Tag: foam crafts

Play and Pretend!

Last Thursday was my regular weekly storytime — and I had choosen to do my theme with play and pretend, choosing all different kinds of books.

First up, I read “Knuffle Bunny” by Mo Willems.

I don’t know if you know this about me, but I adore Mo Willems. Like practically worship at his feet. His most recent release “Amanda and Her Alligator” has made me reconsider my “no reptiles/alligator/crocodile storytimes EVER” stance. (I’m terrified of snakes and thus, don’t like the idea of devoting a storytime to them!)

Anyway, “Knuffle Bunny” was my first Willems book and will always remain my favorite. And it doesn’t hurt that the kids adored that title, too. After we had a brief talk about our favorite toys, I read “Joey and Jet” by James Yang.

This book was another book I found while shelf-reading our collection. It’s a great book about a dog who chases a ball, with lots of prepositions. The kids were very involved in this storytime, and I had one little boy who kept repeating what I read after me, quietly to himself. Such a great literacy moment!

Then, I told the kids my favorite outside toys was kites — perfect segue into the flannel:

Flannelboard: “Five Little Kites”
One little kite in the sky so blue,
Along came another, then there were two.
Two little kites flying high above me,
Along came another, then there were three.
Three little kits, just watch them soar,
Along came another, then there were four.
Four little kites, so high and alive,
Along came another, then there were five.
Five little kits dancing across the sky,
What a sight to see, way up so high!
Credit: Step By Step — Kite Theme

Afterwards, we discussed the kite colors, practiced counting in English and in Spanish, and waved goodbye to each kite before I pulled out “Not a Stick” by Antoinette Portis.

This is another author and series that I adore. I love that this is basically a build-in guessing game, and that the kids and I talked throughout the book about what the stick was going to be. I also love the “not a stick!” refrain that my kids naturally started shouting with me.

After this book, I had an epiphany to just let them pretend and bounce around in storytime. I called out different actions from the book, and the kids galloped around the room, etc. Then, we did a favorite of mine from library school:

Action Rhyme/Bounce: “The Noble Duke of York”
The noble Duke of York, he had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill, and marched them down again.
And when you’re up, you’re up. And when you’re down, you’re down.
And when you’re only halfway up, you’re neither up nor down.

I always do this one several times, the last time super fast. This exhausts the kids and they are ready to sit back down for another book, which for this storytime was, “Higher, Higher” by Leslie Patricelli.

This is such a simple concept book: girl on swing, father pushes her, she keeps calling out “higher, higher.” The kids eagerly “read” this one out loud with me. It was really funny when she met her space alien friend who is also on a swing; the parents and kids were giggling pretty hard then. Then, I led the group in our session stretcher:

Fingerplay: “Itsy Bitsy Spider”

And on to the last book of the day, “Playground Day” by Jennifer J. Merz.

I’ve used this book before and it was a hit. This time, I had a cranky little boy call out that animals were stupid (Mom quickly took him out of the room) but that broke the spell for all the kids. No one wanted to guess the animals after that. Luckily, I skipped ahead a few pages and ended storytime by singing “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” I’m just glad the song went over well.

For our kite, we revisited the kites from earlier and made this kit from Oriental Trading:

Ta-da! (I really loved this craft.)

May 11, 2011 10 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Bunny Storytime!

Two weeks ago was “Snapshot Day” in Illinois libraries. It’s an advocacy campaign designed to show daily usage in a library. Participants are able to complete surveys about their library. For our part, Youth Services put together four activities that day. And of course, one was storytime. Because it was on a different day than my normal storytime hour, I had a smaller crowd of seven kids and our theme was bunnies.

Started off storytime with “Max’s Chocolate Chicken” by Rosemary Wells.

I grew up loving these books and still adore Rosemary Wells. This is a great one all about finding Easter eggs and getting candy and of course, Max being mischievous. I love how Ruby bosses him around, and so do the kids. (This was my one and only Easter book, and I asked parents before hand if they minded an Easter book being shared. I was ready to go with “Goodnight, Moon” instead if anyone had a problem.)

Next up, a new book by a favorite author — “What’s the Matter, Bunny Blue?” by Nicola Smee.

This is a great book for rhymes. Bunny Blue has lost her grandma, and she’s something of a mess. The kids laughed a lot when I was boo-hooing as Bunny Blue, but they kept insisting that we would find her grandma so I know that they weren’t worried. A great read-aloud book!

