storytime katie

For an overview of the Bookgarteners program, please visit this post.

Karen Beaumont is an author that I think needs to have a larger following. So many of her books are storytime hits, that I wanted to call attention to her as an author for my kiddos.

Group Program

To begin our program, I explained what an author was and what an illustrator was. I talked about how each book has one of each. Sometimes they are the same person and sometimes they are not. Karen Beaumont was the author of the books that I had chosen to highlight, but she worked with lots of different illustrators. One of my favorite connections was a preschooler that recognized David Catrow’s art from both I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More and I Like Myself!. We didn’t watch any YouTube videos because I couldn’t find any. Ms. Beaumont, please record some videos for your young fans!

Afterwards, it was time to read Move Over, Rover! together.

Sequence Cards with Move Over, Rover!
2.B.ECb: With teacher assistance, retell familiar stories with three or more key events.

I had originally wanted to make several flannelboard copies of the story for the kids to use in their retelling, but time got the best of me this past spring and I opted instead to purchase a set from Teachers Pay Teachers which included story character cards that I used as sequencing cards. Each child got their own pack and we worked through the story together. I was impressed at their recall for the order of the animals!

Activity Stations

Four activity stations were spread out around the room. I had one adult volunteer in the room with me to help control the flow of kiddos. (You’ll notice that I changed from a teen to an adult volunteer at this program. Ultimately, it was too much for one teen volunteer to handle and I was unable to get two teens during the after-school time.)

Do-a-Dot Marker on the Wall for I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More
25.A.ECd: Visual Arts. Investigate and participate in activities using visual arts materials.

This wall art activity was inspired by TeachPreschool, via Pinterest. I simply had to let them paint on the wall, right? TeachPreschool’s blog post is amazing, with tons of great art content. Since I was doing this activity in another program, I chose to make it a bit tidier with do-a-dot markers and large post-it notes. And the great part was I could change the “canvas” with each child so they got to take their pictures home.

Music Dancing with Baby Danced the Polka
19.B.ECa: Coordinate movements to perform complex tasks.
19.B.ECc: Combine large motor movements with and without the use of equipment.
25.A.ECa: Movement and Dance. Build awareness of, explore, and participate in dance and creative movement activities.
25.A.ECc: Music. Begin to appreciate and participate in music activities.

This idea came from my own head. I love music and I love exposing children to different kinds of music. Baby Danced the Polka gave me an opportunity to play some polka music and dance around the room with the kids. We did wind up playing a rousing edition of Freeze Dance as well, inspired by the lead of some of the kids.

I Like Me/All About Me Paper for I Like Myself!
5.A.Eca: Experiment with writing tools and materials.
5.B.ECa: With teacher assistance, use a combination of drawing, dictating, or writing to express an opinion about a book or topic.
16.A.ECb: Develop a basic awareness of self as an individual.
30.B.ECa: Describe self using several basic characteristics.

This writing exercise came from Simply Second Grade, via Pinterest. I knew that this activity was going to prove more difficult for my three-year-olds, which is why I had my adult volunteer stationed here to either spell words out loud for them or to write down what they dictated. All of the kids were able to at least write their names, hooray! I used a coloring page that I was able to find online.

Dino Wash for Dini Dinosaur
12.C.ECb: Experiment with changes in matter when combined with other substances.

The station that could have ended all stations. The kids were so excited with this station and I loved the science component. Before class, I made a sloppy mixture of flour and brown tempera paint to make the mud. I did not use a recipe and added more flour to the paint to make it more consistent. I tossed some dinosaurs in the muddy bin and put water in the cleaning bin. Ta-da — they were cleaning Dini Dinosaur. Seriously, I could have just had this station and they would have been happy as clams.

Wrap-Up

This was a perfect spring Bookgarteners. All the kids really loved the two very messy stations (painting and dino washing) and my older friends really spent time working on their “All About Me” papers. The dancing station was hard to integrate as a station and I’m not sure that I’ll repeat it like that or if I would just do a dance before stations.

For an overview of the Bookgarteners program, please visit this post.

Donald Crews was a natural pick for the Bookgarteners program. His books are beloved by children, and he also has a huge fanbase with all of the fabulous vehicle books at our library.

Group Program

To begin our program, I explained what an author was and what an illustrator was. I talked about how each book has one of each. Sometimes they are the same person and sometimes they are not. Donald Crews had written and illustrated all of the books I had with me today, but I knew that he had worked as only an illustrator on a few books so I mentioned that to the kids. Then, we watched a YouTube video from the Association of Library Service to Children that Crews recorded about his influences.

Afterwards, it was time to read Freight Train together.

Sequencing Color Bracelets with Freight Train
2.B.ECb: With teacher assistance, retell familiar stories with three or more key events.

This is a weird source of inspiration, but nonetheless…I will forever remember a church story/lesson because it was told with a beaded bracelet. I thought that the kids would benefit from making a pipe cleaner beaded bracelet to “tell” the story of Freight Train. This did require a bit of prep work on my part. I sorted beads into ziploc bags to make the distribution of the activity easier. You could also set up a line with small buckets with each of the colored beads.

