Families: Boxes

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell*
Meeow and the Big Box by Sebastien Braun*
My Book Box by Will Hillenbrand
Not a Box! by Antoinette Portis

Early Literacy Tip

Let children explore using their imagination. We’ve all seen the time after we’ve unpacked a new item or toy and our child is more interested in the box than the toy. Let them imagine whatever they want the box to be!

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Wiggleworms’s “Wiggleworms Love You”*

Featured Track: #4 Little Red Caboose*

Flannelboard: “Building Blocks”

Flannelboard: “Color Zoo”*

Prop: “Memory Box”*

Fingerplay: “I Have a Little Turtle”*
I have a little turtle
He lives in a box
He swims in a puddle
And he lives on the rocks
He snapped at a mosquito
He snapped at a flea
He snapped at a minnow
And he snapped at me
He caught the mosquito
He caught the flea
He caught the minnow
But he didn’t catch me!
Credit: Childhood

Repeating Extension Activities

I had four back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I rarely used them, but here they are:

• Dance Your Fingers Up*
• Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Thumbkin*

How It Went

This was our time change this past week, so the kids were extra wiggly. The kids sat super well for “Meeow and the Big Box”, but really wanted to come up during “Dear Zoo” and lift the flaps for me. (Luckily I stand for this storytime and there’s no chance of them getting ahead of the flaps.) I skipped the “Building Blocks” flannelboard because I worried that I didn’t have enough pieces for all the kids. (I have fifty pieces.)