storytime katie

For more information on how I plan and prepare my preschool storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one class.

The Plan

Books

Fire Engine No. 9 by Mike Austin
Guess Who? by Margaret Miller*
Kitten Red Yellow Blue by Peter Catalanotto**
Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman**

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Growing Up**

Featured Track: “I Got a Job”

Flannelboard: Five Brave Firefighters*

Flannelboard: Little Cat, Little Cat**

Letter of the Day: J**

Props: Community Helper Puppets

Repeating Extension Activities

• Icky Sticky Bubble Gum*
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
• Dance Your Fingers Up*
• Everyone Can March

How It Went

Monday morning
Oh, the kids were so sad that today was the last class! I had so many long faces and hugs at storytime today. Both books (Kitten Red Yellow Blue and Trashy Town) were equally successful with this group. I think that we played “Little Cat, Little Cat” probably five or six rounds since the kids were enjoying it so much. And we had one last song of “Icky Sticky Bubble Gum” to get them ready to start class.

Thursday morning
The kids in Thursday’s group were very involved in talking about the different jobs that boys and girls can have. I had to do a lot of redirected speech, “That’s a mail person” or “That’s a firefighter’s hat” to hopefully get the point across that jobs are equal and everyone can do the job that they would want to. I think that Kitten Red Yellow Blue really helped with that because it does feature many different gender/job pairings. I also used Guess Who? here which I would love if they’d release a new edition of with updated photographs!

For more information on how I plan and prepare my preschool storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one class.

The Plan

Books

Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek**
Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn
Split Splat by Amy Gibson*
When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes**

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: More, Please!**

Featured Track: “Take the Sun”

Flannelboard: Five Little Ducks

Flannelboard: It Looked Like Spilt Milk**

Letter of the Day: S**

Props: Five Little Bunnies*

Props: Flutter, Flutter Butterfly**

Repeating Extension Activities

• Icky Sticky Bubble Gum
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
• Dance Your Fingers Up
• Everyone Can March*

How It Went

Monday morning
This storytime went amazing. I really feel like we hit our groove just before it’s about time for session break (this was week six out of seven). The kids really enjoyed Split Splat and the different noises that I made to go along with it. I did have one child who chose not to take a butterfly prop and say our rhyme with us, but he sat quietly while the other kids participated. This group LOVED “Five Little Bunnies” and were excellent at hopping around!

Thursday morning
I had to manage a crying child in today’s group (an outside issue not relating to storytime) and that did interrupt the flow of our first story When Spring Comes. We took a moment to take about our rain boots since they come up in the story while the caregiver checked in with the child and was able to get him to calm down and rejoin the group. The kids were really engaged today with the flannelboard in Thursday which isn’t always the case. But none of them guessed cloud until I asked them to look out the window!

For more information on how I plan and prepare my preschool storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one class.

The Plan

Books

Animal Opposites by Petr Horacek**
Big, Bigger, Biggest by Nancy Coffelt*
Black White Day Night by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox**

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Best of Laurie Berkner**

Featured Track: “Fast and Slow”**

Flannelboard: Big, Bigger, Biggest*

Letter of the Day: O**

Props: Green Says Go**

Repeating Extension Activities

• Icky Sticky Bubble Gum
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree*
• Dance Your Fingers Up
• Everyone Can March

How It Went

Monday morning
I enjoyed playing with this group and the book Animal Opposites today. When the words were “heavy” and “light”, I pretended like the book was heavy/light and let the kids call the words out and I would react. I did the same with a few other page spreads and it really engaged them. This group really appreciates the flannelboard as a different kind of story, so I do my best to always use it with them. And of, course, they loved the shaking the parachute to Laurie Berkner’s “Fast and Slow”.

Thursday morning
And if Monday’s group loved shaking the parachute, I don’t have a word to describe the group on Thursday’s enjoyment. One of my “omigosh” moments came this week though as I realized that I would have to explain long and short vowels concepts because I was doing the letter O as the Letter of the Day. Thursday’s group definitely grasped the concept better, though I do have two six-year-olds in the class that missed the kindergarten cut-off.

For more information on how I plan and prepare my preschool storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one class.

The Plan

Books

1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle*
My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall**
Stop Snoring, Bernard! by Zachariah Ohora**
Wild About Books by Judy Sierra

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: What a Zoo!**

Featured Track: “Wimoweh”*

Flannelboard: Color Zoo*

Flannelboard: Dear Zoo*

Letter of the Day: Z**

Puppets: You Can Hear*

Repeating Extension Activities

• Icky Sticky Bubble Gum
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree*
• Dance Your Fingers Up*
• Everyone Can March*

How It Went

Monday morning
Today’s big hit was My Heart Is Like a Zoo. The kids spent time on each page and wanted to count the hearts on all the animals. They also laughed appreciatively as the animals did sillier and sillier things. I think the page that got the most laughs was the herd of hippos drinking apple juice. The Letter of the Day “Z” did trip them up a bit with “zigzag” and “zucchini”. Many of the kids thought that the zucchini was a cucumber. So, it was a great day for new vocabulary!

