storytime katie

Yep, I went ahead and tried a pretty difficult topic this week — opposites! But were my kids up for the challenge? Read on…

I started off storytime with defining opposites as two things that are exactly different from one another. I used the example of “big” and “little,” having the kids reach really far to the sides for big and very close together for little. We did this several times throughout storytime. Our first book was “Octopus Opposites” by Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer.

I use a LOT of Blackstone’s titles in my storytimes. The simplicity of this book is that it uses animals to explain opposites in a bright colorful way. We did have a bit more fun identifying animals than opposites…but this was an excellent way to start off storytime. Next, I read “Big, Bigger, Biggest” by Nancy Coffelt.

It was my goal to get them to understand the difference between big and little by the end of the program, so this book was a great choice. I’m not sure how well the kids comprehended a lot of the larger words, but they did get big, bigger, biggest! I think the next time I use this book in storytime for my little guys, I might skip the bigger words.

I found this great action rhyme on Mel’s Desk and the kids LOVED it. We did it three times in a row!

Action Rhyme: “This Is Big”
This is big, big, big (stretch hands far to sides)
This is small, small, small (cup hands together)
This is short, short, short (hold palms close vertically)
This is tall, tall, tall (hold palms far apart vertically)
This is fast, fast, fast (roll hands quickly)
This is slow, slow, slow (roll hands slowly)
This is yes, yes, yes (nod head)
This is no, no, no (shake head)

And then a “little” to go with our “big!”

Fingerplay: “Little Turtle”
There was a little turtle (put hands on top of one another)
He lived in a box (make box)
He swam in a puddle (swimming motion)
He climbed on the rocks (climbing motion)
He snapped at a mosquito (clap)
He snapped at a flea (clap)
He snapped at a minnow (clap)
And he snapped at me (clap)
He caught the mosquito (cup hands together)
He caught the flea (cup hands together)
He caught the minnow (cup hands together)
But he didn’t catch me! (shake finger “no”)

Next, I read a very short book: “A Garden of Opposites” by Nancy Davis.

This book is a great lapsit to read, particularly at the end where there is an opportunity to review the opposite pairs that readers have learned. It worked well in storytime though because it’s eye-catching and quick! And I definitely had wigglers this week, so I switched it up with the flannelboard next.

Flannelboard: “Big, Bigger, Biggest”
A little ball, a bigger ball, and a great big ball I see
Now help me count them, one, two, three!
Credit: Debmonn PB Wiki

I just made three simple balls — a tennis ball, a beach ball, and a soccer ball out of felt and put them up. We also did this rhyme a couple of times, to the delight of the kids. Next, we practiced our “Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” — which I am pleased to report that most of my kids have down now. They aren’t singing with me yet, but we’ve got the motions down pat.

The last book for this week was “Where is the Green Sheep?” by Mem Fox.

This was a HUGE success. This book is so engaging and clearly shows opposites in the different sheep. And while I know the kids were hearing the opposites, they were also looking for green sheep. Luckily, they found green sheep at the end of the book, fast asleep.

I ended storytime by using egg shakers and doing “Opposites Hokey Pokey” with the kids. (You shake your egg up/down; left/right; etc.)

Our craft: Opposite Books!

I got the idea for this craft from Bright Hub and I got to work immediately making a template. My teen volunteers cut out words, pictures, the book, and assembled the whole project. All my storytime kids did was color the pictures in!

I am really more of a summer person, but I do love fall books — fall has a ton of options for storytime, too!

Because I have a wide variety of ages in my storytimes (6 months to 4 years), I started off with “Mouse’s First Fall” by Lauren Thompson.

The text in this book is pretty predictable (and I have the book memorized after just two storytimes!), but you cannot beat the bright colors, and the adorable characters. It’s also a great introductory to a few of the traditional fall activities. I followed up with “Who Loves the Fall?” by Bob Raczka.

In Raczka’s series, there is always a page where you turn the book vertically and read — the kids absolutely love this part! In “Who Loves the Fall?,” it’s a spread about butterflies, and I had to do two full pans before the kids seemed ready to move on.

Next, the kids got up and we did some action rhymes, and our flannelboard for the week.

“Pumpkin, Pumpkin”
Pumpkin, pumpkin on the ground (touch the ground)
How’d you get so big and round? (make a big circle)
Once you were a seed so small (pinch fingers together)
Now you are a great big ball (make a big circle overhead)
Pumpkin, pumpkin on the ground (touch the ground)
How’d you get so big and round? (make a big circle)
Credit: Step by Step — Pumpkin Theme

And, of course, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

And our flannel:

Flannelboard: “Five Little Leaves”
Five little leaves on the tree next door
One fell off and then there were four
Four little leaves all over the tree
One fell off and then there were three
Three little leaves where the wind blew
One fell off and then there were two
Two little leaves sitting in the sun
One fell off and then there was one
One little leaf in the tree all alone
The wind blew and blew now there are none!

