Month: July 2012

Animals at Night!

The Plan

Books

I’m Not Scared by Jonathan Allen
The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
Where Does the Brown Bear Go? by Nicki Weiss
Whoooo’s There? by Mary Serfozo

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Ten Flashing Fireflies”

Fingerplay: “Two Little Hoot Owls”
Two little hoot owls, sitting on a hill
One named Jack and the other named Jill
Fly away Jack! Fly away Jill!
Come back, Jack! Come back, Jill!
Credit: Modified from childhood

Song: “I’m a Little Firefly” (I’m a Little Teapot)
I’m a little firefly
Look at me!
I’m as happy as I can be.
See my light flicker
And shine so bright
Now watch me fly
Into the night!
Credit: Preschool Education

Song: “Flutter, Flutter Little Bat”
Flutter, flutter little bat
How I wonder where you’re at
Up above the midnight sky
Peeking down with black eyes
Flutter, flutter little bat
How I wonder where you’re at
Credit: Library Palooza

Craft

This was an Oriental Trading kit that I purchased. A co-worker traced her hands on the foam and cut them out ahead of time so that the kids had an easier time with the activity. Everything else was self-stick.

How It Went

This was a great storytime! The variety in it really appealed to everyone and I was SO GLAD that I didn’t have a single storytime on each of the nocturnal animals. Their favorite book was “The Very Lonely Firefly,” and I recently purchased a library copy so that I knew the fireflies would light up at the end! All of the extension activities went over very well, but the best part was when I brought out our bat finger puppet. The kids were delighted and all of them politely came up and greeted batty before we sang our song!

July 30, 2012 4 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Flannel Friday: Ten Flashing Fireflies

Today’s “Inspired by Flannel Friday” post was inspired by two of the Flannel Friday crew: Amy at Catch the Possibilities and Alison of Miss Alison Is Blogging!

I did use the book by Philemon Sturges as rhyme, so I will not be printing it here. I did modify it a bit to be a bit more repetitive since my kids love repeating the rhyme lines with me.

I used this flannel at my “Animals at Night” storytime, which will be posted this Monday!

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Amanda is hosting this week’s Flannel Friday; visit her blog to leave a comment to link up your post! To find out more about Flannel Friday, please visit the Flannel Friday website!

July 27, 2012 9 Comments Short URLFlannels

Kids Art: Nightscapes

“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 crafts. Thus, “Kids Art.”

The Plan

Books

Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen to the City by Robert Burleigh
Subway by Anastasia Suen
Wow! City! by Robert Neubecker

Craft

I found this craft originally on Pinterest. The original post came from Patty at Deep Space Sparkle and it was an amazing craft that went over so well with my parents.

How It Went

I had the kids start with finger-painting the swirls in the sky. This took the majority of the time, and once everyone was pretty much done, I had them sit down for our stories. I opted not to do any extension activities since I had a much older crowd of mostly six-year-olds. “Wow City” was the biggest hit, and we spent a lot of time looking at the pictures to find items that look like Chicago. When our stories were read, we moved back to the table and started gluing our scrap paper. Some of the kids had too much paint to dry this quickly, but no one minded getting more paint on their hands!

July 25, 2012 3 Comments Short URL, Special Programming

Bedtime & Pajamas!

The Plan

Books

Fly Blanky Fly! By Anne Margaret Lewis
Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Are You Going to Sleep? By Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson
Little Quack’s Bedtime by Lauren Thompson
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Papa Please Get the Moon”

Action Rhyme: “Big Yellow Moon”
Big yellow moon shines so bright, (circle overhead)
Glides across the starry night (arms left to right)
Looks down at me (hand shades eyes)
Asleep in bed, (head on hands)
Whispers, “Good night sleepyhead.” (shh)
Big yellow moon, your turn is done (move arms down)
Here comes Mr. Morning Sun (circle overhead)
I wake up. (arms stretch out)
You go to bed. (head on hands)
“Sleep well, Moon, you sleepyhead.” (shh)
Credit: King County Library System

Action Rhyme: “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear”
Credit: Childhood

Fingerplay: “Dance Your Fingers Up”
Dance your fingers up, dance your fingers down
Dance you fingers to the side, dance them all around
Dance them on your shoulders, dance them on your head
Dance them on your tummy, and put them all to bed
Credit: Best Kids Book Site

Rhyme: “Good Night”
One fluffy quilt on my bed,
Two little pillows on my head,
Three teddy bears to hold tight
Four kisses from Mom for a restful night,
Five hugs from Dad, and off goes my light!
Good night!
Credit: Canton Public Library

Song: “Twinkle, Twinkle”
Credit: Childhood

Craft

This AMAZING moon craft came courtesy of Andrea at Rovingfiddlehead Kitlit. We glued macaroni to the paper plates and then put a layer of tinfoil over it. The macaroni made some craters and other imperfections on the moon. Since we don’t have anything but glue sticks, we did have to use Tacky Glue, so I handed out bottles to our adults. Luckily, everything worked out!

How It Went

This was my storytime during Chicago’s 100 degree four-day heat warning. I still had eight families come out to brave the weather! (Honestly, I really consider that a very good program attendance number, all things considering!) It made this a very subdued storytime, which was okay. We had a great response to “Fly, Blanky, Fly!” and “Little Quack’s Bedtime.” And the movement activities were very well-received overall.

July 23, 2012 4 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Flannel Friday: Bear Hunt!

This week’s Flannel Friday is inspired by Sarah from Read It, Again!