Then, we tried our own hands at locating a bunny. She was hiding under some Easter eggs. The kids got to practice naming colors, and since we were such a small crowd, I let everyone come up and take their own guesses off the board. (And I had the houses on stand-by for bunny to hide under if needed.)

Since the kids were a little wiggly after moving around, we did a quick rhyme to sit them back down:

Action Rhyme: “Little Rabbit”
I saw a little rabbit go hop, hop, hop
I told that little rabbit to stop, stop, stop
He wiggled his ears and crinkled his nose
And wiggled, wiggled, wiggled right down to his toes.
Credit: Modified from Preschool Education Music & Songs

Next up, I got to use a small board board because our crowd was smaller: “In My Meadow” by Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich.

I actually bought this book to possibly make a flannelboard out of it. (I’ve loved this board book/puppet series since I first saw them in bookstores last year.) Well, time got away with me and it was still in my storytime drawer so I brought it down to use as a puppet moreso. The kids LOVED getting to pet bunny at the end of the book. And since it was so short, I read it twice!

Then, I did a little rhyme with puppets:

Puppets: “There’s Something In My Garden”
There’s something in my garden
Now what can it be?
There’s something in my garden
That I can’t really see.
Hear its funny sound…
RIBBIT RIBBIT RIBBIT
A frog is what I found!
RIBBIT RIBBIT RIBBT
(SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK, A mouse is what I found! / CAW CAW CAW, A crow is what I found! / THUMP THUMP THUMP, A rabbit is what I found!)
Credit: SurLaLune Storytime

The kids were spot on with their guesses, but they were still very excited when I pulled out a puppet of the animal from behind my back. After, I read “What Does Bunny See?” by Linda Sue Park.

Another great guessing book, this time guessing what colors and flowers Bunny sees in her garden. Which brought us to our fingerplay:

Fingerplay: “Here is a Bunny”
Here is a bunny with ears so funny (hold up index and middle fingers for ears)
And here is his hole in the ground (make a circle with the other hand)
At the first sound he hears, he pricks up his ears (extend two fingers)
And hops in the hole in the ground (fingers jump into the hole)
Credit: Early Literature

And then our next book, “Bunny Fun” by Sarah Weeks.

This book was a fun deviation from a lot of the normal bunny books. This one was about a little bunny who was stuck inside on a rainy day and all the fun he came up with. My kids were very excited to see activities that they do (blocks, coloring, etc.). Super cute.

Fingerplay: “Little Bunny”
There was a little bunny who lived in the wood. (hold up two fingers)
He wiggled his ears as a good bunny should (wiggle on head)
He hopped by a squirrel. He hopped by a tree. (hop, hop)
He hopped by a duck. And he hopped by me. (hop, hop over fist)
He stared at the squirrel. He stared at the tree. (stare, stare)
He stared at the duck. But he made faces at me! (stare, make faces)
Credit: Texas State Library

That was a hysteric fingerplay. The kids could not stop laughing when we made funny faces. After a good laugh, I read our last book for the day, “Little White Rabbit” by Kevin Henkes.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of books by Kevin Henkes. So, it should come as no surprise that I love this newest one by him. It’s such a good calming, end-of-storytime read.

All that was left was our craft, which I had purchased from an Oriental Trading craft kit:

April 25, 2011 13 Comments Short URL, , , Family Storytime

Spring!

Another round of afternoon storytime was last week, on Tuesday. Our theme was spring which was perfect because the weather had been so nice and kind to us last weekend (we hit the 80s on Sunday), and the kids are definitely hitting spring fever. [Unlike this week, where it SNOWED this morning. Oh, Chicago, why do you hate me so?]

Our first book for today was “Mouse’s First Spring” by Lauren Thompson.

I’ve used the Mouse books as a way to introduce a lot of the seasons in other storytimes, but I really enjoyed the spring edition because it’s a guessing game of objects and animals in the springtime. My kids really this as a warm-up activity. By the end of the book, everyone was shouting guesses! Next, we did the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” three different ways, which is always a crowd-pleaser.

Next, I introduced our next book by first doing a fingerplay:

Fingerplay: “Here is a Bunny”
Here is a bunny with ears so funny (hold up index and middle fingers for ears)
And here is his hole in the ground (make a circle with the other hand)
At the first sound he hears, he pricks up his ears (extend two fingers)
And hops in the hole in the ground (fingers jump into the hole)
Credit: Early Literature

And that brought us to the next book, “What Does Bunny See?” by Linda Sue Park.

