Families: Dinosaurs

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

Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont*
Dinosaur vs. the Library by Bob Shea*
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen
Inside-Outside Dinosaurs by Roxie Munro*

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Whaddaya Think of That?*

Featured Track: #1 We Are the Dinosaurs*

Flannelboard: “Ten Little Dinos”*

Puppets: “Dinosaur, Dinosaur”*
Dinosaur, dinosaur, turn around
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch the ground
Dinosaur, dinosaur, reach up high
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch the sky
Dinosaur, dinosaur, find your nose
Dinosaur, dinosaur, find your toes
Dinosaur, dinosaur, find your knees
Dinosaur, dinosaur, sit down please

Puppets: “Two Little Dinosaurs”*

Repeating Extension Activities

I had lots of back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I starred which ones I used in this storytime:

• ABCs
• Dance Your Fingers Up
• Everyone Can March
• Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
• If You’re Happy and You Know It
• Open, Shut Them
• Pat-a-Cake
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• Zoom, Zoom, Zoom*

How It Went

Seriously, how fun is this theme? I love doing dinosaurs stories and would read them every week to joy of many of my preschoolers. I had a young man who dropped his jaw when I revealed that our theme for the day was dinosaurs! He was very on top of answering questions and leading the group in roaring. It was a perfect storytime to come home to after ALA Midwinter. Really, everything was a great success. Dini Dinosaur has such a great refrain and lets the kids practice body identification, but it also lets parents with babies and toddlers do some touching and tickling as we identify “head” and “stomach”. It’s a great cross-over title and I love giving my families those modifications to make a book work for all attending this drop-in.