Circus!

The Plan

Books

Circus by Lois Ehlert
Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer
Say Hola to Spanish at the Circus by Susan Middleton Elya
A Small Surprise by Louise Yates

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Five Little Kernels”
Five little kernels sizzling in the pot
All of a sudden, one went POP! (count down)

Flannelboard: “One Elephant Went Out to Play”
One elephant went out to play
Upon a spider’s web one day
She had such enormous fun
That she called another elephant to come (HEY ELEPHANT)

Action Rhyme: “Five Little Clowns”
Five little clowns all in a row (hold up five fingers)i
Wearing funny hats (tap head)
And polka dotted bows (fix pretend bow tie)
One little clown hopped away (hop)
Back to the circus to laugh and play (wave goodbye)
(Four little clowns, one twirled away; three little clowns, one tumbled away; two little clowns, one wiggled away; one little clown, he tiptoed away)
Credit: Perry Public Library

Action Song: “Funny Clowns”
Funny clowns, funny clowns,
Jump around, jump around
Sometimes making faces
Sometimes running races
Funny clowns, funny clowns
Funny clowns, funny clowns
Spin around, spin around
Sometimes with a big nose,
Sometimes with big toes
Funny clowns, funny clowns
Credit: Youth Literature

Craft

This craft kit came from Oriental Trading. It is smaller than it appears in the pictures! The kids enjoyed getting their fingers dirty and doing some fingerprint stamping. I did buy a few additional stamp pads since the craft kit Circus!only contains one small stamp pad per dozen. But we can use those for other projects, too!

How It Went

This was my last regular storytime for the fall session. Attendance has really dropped this year as the weather has gotten colder, so I made the decision to not do a winter session for this year. So, this storytime was bittersweet because I had several moms who would have new babies by the time we started up again! Nevertheless, the kids really enjoyed the theme and it was good to do it in November (when Chicagoland gets the circus). Their favorite book was “Olivia Saves the Circus,” but I also got a lot of compliments about reading “Say Hola to Spanish at the Circus!”