This is another book that my group had a lot of fun, in this book they got to guess the colors of flowers. I have some color masters in storytime — they always know every color! And naming the flowers was a good way to increase vocab and also get them prepped for our craft later on. And that also led us into a quick song:

Song: “Ten Little Flowers” (Tune: Ten Little Indians)
One little, two little, three little flowers
Four little, five little, six little flowers
Seven little, eight little, nine little flowers
Ten flowers in the spring.
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
So they’ll grow up tall
Credit: Modified from The Holiday Zone

Our next book was “Hurray for Spring!” by Patricia Hubbell.

This book has a lot of different spring activities which is a nice contrast to objects or animals or weather. I asked this kids after each spread if they had done the activity shown. It will not surprise you at all to know that everyone has done everything…even if they really haven’t.

I loved this fingerplay, and we repeated this one four or five times, the kids giggling the whole time.

Fingerplay: “During the Spring”
During the spring, it often showers (flutter fingers down)
Or the sun shines for many hours (form circle in the air with arms)
Both are good for the flowers! (cup hands and extend arms like flowers)
Credit: SurLaLune Storytime

And then, I led the kids in singing our flannelboard: “Five Little Ducks.”

Followed by our next book, “Dimity Duck” by Jane Yolen and Sebastien Braun.

This is one of my favorites. I love the wonderful alliteration and sounds from saying names like Dimity Duck and Frumity Frog. Last but not least (I mean I’m doing a whole bugs only theme in May), I wanted to talk a bit about spring bugs. First with a butterfly…

Song & Puppet: “Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly”
Flutter, flutter butterfly
Floating in the spring sky
Floating by for all to see
Floating by so merrily
Flutter, flutter butterfly
Floating in the spring sky
Credit: Best Kids Book Site

And then with a lot of different bug in “Bumblebee, Bumblebee, Do You Know Me?” by Anne Rockwell.

This book was one of those books that should have gone over really well, but I had one little boy act out during the whole time. One of my kids asked, “Miss Katie, why can’t he sit down and listen?” Needless to say, since this book isn’t a linear story, I did skip a few page spreads to get us to the end of storytime and our craft. For craft, we made felt and foam flower bouquets, which came in a kit from Oriental Trading.

This kit was a huge hit! Some of the kids required some parental help, but most of the kids figured it out themselves.

April 18, 2011 15 Comments Short URL, , Family Storytime

Winter!

It’s the start of my winter storytime session!

This is an experimental session, as I’ve never done storytime in the winter before. (Our attendance always dropped out significantly during November.) So far, I’ve got four weeks planned, but whether or not I’ll do another four weeks depends on whether or not my families keep showing up!

For this session, I have switched things up and started using “The More We Get Together” as my opening song, and “We Wave Goodbye Like This” as my closing song. Our stretcher for this session is “I’m a Little Teapot.”

I started off storytime with “A Kitten’s Tale” by Eric Rohmann.

This was a nice quiet start for the first storytime since October. It might have been almost too quiet, because I had wigglers up until the snow fell in the story. But the minute the snow appeared, everyone sat down and listened up. It was a nice moment, after I had been mildly worried that things were going south. (I can’t be the only librarian who frets during storytime!) Followed this up with a great transition into our flannelboard: “The Three Little Kittens.”

Our set was damaged in the flood that we had this summer, so I actually wound up remaking it, using the existing flannel pieces as the templates. After that, it was on to another great transition from kitten mittens to “One Mitten” by Kristine O’Connell George.

This is a great rhyming story about a girl who can’t find her second mitten until it’s found under her cat. (Third cat related winter activity in a row — maybe my theme was really cats and winter!) The kids really enjoyed this one, I had a couple of them shouting out places to look for her mitten. No one guessed under the cat. Once she finds her mittens, she goes out into the snow, which led to a great discussion about playing in the snow. And then, to a great fingerplay once someone mentioned sledding!

