Year: 2010

Fish!

Our theme for summer reading this year is “Make a Splash,” so we’ll be doing water-based storytimes for the next seven weeks. This week’s theme was easy — fish!

We started off with one of my favorite books — “Hooray for Fish!” by Lucy Cousins.

The children loved looking at all of Little Fish’s friends. We had a lot of side chatter during this book — “That’s MY favorite fish! The stripey one, Miss Katie!” — but no one lost interest! When we got to the “How many can you see?” spread, we had several little ones just start counting out loud, so we took a break and counted together which was an excellent practice for our next book…”Fish, Swish, Splash, Dash” by Suse MacDonald!

I absolutely love this book — the counting is told in a cut-out format where one fish turns into two fish, and so on. Then, we you reach the end of the book, you turn the book upside down and count down from ten. You can turn the book rightside up again at the end and start over if you want to. I think if the kids were given the option, we would spend all of storytime reading just this book. But, we did move on to our flannelboard:

Flannelboard: “Five Little Fishes”
Five little fish swimming by the shore
One got caught then there were four
Four little fish swimming in the sea
One got caught then there were three
Three little fish swimming in the blue
One got caught then there were two
Two little fish swimming in the sun
One got caught then there was one
One little fish swimming straight for home
Decided he would never roam

I am trying to break out of my comfort zone by using more puppets. We sang this song with Pinkie the Fish. (The kids pretended to have their own fishes, but I should have had the foresight to make popsicle stick fish or something.)

Did You Ever See a Fishy? (Tune of “Did You Ever See a Lassie?”)
Did you ever see a fishy, a fishy, a fishy
Did you ever see a fishy, swim this way and that?
Swim this way and that way, and that way and this way?
Did you ever see a fishy, swim this way and that?

We settled back down with our next book: “Big Fish, Little Fish” by Ed Heck.

I used this book several times over the course of the summer and each time it was very popular with my storytimes and group tours. It’s such a short, simple story that really works wonderfully. Next up, an action song!

“One, Two, Three, Four, Five”
One, two, three, four, five, (hold up fingers one by one, while counting)
Once I caught a fish alive. (put hands together and wiggle like a fish)
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, (hold up fingers one by one, while counting)
Then I threw it back again. (make throwing motion)
Why did you let it go? (hold hands out asking why)
Because it bit my finger so. (shake hand, as if hurt)
Which finger did it bite? (hold hands out asking why)
This little finger on my right. (wiggle pinky finger)

And we closed our storytime with “Fidgety Fish” by Ruth Galloway.

Our craft was very simple this week — fish scratch art! You can either make your own (most online craft stores sell “Magic Color” paper) and then you can die-cut your own shapes, or you can buy the kit online.

June 17, 2010 4 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Summer!

Seasons are an easy go-to theme, especially when you live in Chicago and the area has definite seasons! Our welcome song for this cycle is “Mr. Sun” and we’re still singing our “ABCs” for our closing song.

Started off storytime with “Mouse’s First Summer” by Lauren Thompson.

I really love the Mouse series — these are great books to use in introducing a season. Simple, bright illustrations and really adorable characters in Mouse and Minka. And even though the books are very formulaic, the kids are always excited to shoot “Hooray” with Mouse at the end.

Next, we read “It’s Summer” by Jimmy Pickering.

This is another series that has an installment for each season. We have another pair of cute characters here — Sally and her dog — and follow them as they explore the differences between the seasons in rhymes.

Afterwards, we needed to get up and shake around a bit, so we did our action rhyme:

Action Rhyme: “Swimming”
Swimming in the water cool and bright (pretend to swim)
I kick my feet with all my might (kick feet)
And when I’m tired I turn and float (spin and hold arms out)
Pretending that I’m a boat
I like to hold my breath and dive (pretend to take breath and dive)
I swim beneath the water and count to five (count to five)
Wow! What a dive!
Credit — Hummingbird Educational Resources

And then listened to our flannelboard: Ice Cream Colors (Credit: Step By Step).

Next up, “Summer Wonders” by Bob Raczka.