Thursday morning
I had the very best fake snorers in this group while we were reading Stop Snoring, Bernard. This group also got to get up and practice their American Sign Language with me during our song “Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree”. This was also the group that needed to get up and march around the room to the song “Wimoweh”. Or as they prefer to call it, “The Lion King song!”

For more information on how I plan and prepare my preschool storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one class.

The Plan

Books

Maisy’s Wonderful Weather Book by Lucy Cousins**
Rain by Manya Stojic*
Tap Tap Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemle
Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood**

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Songs for Wiggleworms**

Featured Track: “If All the Raindrops”*

Flannelboard: What’s the Weather?**

Flannelboard: Ten Little Umbrellas/Raindrops*

Letter of the Day: W**

Prop: Rhythm Sticks*

Repeating Extension Activities

• Icky Sticky Bubble Gum*
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
• Dance Your Fingers Up
• Everyone Can March*

How It Went

Monday morning
Since my Monday group is smaller, I was able to let them have rhythm sticks and they tapped out different rain beats with me. I love using Maisy’s Wonderful Weather Book since it is a pop-up book and I don’t have it circulating in the general collection. This storytime flew by! I felt like we had just gotten into the room and were already starting our goodbye routines. The kids really had our routines down by this week and did excellent direction following.

Thursday morning
I had a bunch of wiggleworms in this group today! Both of the extension activities (Icky Sticky Bubble Gum and Everyone Can March) were both used with this group and did help re-direct the group towards paying attention since I had them stick their bottom to the ground in “Icky Sticky” and ended with “everyone can sit, sit, sit” with “Everyone Can March”. Since the Thursday group is in a room with a window bank, the kids were able to look outside and tell me what the weather was like during “What’s the Weather?” which was a nice change from the windowless room on Monday!

For more information on how I plan and prepare my preschool storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one class.

The Plan

Books

Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley*
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard*
Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won
My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Rock & Roll Playground*

Featured Track: “Jump Up (It’s a Good Day)”

Flannelboard: Go Away Big Green Monster*

Letter of the Day: F*

Prop: “If You’re Happy and You Know It”*

Repeating Extension Activities

• Icky Sticky Bubble Gum
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
• Dance Your Fingers Up*
• Everyone Can March

How It Went

Monday morning
My co-worker covered my Monday morning class while I presented a Guerrilla Storytime at one of the local networking groups.

Thursday morning
We spent a lot of time in this morning’s storytime talking about feelings and making faces. If you haven’t had a group of children stamp their foot and make grumpy faces with you during Grumpy Bird, you are missing out on life. They had a great time with the masks from Glad Monster, Sad Monster too. I took turns and left each child come up and pick a mask to be. Since I have a class of twenty, this took three go arounds but was time well spent in my opinion!

For more information on how I plan and prepare my preschool storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one class.

The Plan

Books

I’m Fast! by Kate and Jim McMullan
Old MacDonald Had a Truck by Steve Goetz**
Race Car Count by Rebecca Dotlich**
Supertruck by Stephen Savage**

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Ladybug Music — Green Collection**

Featured Track: “Big Fire Truck”**

Flannelboard: Clickety-Clack

Flannelboard: Lots of Cars*

Letter of the Day: T**

Prop: Stoplight Sorting**

Repeating Extension Activities

• Icky Sticky Bubble Gum
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
• Dance Your Fingers Up*
• Everyone Can March*

How It Went

Monday morning
The first class of our preschool storytimes can be difficult as children separate for the first time from their families. But Monday’s group? Not a problem. Every child came in and sat down and stayed throughout the whole storytime. It does help that most of the kids in preschool storytimes were my first and second group of toddlers. So at this point, I am a familiar person to them and they’re happy to see me. We had a great success with our Stoplight Sorting and I taught the kids our storytime routine. Their favorite book was Supertruck which timed nicely with a later snowfall in Chicagoland.

Thursday morning
My Thursday group had one child who wasn’t ready to separate. Their caregiver sat in the back of the room with the child and I continued on with storytime as usual. (Full disclosure: this child never wound up separating throughout the entire seven-week session. It happens. But since the caregiver was willing to keep trying, I was too.) This group LOVED Race Car Count with the kids voting by hand-raise about who they thought would win!