Fingerplay: “Here’s a Hill”
Here’s a hill (tilt left arm so that it forms a hill)
And here’s a hill (tilt right arm so that it forms a hill)
All covered with snow (raise hands up, bring down in snow motion)
I’ll put on my coat, (put coat on)
And jump on my sled (hold the rope of a sled)
And ZOOM, down the hill I will go! (clap hands, slid hands down)
Credit: The Holiday Zone (with a little tweaking)

Next, I went through the actions in “I’m a Little Teapot” (i.e. – “Can you make a handle? Can you make a spout? Can you tip yourself over? Great! Now you can do this song with me!”) since it was our first time. This is how I introduce most of my songs, so the kids are familiar with it.

Afterward, the kids were definitely ready to sit down and listen to “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats.

I am always REALLY excited when I get to share a book that I read when I was a kid. The parents always chuckle when I say that this book is old (because most of my parents are just older than me), and the kids are always wide-eyed, like it’s a dinosaur age book. So funny. Anyway, they really liked reading about Peter and his adventures, though they didn’t get that the snow in his pocket had melted. Had to explain that one a bit. But after that discussion, a great segue into an extension activity:

Action Song: “Dance Like Snowflakes”
Dance like snowflakes,
Dance like snowflakes
In the air, in the air
Whirling, twirling snowflakes
Whirling, twirling snowflakes
Here and there, everywhere
Credit: BellaOnline

I didn’t have a seemless transition into “Duck Skates” by Lynne Berry though I had thought about trying to explain freezing snow and ice…but that seemed way too difficult to me.

This series is so cute, and the kids really like the rhyming. I’m not sure if they understand what’s going on, though, and I find myself explaining a lot of the pages to them. That sometimes messes with the rhythm of the story, but I don’t mind.

I wanted the kids really worn out for my last book (which is a very quiet one), so we did this:

Action Song: “Winter Hokey Pokey”
You put your mitten in, you take your mitten out
You put your boots in, you take your boots out
You put your hat in, you put your hat out
You put your coat in, you put your coat out
Credit: Step by Step – Winter Theme

We did several rounds before “Polar Bear Night” by Lauren Thompson.

I must really like bears, but this book is fast becoming a favorite of mine — right up there with “Old Bear.” The kids were pretty settled down after several rounds of Hokey Pokey, and were very content to listen. A great way to end storytime.

This craft was off of KidsSoup, which is a paid membership site. ($25.00 for a year; my Christmas present to myself and my staff!)

I printed off the template. My teens cut out the mittens, hole-punched the mittens, and tied them up. The kids added the foam shapes. A very successful return — I had eleven kids attend!

December 3, 2010 10 Comments Short URL, , Family Storytime

Sea Creatures!

I wanted to do a storytime that introduced the kids to a lot of different animals — ones that they might not know, and ones that definitely do not have enough books to have their own storytime. So, I mashed them all together and did a sea creatures storytime.

Our first book was “Over in the Ocean” by Marianne Berkes.

I fell in love with this book. It’s a little long, especially if your storytime kids skew towards 2s/3s, but the illustrations are so unique and interesting — the sea creatures were created using clay and then photographed. The colors are so bright and vivid, and the texture is apparent throughout the book. My kids kept getting up to touch the pictures, and I had to remind them to sit down often! That’s a high compliment, if kids are naturally drawn to the book itself!

I followed up with “I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean” by Kevin Sherry.

This book is such a great book for storytime. The kids love giant squid, and while I was worried that they might be scared by the ending of the book, they were totally fine with it. One of the kids even remarked that giant squid “was bad, so he was eaten!” I loved his sense of justice. Next up a rhyme with puppets:

“Four Little Ocean Friends”
Four little ocean friends living in the sea
The turtle slides away now there are three
Three little ocean friends looking for a clue
“Glub, glub,” said the lobster now there are two
Two little ocean friends not having much fun
Off swam the sea horse now there is one
One little octopus sad and all alone
Back swims the turtle, back swims the lobster, back swims the sea horse
And they played in the sea foam, safe in their home.
Credit: Modified from Beach Fingerplays from Carroll County Public Library

I did this with my very favorite set of fingerpuppets — the Sea Mates set from Manhattan Toy. It’s no longer available for purchase from the company, but I was lucky enough to catch a set for sale in Amazon’s Marketplace.

Next, a familiar book for the kids who were at “Fish Storytime” earlier this summer, “Big Fish, Little Fish” by Ed Heck.

This was my first time repeating a book in the same storytime session, and my younger kids really liked seeing it again. My older kids, on the other hand, shouted out how the book ended. If I had a storytime that was divided up by ages, I think that I would definitely repeat more books with the younger kids.