I adore this season series — bright colors, easy rhymes — and my favorite part is that there is always a vertical spread in each book. The kids are always really excited when I suddenly turn the book around on them. We have this whole series in our storytime collection, always ready to read.

Song: Summer’s Here (Tune: Frere Jacques)
Days are longer, sunshine’s stronger.
Summer’s here! Summer’s here!
Let’s jump through the sprinkler, let’s make lemonade
Summer’s here! Summer’s here!
Credit — Summer Preschool Lesson Plan

And we finished up the storytime by reading “Playground Day” by Jennifer J. Merz.

I really wanted to close the storytime with something that every kid could do over the summer. We have some awesome playgrounds around here and I hope that this book inspired parents to take their kids. Also, this one was definitely a winner — it’s a guessing animals book! As the girl plays on the various equipment, readers are invited to guess what animal she is acting like. Guessing animals is always a crowd pleaser.

For craft, we went with a pre-made kit from Oriental Trading: Tropical Visor Craft.

As for prep to make this one storytime appropriate, I punched out the foam pieces, pre-assembled the sun (base, face, and glasses) and decided to use glue dots instead of glue. This was our second time using glue dots, so my parents knew what was going on and I will definitely continue to use this product.

(Also, the recommended age on Oriental Trading has changed to 8+ since I ordered this kit. I really think that it works fine as a preschool craft. Some parents insisted that their kids make the scene exactly as the picture shows — but some of the cuter crafts were the ones where the kids had more free rein. And just so you know — this craft was entirely made of foam.)

June 17, 2010 3 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Bubble Party

This was an insane program that I did over the summer for 3-year-olds to 7-year-olds. I had twenty-three kids hopping around, and to make matters more complicated — I needed our bigger programming room for space, but also needed our smaller programming room for painting! (I’ll show you how I solved this with ease!)

First off, I read the book “Bubble Trouble” by Margaret Mahy.

This is a pretty long book to read about a baby who accidentally gets trapped in a bubble. And I definitely recommend practicing this one *several* times because there are a lot of tongue-twisty areas. But! The kids loved this story. We had massive amounts of giggling throughout its pages.

A couple of quick songs before launching into the bulk of the program: bubbles!

“My Bubbles” (Tune: “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”)
My bubbles flew over the ocean,
My bubbles flew over the sea,
My bubbles flew over the rainbow,
Oh come back, my bubbles, to me.
Come back, come back, oh come back my bubbles to me!

“Big Bubble” (Tune: “Do You Know the Muffin Man?”)
Can you blow a big bubble?
A big bubble, a big bubble?
Can you blow a big bubble,
With your bubble wand?

Credit for both: Bubble Theme – Step by Step

And then the kids played some quick games:

Bubble Dance – A game where the goal is to simply pop bubbles, not letting the bubbles hit the ground. I played a Dora CD while the children played the game which made it infinitely better. We have a bubble machine, and I literally just let it go, set up on a table. The kids were *thrilled* to be able to pop them to their heart’s content.

Bubble Bounce – A different kind of bubble. You throw balloons into the air and have the children keep the “bubbles” afloat. Super simple, I left the CD playing while we played this one too.

Bubble Race – This game can turn into a disaster very quickly if you let it. We purchased some giant bubble wands and let the kids run with them. Instead of a disaster though, the kids practiced their turn-taking and we made lines. My older kids were great examples for my younger kids and this was actually pretty flawless in terms of execution.

Our transition between spaces was easily solved by grabbing a bubble set and leading the kids through the library on a bubble parade. Simple, and totally effective.

And the whole reason why we needed to move downstairs — our craft was Bubble Art. Add 2 teaspoons of paint to bubble solution. I had the kids blow bubbles onto white construction paper. Make sure to provide lots of different kinds of tools to make bubbles. I had straws, bubbles wands, bubble pipes, etc. set out and every color of the rainbow to use. This went great, and was again, super easy and effective.

This is a program that I would definitely consider doing again — especially because I didn’t take pictures amidst all the chaos!