Activity Stations

Four activity stations were spread out around the room. I had one teen volunteer in the room with me to help control the flow of kiddos.

Sensory Transportation Scene for all books
19.A.ECd: Use eye-hand coordination to perform tasks.

This sensory transportation scene came from Lalymom, via Pinterest. I bought foam stickers from Oriental Trading and used clear contact paper with the sticky side out towards the kids. And if you’re wondering what it looked like at the end of the class, I give you this:

Shape Train Matching with Freight Train
7.A.ECa: Compare, order, and describe objects according to a single attribute.

This shape matching activity came from Toddler Approved, via Pinterest. I made two trains so that more kids could use this station at the same time. I also did not create an outline of the shape and opted instead for the word since I was aiming for preschoolers as opposed to toddlers. The kids LOVED this section and I had some families who asked if they could take this one home.

Counting Dots with Ten Black Dots
6.A.ECd: Connect numbers to quantities they represent using physical models and informal representatives.

This math activity came from Munchkins and Moms, via Pinterest. I invested in some foam puzzles from the dollar store and splurged for the black gems online. I absolutely plan to reuse both of these items in future Bookgartener programs. This was the most self-directed station and I think it gave the kids great confidence to be able to do it “all by themselves”. (The two art stations were also self-directed, but needed supervision from me and my volunteer.)

Wheel Stamping for all books
25.A.ECd: Visual Arts. Investigate and participate in activities using visual arts materials.

This art station came from Pre-K Pages, via Pinterest. I didn’t need to buy anything for this station as both ink and vehicle cars were something that the library already owned. This was a FRENZIED station, as exhibited by the only picture I managed to get during the program:

Wrap-Up

I loved every minute of this program and the activities that I had curated and chosen. I think this would be better suited for a fall session though, as my older kids breezed through a lot of activities. Luckily, they all wanted to go back and go the activities again, so I was safe!

For an overview of the Bookgarteners program, please visit this post.

Lois Ehlert is one of my favorite author/illustrators of all time. Her book Color Zoo is the first book I remember my school librarian reading to my kindergarten class.

Group Program

To begin our program, I explained what an author was and what an illustrator was. I talked about how each book has one of each. Sometimes they are the same person and sometimes they are not. I had both options to show the kids — Color Zoo and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Then, we looked at her biography title The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life to learn how she makes her pictures. We didn’t read the whole title, but I shared some parts with the group.

Afterwards, it was time to read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom together.

Retelling Tree for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
2.B.ECb: With teacher assistance, retell familiar stories with three or more key events

I bought the Chicka Chicka Activity Tree from Lakeshore Learning. (I had this at my previous library and really missed having one.) This was perfect for this retelling activity. I gave each kid a letter and they waited for their turn to come up and put their letter on the tree, just like in the story.

Activity Stations

Four activity stations were spread out around the room. I had one teen volunteer in the room with me to help control the flow of kiddos.

Sensory Bin with Growing Vegetable Soup
19.A.ECa: Engage in active play using gross-motor and fine-motor skills.

This sensory bin was inspired by Mom Envy, via Pinterest. This activity was very easy for me to put together. I already had purchased the vegetables & garden supplies back when I did the Garden Shop play center. I did buy the colored rice instead of making it, but I have already used the rice a couple of times since…so an excellent purchase. My rice did accidentally transfer dye to hands though, so be aware. (It wiped clean with a sani-hands wipe.)

Pattern Matching with A Pair of Socks
8.A.ECa: Sort, order, compare, and describe objects according to characteristics or attributes.

This pattern matching activity came from Laugh, Paint, Create!, via Pinterest. The kids matched up the socks that I cut out of cardstock. This was a quick station, but they really enjoyed it.

Shape Art with Color Zoo & Color Farm
9.A.ECa: Recognize and name common two- and three- dimensional shapes and describe some of their attributes.
25.A.ECd: Visual Arts. Investigate and participate in activities using visual arts materials.

This art project came from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, via Pinterest. This station took them a really long time to complete since I did not precut anything, but their creations were AMAZING. I did have to spend some time with one particular kiddo who had a hard time with their shapes not being perfect. It was a chance to talk about how even my shapes aren’t perfect and that’s okay.

Tangram Flowers for Planting a Rainbow
9.A.ECd: Combine two-dimensional shapes to create new shapes.
9.A.Ede: Think about/imagine how altering the spatial orientation of a shape will change how it looks.

This math activity came from Waddlee-ah-chaa, via Pinterest. This took a fair bit of time to set up. I had to purchase a tangram set and then build my flowers from there. I created the tangrams in Publisher, and they don’t 100% line-up with the pieces, but it was close enough for the kids to use the sheets as a guide to build and that was the whole goal to begin with.

Wrap-Up

I think the only adjustment I would have made with this program was to make the socks matching more difficult by making more socks. They zipped through the activity quickly…but that was because my hand got tired of cutting out socks during program prep, haha. Another successful edition of Bookgarteners.

For an overview of the Bookgarteners program, please visit this post.

I started with Eric Carle because it was an easy marketing approach to get families interested in attending the program. Carle is recognizable and universally adored.

