think everyone enjoyed the book, I couldn’t raise my voice to be heard over them, so I had to whisper, which did get them to calm down.

Next up, I read “Counting Ovejas” by Sarah Weeks.

This is a bilingual book, and a great choice for my community. I wish I could read in Spanish more often, but most of my Spanish is just basic vocab — which worked for this story (colors, numbers, sheep, “goodbye” and “good night” were the only words needed)! I really think that my Spanish-speaking families REALLY appreciated this, and the kids all had a great time identifying colors regardless of their preferred language.

A quick song with one of our adorable finger puppets: “Baa Baa Black Sheep” before moving on to “Sheep in a Jeep” by Nancy Shaw.

This silly, rhyming story went over well — I have got to try and find this book in a larger format thought, because our little picture book is not big enough for a large group. (Thankfully, we were on the small side group-wise today.) This series is one of the reasons that I wanted to do a sheep storytime!

And then, I did our flannelboard: “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” followed by this super cute fingerplay that I modified from Hubbard’s Cupboard’s post about Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Fingerplay: “The Lamb Went”
The lamb went…
Around the cow in the corn (trace circle in palm)
Under the haystack (go under the hand)
Up the hill and down the hill (go up the arm and down the arm)
Over the fence (go above the hand)
Through the door (slide hands and clap)
And was back in time to meet the teacher (trace circle in palm)

Originally this was a storyboard idea, with pictures introduced to tell the story. I just added some fingerplay actions instead! Next book, “No More Blanket for Lambkin!” by Bernette Ford and Sam Williams.

I love this book about some friends who set out to play laundry, and wind up putting holes in a beloved blanket. The day is saved, of course, by the end of the book. Such sweet illustrations, nice big text for little eyes (or the storytime librarian reading on an angle!), and a great story.

I also found this action rhymes at Hubbard’s Cupboard, and it can be sung to “Five Green and Speckled Frogs,” but since my voice was only getting hoarser as I went, I opted just to say it. I made up my own actions for this one as well.

Action Rhyme: “Five White and Fluffy Sheep”
Five white and fluffy sheep (hold up five fingers)
In the pasture fast asleep (hands under head, lean over)
Their wool kept them cozy all night long (hug yourself)
Snore! Snore! (make snore sounds)
The farmer slipped away with one (hold up one finger)
And sheared the wool till he was done (clap)
Then there were 4 white fluffy sheep (hold up four fingers)
Baa! Baa! (baa!)
Credit: Hubbard’s Cupboard

A quick nursery rhyme of “Little Bo Peep” before our last book, “Where Is the Green Sheep?” by Mem Fox.

I’ve used this book in storytime before (and we have a big book version of it), and I have to say, it is easily one of my faves. The kids enjoy the suspense, they like trying to identify the sheep by the pictures, and the ending is so adorable that it obviously leads to giggles and choruses of “Silly sheep.”

Our handprint lamb/sheep craft comes from First School today.

My teens had everything cut out (including a trace of my hand for each child), and kids just assembled and glued some cotton balls to make their sheep fuzzy. Super cute!