June 16, 2010 3 Comments Short URL, Special Programming

Food!

(These are very old storytimes, so I don’t remember every detail about them. Instead of my regular post, I’m just going to write down the plan & craft, with a brief commentary on how it went.)

Books

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley

Pizza at Sally’s by Monica Wellington

Extension Activities
Flannelboard: Five Big Lemons
Five big lemons in the bowl (hold up five fingers)
One fell out and started to roll (fold down one finger, and roll hands)
Where did it go? (hold hands out) It hit my toe! (point to toe)
How many lemons left in the bowl? 1-2-3-4 (count up with fingers)
(Repeat until “no more lemons left in the bowl”)
Credit: Early Literacy

Song: “Apples and Bananas”
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas (Repeat with other vowels sound)
Credit: Childhood

Fingerplay: Pattycake
Pattycake, pattycake, baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Roll it and pat it and mark it with a B
And put it in the oven for baby and me
Credit: Childhood

Craft

Got this pizza craft a long time ago for a Pizza Taste-Off with my K-5th graders and bookmarked it on the computer. Used it again in storytime. Craft is from Making Friends.

How It Went

This was the first time that I used a big book in storytime (Eating the Alphabet) and I was shocked when parents started reading along with me. This was a great way to get the kids engaged in the story. The craft was a great one too — the kids LOVED gluing toppings onto their pizzas even though each child told me they liked cheese the best.

May 20, 2010 4 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Things That Go!

(These are very old storytimes, so I don’t remember every detail about them. Instead of my regular post, I’m just going to write down the plan & craft, with a brief commentary on how it went.)

Books


Cars! Cars! Cars! by Grace Maccarone


Freight Train by Donald Crews


A Truck Goes Rattley-Bumpa by Jonathan London


Who Is Driving? By Leo Timmers

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “The Wheels On the Bus”
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town.
The wipers on the bus go Swish, swish, swish; The doors on the bus go open and shut; The horn on the bus goes Beep, beep, beep; The Driver on the bus says “Move on back, The people on the bus go Up and Down; The baby on the bus says “Wah, wah, wah”; The mommy on the bus says “Shush, shush, shush.”
Credit: Childhood

Action Rhyme: “The Airplane”
The airplane has great big wings (arms outstretched)
Its propeller spins around and sings “vvvvvv!” (make one arm go round)
The airplane goes up (lift arms)
The airplane goes down (lower arms)
The airplane flies high (arms outstretched, turn body around)
Over the town! (fly around)
Credit: Preschool Rainbow

Action Rhyme: “Choo-Choo Train”
Everyone rubs their hands together in a circular motion to make the noise, slowly at first, getting faster, the librarian says the following:
Choo, choo, choo, choo
Too-too, too-too, too-too
Choo-choo, choo-choo, choo-choo
Ding-dong, Ding-dong, Ding-dong, Ding-dong
Hissssssssssssssss
Credit: In-House Activity

Craft

Paper Train – Templates are from Danielle’s Place.

Teens had cut-out everything. Kids assembled train and decorated with stickers.

How It Went
This was a frustrating week for me because I had put so much into planning, and for whatever reason we had very sad attendance (this week before was 14; this week was 7). I must say though that the kids that attended storytime LOVED the craft. And even though I was low on attendance, everyone was very enthusiastic about the theme — so it worked out. Yay!

May 13, 2010 2 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Kids Art: Gardens

“Kids Art” was a program created to pair a book with a larger art project. The library already hosts a monthly craft program for grades 1-6, but our little kids were not getting much art — other than my storytime attempts. Thus, “Kids Art.”

This month’s program was inspired by Kevin Henkes’s new book: “My Garden.”

This is an excellent addition to my storytime collection. While “Old Bear” will always be my favorite Henkes, “My Garden” is a very close second. The kids had a great discussion about what kind of things they would plant in their gardens once we finished.

