Families: Counting

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

Count! by Denise Fleming
Counting Ovejas by Sarah Weeks*
One Family by George Shannon*
Ten in the Bed by Jane Cabrera*

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: The Irrational Anthem*

Featured Track: #7 Jumping and Counting*

Flannelboard: “Pretty Ladybugs”*

Puppets: “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”*

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

This was honestly a really weird family storytime. I only had four kiddos in the room and it’s been a REALLY long time since I had such a small audience. (My guess is that because Shake, Shimmy, & Dance was this week and we had snow that families opted not to come to our weekly event and instead go to the monthly. That resulted in SSD having a super high attendance of 71, so I’ll take it!) Anyways, we got through a TON of material since it was an all preschool crowd and they were great. I put the flannelboard on the floor and let them add the spots to the ladybug. All of the books worked well, but Jane Cabrera has something really special with Ten in the Bed so I’ll call it the favorite — I loved watching the kids play along with the characters as they fell out.