Stop and Go!

My next opposite storytime theme this week was stop and go! The “go” part was very easy to find material for, but the “stop” definitely presented some creative storytime solutions. (I really like challenging myself to find *good* books to fit!)

First up, I read “Watch Me Go” by Rebecca Young.

This is a much smaller book than I ever thought that I would use in storytime, but I love the moving pictures so much! Anyways, reading this one definitely had a lot of panning involved, but the kids were so excited about this book that I didn’t mind the extra work for me. We talked a lot about different kinds of transportation (since the book has so many different examples) and launched straight into singing “Down By the Station.”

The next book was a “stop” book — “The Bus Stop” by Janet Morgan Stoeke.

A sweet story about kids getting ready to go to the bus stop. And throughout their school day, they all can’t wait to get back to the bus stop. After I finished reading, the kids and I talked about why it’s called a stop.

For the flannelboard, I got to use some ideas from the Michaels flannelboard I purchased either this month. I had to re-do some of the pieces because the felt wasn’t sticking very well. (Super thin felt and while it had no problem sticking to my board, it did have a problem sticking to itself.) Using the astronauts, I got to do this rhyme I learned in library school:

Flannel: “Zoom Zoom Zoom”
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’re going to the moon!
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’ll be there very soon!
So, if you’d like to take a trip
Just step inside my rocket ship
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’re going to the mon!
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’ll be there very soon!
Credit: Library School

And I followed it up with another space-themed activity:

Action Rhyme: “Bend and Stretch”
Bend and stretch, reach for the stars
There goes Jupiter, here comes Mars
Bend and stretch and reach for the sky
Stand on tip-e-toe, go so high!
Credit: Preschool Kids

The next book was “Go to Bed, Monster!” by Natasha Wing.

This was a pretty hysterical read. My daycare teachers were cracking up, and because they were really into the book — so were their classes! While this book has always worked well for me in storytime, today’s reading of it will be particularly memorable.

Then, we shook things up with an action rhyme:

Action Rhyme: “If I Were a Monster”
If I were a happy monster, I’d go ha! ha! ha! (laugh)
If I were a sad monster, I’d go boo, hoo, hoo! (rub eyes)
If I were a mad monster, I’d go stomp, stomp, stomp! (stomp feet)
If I were a scared monster, I’d go AHH! AHH! AHH! (scream)
But I’m just me, you see, so I’ll just read, read, read (sit down)
Credit: Perry Public Library

And then it was onward to “The Going to Bed Book” by Sandra Boynton.

This is another title that we have multiple copies of in a board book form. This was the first time that I used these books in a daycare format, and while the kids were good with sharing — they didn’t have the same interaction as my parent & kid sets. I don’t know if I would do this again. That being said, they definitely enjoyed the book!

The last book for today was “Red Light, Green Light” by Anastasia Suen.

I love that this book talked about stop and go; it was perfect for this theme — and the kids never get tired of transportation books. But this one especially worked because it led us straight through our action rhyme and then onto our craft.

Action Rhyme: “Green Says Go”
Green says, “Go!” (march quickly)
Go! Go! Go!
Yellow says, “Slow!” (march slowly)
Slow…slow…slow
And red says, “Stop!” (stop and freeze)
Go! Go! Go! (march fast)
Slow…slow…slow (march slowly)
and STOP! (stop)
Credit: Toddler Storytime

And then I borrowed this craft from Sarah at Awesome Storytime. This craft was a super simple one for the kids — they just glued down the circles and then wrote their names at the bottom, but I knew that the two teachers wouldn’t be able to help twenty two kids tie their necklaces, so I did it ahead of time.