Then, we did a little bit of extension activities:

Action Rhyme: My Garden
This is my garden (Extend one hand forward, palm up)
I’ll rake it with care, (Make raking motion on palm with 3 fingers of other hand)
And then some flower seeds (Plant motion), I’ll plant in there.
The sun will shine (Make circle with hands)
And the rain will fall, (Let fingers flutter down to lap)
And my garden will blossom (Cup hands together; extend upward slowly)
And grow straight and tall.

Song: “The Garden Song” (Tune: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”)
Dig, dig, dig your garden
Make it smooth and neat
Push, push, push that shovel,
Push it with your feet.

Plant, plant, plant your seeds
Push them down an inch
Cover your seeds with some soil
Cover with a pinch.

Water, water, water your seed
This will help them sprout,
Sprinkle lightly and let’s not pour
And don’t let them dry out.

Sun, sun, sunshine
It will turn them green,
Carrots and radishes and peppers, too
Tomatoes and some beans.

Watch, watch, watch them grow
See them grow so tall
Put a scarecrow in the ground
To protect them all.

Pull, pull, pull the weeds
Keep your garden clear
To make them grow up and out
And stretch out here and there.

Pick, pick, pick your feast
Cook some veggie soup
You’ll have lots and lots to eat,
Enough to feed the group.

Credit for both: Step by Step – Garden Theme

And then we moved on to our craft, a garden cup!

This was a craft that one of my co-workers did a few Mother’s Days back. My teen volunteers had pre-cut the shapes and taped the straws to the back of the flowers. The kids used a cut up sponge to do the sponge painting, but I had them grip the sponge with a clothespin. It completely eliminated most of the mess — I only needed some hand wipes to wipe a few fingers.

While their flowers dried, the kids played “Duck, Duck, Goose.” (Which is kind of springtime-ish, right?)

After that, they “planted” their flowers in cups lined with clay at the bottom (otherwise the flowers are too top-heavy and tip the cup over), and filled it up with plastic grass. A hugely successful program — I hope some of the Moms were given flower cups for Mother’s Day when they got home!

May 11, 2010 0 Comments Short URL, Special Programming

Farm!

(These are very old storytimes, so I don’t remember every detail about them. Instead of my regular post, I’m just going to write down the plan & craft, with a brief commentary on how it went.)

Books


Clip Clop by Nicola Smee


The Little Rabbit Who Liked to Say Moo by Jonathan Allen


Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Jane Cabrera


Pepo and Lolo Are Friends by Ana Martín Larrañaga

Extension Activities
Flannelboard: Bingo
There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o.
B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.
(Repeat, replacing one letter with a clap each time.)
Credit: Childhood

Song/Puppets: “Over in the Barnyard” (Tune: Down By the Station)
Over in the barnyard
Early in the morning
See the yellow chickies
Standing in a row
See the busy farmer
Giving them their breakfast
Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep
Off they go (remove finger puppet)
[Also, pink piggies and spotted cows]
Credit: Teach-nology Farm Songs

Action Rhyme: “Farm Chores”
This is the way we ______, ______, ______
This is the way we ______, so early in the morning.
(Feed animals, plants seeds, water plants, pick plants, eat crops, etc.)
Credit: Preschool Education – Animals, Farm

Craft
Paper Plate Pig – Busy Bee Kids Crafts

How It Went
This was a very fun storytime to do. This was my first time using puppets, and I thought that it went really well — and definitely prompted me to buy more finger puppet sets from Manhattan Toy. And my parents flipped over the craft. They are always very impressed with the amount of things that we make out of paper plates.

May 6, 2010 4 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Colors!

(These are very old storytimes, so I don’t remember every detail about them. Instead of my regular post, I’m just going to write down the plan & craft, with a brief commentary on how it went.)

Books


Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr.


