Up, Up, and Away! Preschool Story Time, 3/8/13

Up, Up, and Away! Preschool Story Time, 3/8/13

Preschool Story Time has undergone a lot of changes at my  library in the two years I've been here. We've tried it on Friday mornings and Monday afternoons. We've given it different names and age ranges. I am so pleased that this 4:00  time slot on Friday has worked so consistently well. This past week, I had a wonderful group of mostly girls, all of whom were between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 years old. I read three longer books, and the kids were engaged from beginning to end. A mom kind of stumped when she asked whether it was okay to read long books to her daughter. Of course it is! But she, like many other parents, wanted to know what the appropriate level was. I said she should try whatever interests her daughter and not worry too much about levels. She seemed puzzled by that response, but it also did seem to ease her mind. In general, this story time had many more parents in attendance than usual, and I think many of  them were just as into the story time as their kids.

Book: The Kite Festival by Leyla Torres
I was really uncertain about this one, because it's such a long and quiet story, but the kids were engrossed. One of the littlest girls in the group (she's a younger sibling of a four-year-old) even came up after story time to retell the book to me, and she did a perfect job.

Song: Shake My Sillies Out 

Book: Chavela and the Magic Bubble by Monica Brown
I would use this one again. I'd actually like to learn the song in the back of the book so I could sing it for the kids after the story. 

Songs with ukulele: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep
I didn't have anything special prepared to play on the ukulele, so we did  these three old favorites, and the kids sang right out. That's the nice thing about four year olds. They know the songs, and most of them like to sing!

Flannel Board: Pete the Clown
This is a balloon-themed flannel board I came up with based on Pete  the Cat. I plan to make a Flannel Friday post about it later this week. 

Song: A Balloon for Isabel by Deborah Underwood
I was going to read Princess Hyacinth, but then I found this book and decided it would be a good, shorter alternative. The kids loved it, as did the adults! 

Craft: Cloud Sewing Cards 
This DLTK-inspired craft requires too much prep (cutting and punching holes), and it was too hard for the kids. Some of my kindergarteners and first graders happened by the room as we were finishing up, and they expressed interest in it, but by then I was out of clouds.

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.