Month: October 2012

Letter X!

The Plan

Books

A Fox: The Sound of X by Alice K. Flanagan
Max’s ABCs by Rosemary Wells
My Mom Has X-Ray Vision by Angela McAllister
Xavier Ox’s Xylophone Experiment by Barbara deRubertis

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “X-Rays Matching”

Flannelboard Puzzle: “Letter X”

Action Rhyme: “Red Fox, Red Fox”
Red fox, red fox turn around
Red fox, red fox touch the ground
Red fox, red fox reach up high
Red fox, red fox touch the sky
Red fox, red fox find your nose
Red fox, red fox touch your toes
Red fox, red fox find your knees
Red fox, red fox sit down please
Credit: King County Library System

Fingerplay: “Where Is X?” (Tune: Thumbkin)
Where is X? Where is X?
Here I am. Here I am.
How are you today, sir? Very well, I thank you.
Run away. Run away.
Credit: Modified from Childhood

Song: “What Begins With X?”
What begins with x?
What begins with x?
We all know, we’ll tell you so.
What begins with x?
(Xylophone, X-ray, Xavier)

What ends with x?
What ends with x?
We all know, we’ll tell you so.
What ends with x?
(Fox, Box, Ox)
Credit: MotherReader

Craft

This craft came from Totally Tots, a site to which I owe a great deal of thanks in these ABC storytimes. I changed ours up a bit, though, and used paper since foam can be expensive and more frustrating for the kids to glue with. (Gluesticks and foam really do not mix!)

How It Went

The hardest letter in the alphabet — finally done! The kids loved “My Mom Has X-Ray Vision” and also really enjoyed “Max’s ABCs.” They had a great time matching up the x-rays on the flannelboard, and always love singing. The craft was, by far, one of their favorites. The daycare posted it up on their walls in the classroom and they got a lot of compliments on it!

October 31, 2012 10 Comments Short URL, Outreach Storytime

Announcing Growing Readers!

growingreaderspng

Starting in November, Tuesdays on the blog will be “Growing Readers” day! My library received a grant from Target to begin an after-school storytime program for children learning to read. We’ll be sharing lots of different kinds of early literacy activities, as well as stories, songs, and rhymes.

Next week, I’ll do a brief outline for how the story portion of the program runs. After that, each week will be a new literacy activity. At each program so far, we’ve done five table activities — so I should have lots of material to work with and post about.

I hope that this new feature will get you excited about early literacy and incorporating it into a new program or into an existing program!

October 30, 2012 4 Comments Short URLAnnouncements, Growing Readers Storytime

Favorites!

The Plan

Books

Dear Zoo by Rob Campbell
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
Higher, Higher by Leslie Patricelli
I’m Not Cute! by Jonathan Allen
LMNO Peas by Keith Baker

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Old MacDonald”

Flannelboard: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Action Rhyme: “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes
Two eyes, two ears, a mouth and a nose
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes
Credit: Childhood

Fingerplay & Puppets: “Two Little Owls”
Two little owls, sitting on a hill
One named Jack, the other named Jill
Fly away Jack, fly away Jill
Come back Jack, come back Jill
Credit: Modified from Childhood

Craft

I came up with this craft on my own. I wanted to have a free-draw, so I left most of the page blank. The kids drew a wide variety of favorite things — their drawings were great conversation starters between child and parent.

How It Went

This was a last minute theme; I wasn’t planning on doing it! But at ten minutes to storytime, I had a daycare group drop in…with twenty extra kids. I wasn’t expecting them and didn’t want to turn them away, so I changed up my theme to “Favorites.” It was easy to pull from our in-house storytime collection the books that have always been storytime hits. It’s really hard to pick a favorite book from the ones we read since they were all old favorites for the kids. I think “Grumpy Bird” got the biggest laughs and most participation.

October 29, 2012 0 Comments Short URL, , Family Storytime

Flannel Friday: X-Rays!

After a personal vacation, and then work CRAZINESS with other staff members taking their time off as well, things have been pretty quiet on the blog. (Sorry about that!) But I’m back, starting today, and for a long time to come!

Today, I give you a super simple flannelboard for use during your doctor storytimes or Letter X storytimes: X-Rays!

This was a simple matching game. I laid out the x-rays and the kids told me what words matched the x-rays. They also pointed to their bodies as we matched up words with x-rays. I enjoyed this flannel because it was simple and effective and it also was incredibly interesting to talk to the kids about pictures of their bones.

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

October 26, 2012 6 Comments Short URLFlannels

ALSC: All By Ourselves

newalscblog

What do you do when only one child shows up for storytime? I’ve got some ideas over at the ALSC blog to make that potential disaster into a success!

October 12, 2012 0 Comments Short URLALSC Post

Letter W!

The Plan

Books

Alistair and Kip’s Great Adventure by John Segal
The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming
Maisy’s Wonderful Weather Book by Lucy Cousins
One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

Extension Activities

Flannelboard Puzzle: “Letter W”

Flannelboard: “Watermelon Counting”

Flannelboard & Song: “What’s the Weather?” (Tune: Clementine)
What’s the weather, what’s the weather,
What’s the weather, everyone?
Is it windy, is it cloudy,
Is there rain, or is there sun?

Action Song: “Winter Hokey Pokey”
You put your mitten in, you take your mitten out
You put your boots in, you take your boots out
You put your hat in, you take your hat out
You put your coat in, you take your coat out

Song: “Baby Beluga”

Song: “Watermelon Patch Song”
Watermelon, watermelon (make a circle with arms)
On the vine, on the vine (wiggle arms)
Sweet and red and juicy, sweet and red and juicy (rub tummy)
Please be mine! Please be mine! (palms together, pleading)

Craft

Another storytime craft brought to you by Pinterest, originally from Blissfully Domestic! I had the teen volunteers pre-cut and pre-glue these, the kids at daycare colored them in. These crafts were IMMEDIATELY hung up in their classroom and the kids kept checking the window to see if the weather had changed so they could move their clothespin, haha!

How It Went

You want to know how to wow a group? Bring out a pop-up or action book. The kids sat awestruck when “Maisy’s Wonderful Weather Book” was pulled out. I had to do the actions three or four times before they were ready to move on to the next page. Also, the kids loved telling me how wrong I was when I was doing the watermelon match-ups!

October 3, 2012 2 Comments Short URL, , Outreach Storytime