Group Program

To begin our program, I explained what an author was and what an illustrator was. I talked about how each book has one of each. Sometimes they are the same person and sometimes they are not. I had both options to show the kids — The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Then, we watched this YouTube video featuring an interview with Eric Carle. It was important to me that the kids “see” the author/illustrator we were talking about.

Then, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar together. And that led us into our retelling activity afterwards:

Sequencing with The Very Hungry Caterpillar
2.B.ECb: With teacher assistance, retell familiar stories with three or more key events.

This retelling activity came from School Time Snippets, via Pinterest. The templates and instructions are available at the original blog post. I prepped each of these paint sticks and attached all of the paper cut outs to clothespins using hot glue. This was an UNDERTAKING. But it was a big payoff. Patrons walked around the library showing other patrons and signups definitely increased. On the other hand, I have not done such a project since.

Activity Stations

Four activity stations were spread out around the room. I had one teen volunteer in the room with me to help control the flow of kiddos.

Pompom Matching with Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
12.C.ECa: Identify, describe, and compare the physical properties of objects.

This color matching activity came from No Time for Flash Cards, via Pinterest. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money buying several sets of magnets, so I reversed it. I made little discs of each character to insert into a muffin tin and instead provided pompoms and tweezers to match the pompoms to the character. This was probably their favorite station at this event.

Rubber Duck Counting with Ten Little Rubber Ducks
6.A.ECe: Differentiate numerals from letters and recognize some single-digit written numerals.

This activity was inspired by Pre-K Pages, via Pinterest. Instead of rolling a dice, I wrote the numerals for each number (1-5), as well as words (one-five) on the bottom of the ducks and set up a duck pond in the corner using our sand/water table and a water-absorbing activity mat. Kids could pull out a duck and match it to their sheet (shown in the picture; the other side has the words written out). Once they found all ten ducks, they “finished” the station though many of them kept pulling out ducks.

Tissue Paper Stars with Draw Me a Star
25.A.ECd: Visual Arts. Investigate and participate in activities using visual arts materials.

This activity was inspired by Karen & Kim 2 Soul Sisters, via Pinterest. I printed a star out on white cardstock and let the kids glue tissue paper squares down onto the star before cutting it out. I was tickled pink when one of the kiddos made the connection that Eric Carle used tissue paper in the video we watched! I was so hoping they would make that connection and was prepared to point it out to them if I had to.

Paper Plate Lacing with The Very Busy Spider
19.A.ECd: Use eye-hand coordination to perform tasks.

This lacing activity came from Kidz Activities, via Pinterest. I just cut slits into the paper plates since I had both preschoolers and kindergarteners. It worked a lot better for us. This was the station that my volunteer wound up manning for the entire program.

Wrap-Up

I would 100% do this entire program all over again. The few adjustments I would make: find a way to get the water warmer — it was so cold after sitting out for a while, start prepping the caterpillar retelling sticks earlier in the week. Overall, I was really happy with the program and so were patrons.

The creation of Bookgarteners came from a lot of different factors:

• Most of the schools are now doing full-day kindergarten. Only one district does half-day. Which means that my preschool storytime is not supporting those K learners.
• Many of the caregivers had begun requesting preschool/kindergarten programming in the afternoons.
• I wanted to plan preschool/kindergarten programming to support state early learning standards. Illinois’s early learning standards are available online.
• I really wanted to make caregivers aware of their ability to support the state early learning standards.
• And I, personally, needed to do something new and exciting…other than a storytime.

(I think it’s really okay to say that you need to do something other than a storytime. Storytime is GREAT, of course, but early literacy is more than storytime. We are more than storytime.)

So, what IS Bookgarteners?

It’s a forty-five minute author/illustrator study program for ages 3-6. I choose a different author each class and plan different activities around their books. The first fifteen minutes are devoted to learning about the author, reading one of the author’s books, and then re-telling that story as a class. The second fifteen minutes, the kids are invited to go through activity stations on their own direction. The last fifteen minutes, caregivers are invited to join their kids for more activity station time.

Afterwards, everyone gets a take-home brochure and activity packet. The activity packet includes stuff like scissor practice paper, matching games, draw your owns, and more — much of this is taken from pages offered on the author’s website!

The aforementioned Take-Home activities and Brochure.

At the end of the brochure, I have this summary available for caregivers:

Bookgarteners was developed to help preschool children and kindergarteners practice the early learning standards for the state of Illinois. This will help prepare preschool children for school and will re-enforce the skills for kindergarteners.

Together, we are growing their minds!

I’ve done six Bookgarteners programs since this spring. I have three more planned for this Winter. The authors I’ve done thus far are: Eric Carle, Lois Ehlert, Donald Crews, Karen Beaumont, Mem Fox, and Mo Willems. Up for this winter are Jan Brett, Ezra Jack Keats, and Herve Tullet. (Currently in the planning stages for spring with Kevin Henkes, Christian Robinson, Jan Thomas on the list!)

The program has been very successful for all of the targets I’ve set for myself. Attendance was slow to start, but has picked up and the fall classes’ registrations were all full. I hope it continues for the winter session!