I redid the flannelboard that the library had for this rhyme (it was this old transfer paper-like felt and hand-drawn) into bright new felt colors for this year’s season. Simple — took me about a half hour.

Then, I read “Old Bear” by Kevin Henkes.

“Old Bear” is a book that talks about all seasons and you better believe that I use it at almost every season storytime I do. It’s a great way to introduce the concept of our seasons cycling, and I absolutely adore Henkes’s illustrations. They are just gorgeous and so eye-catching. Next up, another favorite — “Fall Leaves Fall!” by Zoe Hall.

Now, I had three Zoe Hall books to choose from: “It’s Pumpkin Time,” “The Apple Pie Tree,” and “Fall Leaves Fall.” And it was a hard choice! I went with “Fall Leaves Fall” because of the linear story and that the story covered most of the highlights of the season (including a brief mention of Halloween!). Next, we switched gears a bit as I began prepping the kids for our craft with our fingerplay/action rhyme:

“Way Up High in the Apple Tree”
Way up high in the apple tree (stretch arms up high)
Two red apples smiled at me (hold up two fingers)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (make a shaking motion)
Down came the apples… (make a downward motion)
And mmm, they were good! (smile and rub stomach)

And then, we read “Apple Farmer Annie” by Monica Wellington.

This is such a great story about apples and I love Monica Wellington’s books. (Especially “Pizza at Sally’s!”) We finished up with a different closing song than normal with:

“The Leaves are Falling Down”
The leaves are falling down
The leaves are falling down
Red, yellow, green, and brown
The leaves are falling down
Tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”

Our craft was super simple — I got a tree template, had my teen volunteers cut out tree trunks and leaves and then let the kids crumple up tissue paper squares to make apples. They had a ton of fun crumpling!

We switched it up at morning storytime today and had bedtime stories! I was a little bit nervous that I’d hear, “No bedtime!” from one of the kids, but they really enjoyed this theme.

I started off by reading “Pajamas Anytime” by Marsha Hayles.

This is a super cute story about a little boy who wears pajamas for all different kinds of occasions — not just for sleeping. We sat very attentively for this book, and I was super proud of my kids!

Next, I did our flannelboard activity, which was “Hey Diddle Diddle.” We used to have a great nursery rhymes program for little ones, but we lost the staff necessary to maintain it. So, I’m trying this storytime session to incorporate nursery rhymes. (Especially since we just bought such good flannelboard nursery rhyme kits!)

I introduced our next book by asking if the kids were ready for bed. As expected, they gave a mostly resounding “No!” But then I said that we were going to read a story all about someone ready for bed. And that story was “Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for Bed?” by Barney Saltzburg.

The kids *loved* this one. They keep shouting “YES!” to every question and I had one kid shout out, “You can’t feed cookies to a fish!” It was so nice to see them engaging with the pictures.

We were a little wiggly by now, so we practiced our “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

And did a modified version of “Ten in the Bed,” starting with five instead of ten.

There were five in the bed (Hold up five fingers)
And the little one said, “Roll over, roll over!” (Make rolling motion)
So they are rolled over and one fell out. (Hold up one finger & surprised face)
// Count down until
There was one in the bed (Hold up one finger)
And the little one said, “I’ve got it all to myself!” (Spread out arms)

By then, we were pretty worn out so I read “Race You to Bed” by Bob Shea.

I love Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series and this is another hit for me. The kids really liked racing and while we did have one squabble (someone took someone’s toy car!) during the book, we were definitely eager to see if we would beat rabbit to bed.

Then we talked about what we sleep with, and I confessed that I still sleep with a teddy bear before going into “Teddy Bear.” Since we were pretty tuckered out already, I just went with a simple version instead of the full version I had planned. I love having activities that can be shortened or stretched out depending on how wiggly the kids are during the storytime.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground
Teddy bear, teddy bear, reach up high
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the sky
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your knees
Teddy bear, teddy bear, sit down please

Finished up our book reading with “Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me” by Eric Carle.

I had never read this Carle book as a child, but it is easily one of my favorites as an adult. Pages fold out and up and down, and the kids were absolutely delighted with the pop-out moon spread. This was a hit as far as I’m concerned and I can’t wait to try and find another storytime to use it in.

What bedtime storytime would be complete without singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star?” Which is exactly how we ended before moving to our craft.