After my storytime kids enjoyed “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” so much in my camping storytime, I knew I needed to make some flannel pieces so that we could do it again. Luckily, Sarah’s pictures were very easier to follow and I did my best to replicate them. Here’s the rhyme I learned in library school:

Action Rhyme: “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”
We’re going on a bear hunt (We’re going on a bear hunt)
Gonna catch a big one (Gonna catch a big one)
I’m not scared (I’m not scared)
What a beautiful day! (What a beautiful day!)
Oh look! It’s some long, wavy grass!
Can’t go under it (Can’t go under it)
Can’t go over it (Can’t go over it)
Can’t go around it (Can’t go around it)
Gotta go through it (Gotta go through it!)
(Trees, River, Storm, Cave, etc. until you meet a bear; then run back!)

Since my flannelboard has a shelf hidden between the easel (you can see it here), I hid a bear puppet behind it and pulled it out once we found the bear! As you can imagine, that led to a lot of delightful shrieks, so it was well worth it.

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Kay is hosting Flannel Friday this week; visit her blog to leave a comment/link to your post! To find out more about Flannel Friday, please visit the Flannel Friday website!

July 20, 2012 5 Comments Short URLFlannels

Kids Art: Space

“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 crafts. Thus, “Kids Art.”

This summer, Kids Art is back after a long hiatus! This program is definitely an important one for my community and I’m pleased that we have the space to offer it again. This month, I themed it to space and we painted planets on paper plates.

The Plan

Books

Blast Off! by Malachy Doyle
Space Boy by Leo Landry
Zoom, Rocket, Zoom by Margaret Mayo

Craft

This was a very last minute idea. I had no idea what to do for my craft, because I try to incorporate painting without it being dreadfully messy. Anyway, I figured we could make some planets since it would be a very easy contained craft by limiting the art space to a paper plate.

How It Went

“Space Boy” was the favorite book, and each kid got to make three planets before it was time to call it quits. First, we painted and then we did the books to give their planets some time to dry before going home. Overall, it was a very successful program and we’ve had very positive feedback from parents via our Facebook page!

July 18, 2012 1 Comment Short URL, Special Programming

Owls!

The Plan

Books

A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na
I’m Not Scared! by Jonathan Allen
Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Five Little Owls”
Five hoot owls sitting a tree
One flew away, how many do you see?
One, two, three, four. (count down)

Action Rhyme: “Wide-Eyed Owl”
There’s a wide-eyed owl (circle your eyes with your hands)
With a pointed nose (make a beak with your fingers)
Two pointed ears (make ears with your fingers)
And claws for toes (wiggle your “claws”)
He lives way up in the tree (point way up)
And when he looks at you (point to children)
He flaps his wings (flap your wings)
And says, “Whoo! Whoo!” (say “whoo”)
Credit: Wilmette Public Library

Action Song: “Owl Hokey Pokey”
You put your right wing in, you put your right wing out
You put your right wing in, and you flap it all about
You do the hokey pokey and you fly yourself around
That’s what it’s all about! Hoot, hoot!
Credit: Ms. Hegna’s Storytime

Song: “Owl In the Tree” (Tune: Skip to My Lou)
Owl in the tree says, who, who, who?
Owl in the tree says, who, who, who?
Owl in the tree says, who, who, who?
Who, who, are you?
Credit: Ms. Hegna’s Storytime

Song: “Twinkle, Twinkle”
Credit: Childhood

Craft

This was a craft that was inspired by this blog post, at Meet the Dubiens. (I originally saw this as a Pinterest post, but without a link back. Luckily, I recognized Jill’s watermark!) I used the template that Jill links to, but I did balk on the handprint painting when it came time for storytime to start. Instead, I pulled out our feather bin and let the kids go at it!

How It Went

This is very similar to the owl theme that I did in the fall, but I knew I had to repeat it for the CSLP theme of “Dream Big, Read!” This time around “Owl Babies” was the big hit, followed by “A Book of Sleep.” The extension activities went AWESOME and they had a great time shaking their tails in the Owl Hokey Pokey. We made a lot of great connections in this storytime about owls sleeping at night and having wide-eyes so they could see in the dark. It was a very rewarding storytime to be at!

July 16, 2012 16 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

ALSC: Series Books In Storytime

newalscblog

After ALA Annual, I saw a lot of new series books that are coming out and it got me thinking — do you use series books in storytime? Let me know in the comments over at the ALSC blog!

July 13, 2012 0 Comments Short URLALSC Post

Flannel Friday: Four Little Rockets!

This Flannel Friday is brought to you by Andrea from Rovingfiddlehead Kidlit!

Although Andrea has a template available, I made these from a clip art search on Google and did the black backing to give it more of a space theme. I made five (because as we all know, that’s the magic number in storytime!), and then went back to Andrea’s rhyme and saw it’s only for four little rockets. Here it is:

Four Little Rockets
Four little rockets winking at me.
One shot off and then there were three!
Three little rockets with nothing to do.
One shot off, and then there were two!
Two little rockets afraid of the sun.
One shot off, and then there was one!
One little rocket alone is no fun.
It shot off, and then there was none!

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I am hosting Flannel Friday this week, so stop back for more flannel-goodness tonight!

July 13, 2012 15 Comments Short URLFlannels

Flannel Friday Round-Up 7/13/12

I’m giving the linking tool a chance this Flannel Friday. I’m excited that we finally found one that works with a WordPress.com blog (which is where my blog is still hosted)!

Borrowing instructions that Andrea shared: To share your Flannel Friday post, please click “Add Your Link” by the cute blue frog. Please enter the URL for your post rather than your website and label your post as “Post Name (Blog Name)” i.e. “Rockets! (Storytime Katie)”



If there are any tech problems, I will be around on Twitter (@katietweetsya) and you are also welcome to leave a link if the linking tool doesn’t work! Looking forward to everyone’s amazing submissions!

July 12, 2012 2 Comments Short URLFlannels

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