Song: Did You Ever See a Fishy? (Tune of “Did You Ever See a Lassie?”)
Did you ever see a fishy, a fishy, a fishy
Did you ever see a fishy, swim this way and that?
Swim this way and that way, and that way and this way?
Did you ever see a fishy, swim this way and that?
Credit: Ocean Songs and Fingerplays

We made fishies with our hands while we sang. And then, I read “Rub-a-Dub Sub” by Linda Ashman.

I really enjoyed this story about a little boy who takes on a submarine adventure all from his bathtub. I was very impressed that a few of my kids guessed the ending rhyme — tub! A quick switch to our flannelboard:

Flannelboard: “Five Big Whales”
Five big whales in the sea offshore
One swam up to spout and that left four.
Four big whales in the deep blue sea
One swam up to spout and that left three.
Three big whales in the sea so blue
One swam up to spout and that left two.
Two big whales having loads of fun
One swam up to spout and that left one.
One big whale longing for the sun
He swam up to spout, and that left none!
Credit: Ocean Life Compilation

Last book, “Secret Seahorse” by Stella Blackstone.

As always, I love a good hunt-and-find picture book. The kids were completely engrossed in finding out where the seahorse had gone. This was a great way to keep them engaged to our craft:

This was a super easy idea that I borrowed from Sarah. She did this craft a long time ago with pets/fish, I just changed it up to sea creatures and foam! All the pieces were self-adhesive which made this craft both entertaining and easy.

July 15, 2010 5 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

Summer!

Seasons are an easy go-to theme, especially when you live in Chicago and the area has definite seasons! Our welcome song for this cycle is “Mr. Sun” and we’re still singing our “ABCs” for our closing song.

Started off storytime with “Mouse’s First Summer” by Lauren Thompson.

I really love the Mouse series — these are great books to use in introducing a season. Simple, bright illustrations and really adorable characters in Mouse and Minka. And even though the books are very formulaic, the kids are always excited to shoot “Hooray” with Mouse at the end.

Next, we read “It’s Summer” by Jimmy Pickering.

This is another series that has an installment for each season. We have another pair of cute characters here — Sally and her dog — and follow them as they explore the differences between the seasons in rhymes.

Afterwards, we needed to get up and shake around a bit, so we did our action rhyme:

Action Rhyme: “Swimming”
Swimming in the water cool and bright (pretend to swim)
I kick my feet with all my might (kick feet)
And when I’m tired I turn and float (spin and hold arms out)
Pretending that I’m a boat
I like to hold my breath and dive (pretend to take breath and dive)
I swim beneath the water and count to five (count to five)
Wow! What a dive!
Credit — Hummingbird Educational Resources

And then listened to our flannelboard: Ice Cream Colors (Credit: Step By Step).

Next up, “Summer Wonders” by Bob Raczka.

I adore this season series — bright colors, easy rhymes — and my favorite part is that there is always a vertical spread in each book. The kids are always really excited when I suddenly turn the book around on them. We have this whole series in our storytime collection, always ready to read.

Song: Summer’s Here (Tune: Frere Jacques)
Days are longer, sunshine’s stronger.
Summer’s here! Summer’s here!
Let’s jump through the sprinkler, let’s make lemonade
Summer’s here! Summer’s here!
Credit — Summer Preschool Lesson Plan

And we finished up the storytime by reading “Playground Day” by Jennifer J. Merz.

I really wanted to close the storytime with something that every kid could do over the summer. We have some awesome playgrounds around here and I hope that this book inspired parents to take their kids. Also, this one was definitely a winner — it’s a guessing animals book! As the girl plays on the various equipment, readers are invited to guess what animal she is acting like. Guessing animals is always a crowd pleaser.

For craft, we went with a pre-made kit from Oriental Trading: Tropical Visor Craft.

As for prep to make this one storytime appropriate, I punched out the foam pieces, pre-assembled the sun (base, face, and glasses) and decided to use glue dots instead of glue. This was our second time using glue dots, so my parents knew what was going on and I will definitely continue to use this product.

(Also, the recommended age on Oriental Trading has changed to 8+ since I ordered this kit. I really think that it works fine as a preschool craft. Some parents insisted that their kids make the scene exactly as the picture shows — but some of the cuter crafts were the ones where the kids had more free rein. And just so you know — this craft was entirely made of foam.)

June 17, 2010 3 Comments Short URL, Family Storytime

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