We made a slightly different version of this craft: Night Sky – Sprout Online. I ditched the foil because I was worried about some of my little guys putting it in their mouths, and instead used colored paper.

My teen volunteers punched out the stars using a scrapbooking set of punches. (I highly recommend using paper punches whenever possible. I keep a set of three different sized circles and now three different sized stars at the library just for preschool crafts. Makes it way easier than cutting out ten circles per kid for a train craft.)

This week, I decided to go ahead with a pets theme!

We read “Bark, George” by Jules Feiffer first.

The kids sat really still for this book and loved the animals noises. I had one three-year-old who was determined to guess every animal that comes of our George’s mouth, but boy was he stumped by the ending!

Next, we went ahead and read “Pet Wash” by Dayle Ann Dodds.

The adults at my storytime were really chuckling at this one. It would have been a great pick for preschool storytime, but my group skewed way too young for this book to be a real success. We did like when the baby brother showed up to get a wash. One of my two-year-olds laughed hysterically at this part.

Next, we took a break from books and did our flannelboard — “Five Little Puppies.” (We used the BINGO dogs that I had made for farm storytime last spring — I made the B-I-N-G-O removable in case I needed the dogs for something other than BINGO.)

And then, we practiced our “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” which is the action rhyme that I’m hoping to have them memorize throughout the whole eight week session.

Then, I picked up a book and we sat back down for “Posy” by Linda Newberry and Catherine Rayner.

The kids were pretty restless during this one, but I brought them back to the story using my favorite technique — counting! We counted how many Posys were on each page. They LOVE counting, and I love using it.

Since we were wiggly, we did “The Wiggles.”

I finished up storytime by reading “Pet Shop Lullaby” by Mary Ann Fraser.

This was a great choice as the final book. The kids were tired from wiggling and head-shoulder-knee-toeing, so they sat very quietly for this excellent story about a hamster who can’t sleep in the pet shop.

We sang a few songs at the end — “How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?” and our “ABCs” and they moved on to our craft:

From DLTK’s Crafts — Paper Cat Craft.

My first storytime this fall — and I was so excited to do my first alphabet storytime. There are some fantastic alphabet books and crafts, but I had the hardest time finding songs and fingerplays.

I started off storytime by reading my new favorite alphabet book, “LMNO Peas” by Keith Baker.

This is such a great rhyming story all about peas and who they are. Astronauts, voters, and tons more — these little peas are everything imaginable under the sun. And a quick heads-up to all of my friends expecting babies — you will be getting this book from me!

Together, we stood up and learned “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” for the first time. I introduced this rhyme by having everyone find their heads, shoulders, knees, and toes before I started singing. And I did have some kids working through the song, just a step behind me.

Next up, I did “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin.

This is our Chicka tree, and the letters are Velcro that stick to the tree. I really wanted to do the activity tree as I read the story, but I had very young kids at this storytime, so I left the tree out with all the letters on top of it while I read the book. If this had been preschool storytime, I would have ditched the book and just used the tree to tell the story.

I found this great action rhyme and just modified it a bit to work in my storytime:

Action Rhyme: “Alphabet Beat”
First clap your hands. Then stomp your feet.
Everybody do the alphabet beat.
Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a,
Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a,
Wave your arms high. Swing your arms low.
The alphabet beat is the way to go.
Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b
Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b
Move to the left. Move to the right.
The alphabet beat is way out of sight.
Car, Car, Car – c – c – c
Car, Car, Car – c – c – c
Now give a high five to a nearby friend.
The alphabet beat has come to the end!
Credit: Preschool Storytime Outlines

I read “Alligator Alphabet” by Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer next.

The bright colors really caught the eyes of the kids, and they really enjoyed this title. Next, I lined up the alphabet on the flannelboard and pointed to the letters as I said them. And then, I went to A again and asked what starts with A. I was hoping for apple, and thankfully a mom jumped in to give me a segue to the fingerplay:

“Way Up High In the Apple Tree”
Way up high in the apple tree (stretch arm up high)
Two red apples smiled at me (hold up 2 fingers)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (make a shaking motion)
Down came the apples, (make a downward motion)
Mmmm–were they good! (smile and rub stomach)

I finished up alphabet storytime with “The Sleepy Little Alphabet” by Judy Sierra.

A great, quiet read to cap the storytime, but we weren’t finished yet — what alphabet storytime would be complete without singing the “ABCs?”

Our craft for this week was a simple alphabet caterpillar from DLTK’s Kids.

(Well, it was simple for the kids and parents — not so simple for my teen volunteer who had to painstakingly cut out enough for each child to spell out their name! My teens are really awesome at cutting stuff out for storytime.)