Month: August 2016

Shake, Shimmy, & Dance: 7/5

It’s summer time again, which means eight weeks straight of Shake, Shimmy, & Dance!

shakeshimmyanddance

The Plan

tiptipdigdig
Book
Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia
It occurred to me during storytime this past spring that this book would be an excellent Shake, Shimmy book because of the active movement that all the construction vehicles go through. So the kids got up and dug, mixed, lifted, tipped, pushed, and rolled along with me and the book. It was also a good choice because of the short length of the book — after a holiday weekend with lots of excitement, the kids were ready to move!

Props
Activity Bells!

The Playlist

Hello & How Are You? — Old Town School of Folk Music
Stomp the Floor — Monkey Monkey Music
I Just Want to Dance — They Might Be Giants
We Are the Dinosaurs — Laurie Berkner
Are You Happy? — Alison Faith Levy
Shake With You — The Learning Groove
Oh Children Ring Your Bells — Kathy Reid-Naiman
Shake Hands With Friends — Ella Jenkins

How It Went

Today’s SSD saw lower numbers than normal, but I expected that coming off of a holiday weekend. But everyone that attended had a really great time!

We did a lot of stomping in “Stomp the Floor” — loud enough that our first floor computer bank heard us. “I Just Want to Dance” was a silly, fun free dance opportunity for my families. I challenged my grown-ups to teach the kids a dance from their childhood. I then proceeded to demonstrate the Macarena, mashed potato, and YMCA. I led the kids around the room during “We Are the Dinosaurs” and had everyone sit down during “Are You Happy?” to practice our emotion faces. (Full disclosure: this was the least successful song of the day, more preschool than all-ages.)

The bells today were used during “Shake With You” and “Oh Children Ring Your Bells”. Both songs have instructions in the lyrics, although “Shake With You” does say shakers and not bells. No one seemed to mind!

(For an example of the Powerpoint and handouts that I made for each Shake, Shimmy please visit the original post.)

August 2, 2016 0 Comments Short URLMusic and Movement

Book Bundles: Transportation

bookbundlesparentingpacks

For an overview of the Book Bundles and Parenting Packs early literacy kits, please visit the original post. The cost listed is the list price of each item, regardless of whether or not we got it on sale/discount. The activity sheets amount was calculated by cost of binder clip + lamination sheets.

image

Itemized List

  • Backpack ($7.39) — 4Imprint
  • I’m Brave! by Kate and Jim McMullan ($16.99) — Baker & Taylor
  • Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia ($6.95) — Baker & Taylor
  • Hape Lacing Vehicles ($9.99) — Amazon
  • Honk and Rumble Wheel ($24.99) — Amazon
  • Transportation Pocket Flash Cards ($4.99) — Amazon
  • Vinyl Bag ($2.99) — The Container Store
  • Activity Sheets ($2.55) — created in-house

Total: $76.84

I could have had 100 books in this Bundle and still call them all favorites. But I did limit it down to just two books: I’m Brave! and Toot Toot Beep Beep and I feel like fire trucks and cars are probably the most popular of the transportation vehicles. And I’m happy to have Toot Toot Beep Beep in the collection again even if it means having it in board book form.

The Hape Lacing Vehicles are great for imaginative story play and also for fine-motor skills. I hope that the families are lacing them together and telling a story as they go. Or that a child is stringing their most favorite to least favorite pieces. Good ordering practice too!

The Honk and Rumble Wheel. Oh, the fun. Oh, the headache. This is probably the item I most regret buying for all the Bundles. Not because it’s a bad item — I think it’s great for play and it’s got fun sounds and shakes when you’re using it — but because it doesn’t have an off switch. We’ve had several patrons give us feedback that it’s too noisy. On the other hand, we’ve also had parents that thank us for having a noisy toy that doesn’t live at home.

And the Flash Cards were included to show photographs of the vehicles. A little bit of non-fiction where I can put it, right?

It’s the middle of May and the Transportation Book Bundle has gone out 13 times since launching at the end of November! I’m actually SURPRISED that this one doesn’t go out more!

August 1, 2016 0 Comments Short URLEarly Literacy Kits

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