Cleo’s Color Book by Caroline Mockford


I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont


Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Extension Activities
Song: “Colors We Know” (Tune: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Red and orange, green and blue, shiny yellow, purple too!
These are the colors that we know, way up high in the great rainbow.
Red and orange, green and blue, shiny yellow, purple too!
Credit: Everything Preschool – Colors

Flannelboard Song: “Driving Round In My Car”
Driving round in my little red car
Driving round in my little red car
Driving round in my little red car
Zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom
(Go through red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple)
Credit: Childhood

Action Rhyme: “Red, Red”
Red, red is the color I see
If you’re wearing red, then show it to me.
Stand up, take a bow, turn around
Show me your red and sit back on the ground. // Repeat with other colors.
Credit: Everything Preschool – Colors

Song: “Sing a Rainbow”
Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
Oh, I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow
Sing a rainbow too
Listen with your eyes, listen with your eyes
And sing everything you see
Oh, I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow
Sing along with me
Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
Oh, I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow
Sing a rainbow too
Credit: Childhood
(My mom used to sing this to my sister and I before bed — but I found where you can learn it too, if you’re so inclined: NIEHS.)

Craft
Streamer Rainbow — Honestly, I made this one up. I had a ton of leftover streamers from a paper plate craft, and found a use for them.

How It Went
This theme was such a great one, and I truly loved every book that I chose for it. I was very comfortable with the songs and extension activities, so this turned out to be a great storytime.

April 29, 2010 6 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Counting!

(These are very old storytimes, so I don’t remember every detail about them. Instead of my regular post, I’m just going to write down the plan & craft, with a brief commentary on how it went.)

Books


Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd


Fish Swish Splash Dash by Suse MacDonald


Ten in the Bed by Jane Cabrera


Two at the Zoo by Danna Smith

Extension Activities
Flannelboard: Five Big Balloons
Five big balloons, colorful and bright
The red one said, “I feel full and tight”
The orange one said, “What a beautiful sky”
The yellow one said, “We’re up so high”
The green one said, “I can see the bay”
The blue one said, “We’re all blowing away”
“Whoooosh” went a playful gust of wind
And the five big balloons were never seen again
Credit: “Color Bears” Felt Set (In-House)

Song/Fingerplay: Five Little Speckled Frogs
Five little speckled frogs
Sitting on a hollow log
Eating the most delicious bugs (yum yum)
One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are four speckled frogs (ribbit ribbit) // count down
Credit: Childhood

Action Rhyme: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, shut the door
Five, six, pick up sticks
Seven, eight, lay them straight
Nine, ten, begin again // 2nd time: that’s the end
Credit: Childhood

Craft
Ice Cream Counting – First School

How It Went
This was the second storytime in the session, and by then I had enough people to really have a great storytime. The craft had to be modified right before storytime because I had way too many kids, and not enough crafts. So instead of making the whole cone — numbers 1 to 10; each kid got to pick three numbers and put those in order. Now, I prepare for as many that have signed up plus ten more!

April 22, 2010 2 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Bears!

(These are very old storytimes, so I don’t remember every detail about them. Instead of my regular post, I’m just going to write down the plan & craft, with a brief commentary on how it went.)

Books

A Very Curious Bear by Tony Mitton


Bear Flies High by Michael Rosen


Bears On Chairs by Shirley Parenteau


Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett

Extension Activities
Flannelboard: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Action Rhyme: “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear”
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

Song: “If You’re a Bear and You Know It” (tune of “If You’re Happy…”)
If you’re a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws
If you’re a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws
If you’re a panda bear and you know it, then your face will surely show it
If you’re a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws

If you’re a polar bear and you know it, show your teeth
If you’re a polar bear and you know it, show your teeth
If you’re a polar bear and you know it, then your face will surely show it
If you’re a polar bear and you know it, show your teeth

If you’re a grizzly bear and you know it, growl real loud
If you’re a grizzly bear and you know it, growl real loud
If you’re a grizzly bear and you know it, then your face will surely show it
If you’re a grizzly bear and you know it, growl real loud

Craft
Bear Puppet – I don’t remember at all where I got the template for this.

How It Went
This was my first storytime after a *LONG* hiatus and I was nervous! And I’m pretty sure that the kids caught on to that. Overall, I picked some longer books for my crowd of mostly 2/3s. Should have had some shorter ones and a few more stretchers to grab their attention. The craft was a great one though — went a lot better then I thought it would.

April 15, 2010 8 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

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