Four Seasons Preschool Story Time, 8/22/13

Four Seasons Preschool Story Time, 8/22/13

Song with ukulele: Seasons of the Year
As I did when I performed this song at Drop-In Story Time, I wrote the words on the wall, and this time I also drew my own little pictures to illustrate each season. The few kids in the group who can read got really excited when they could pick out the words they knew. 

Book: When it Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator
As shown by the photo above, I planned to read Lemonade in Winter as my Winter book, but when I looked at the group and saw how many three-year-olds and toddler siblings there were, I decided it would be smarter to read just one  longer story, so I swapped Lemonade in Winter for this animal-centric, repetitive tale about where animals go in the snow. All the kids - even the oldest who was probably six - seemed into it.

Book: Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
The illustrations in this book always win kids over, and I love the rhythm of the text when I read it aloud. The kids were into the animals, and they were eager to tell me why a bunny could not live in a nest (too high) or the water (too wet.)

Action Rhyme: We Skate on the Lake
I don't really have a good title for this rhyme yet, but it's one I wrote with the specific intention of encouraging the kids to move around. I didn't have a lot of prescribed movements selected ahead of time. Instead, I asked the kids to show me how they would do a particular motion. We did  the entire  thing once through, and they were so into it, we ended up repeating it a second time.

We skate on the lake
We shovel the snow
We warm up by the fire
We drink hot cocoa
In Winter
In Winter

We hear the raindrops
We stomp in the mud
We water the plants
We watch for the buds
In Spring
In Spring

We run on the beach
We melt in the heat
We eat ice cream cones
We wipe sand from our feet
In Summer
In Summer

We stir apple sauce
We watch the leaves fall
We jump in the leaves
We kick soccer balls
In Fall
In Fall

Book: Water in the Park by Emily Jenkins
This was the longest book I read, and I know it was weird to read it third instead of first, but it worked well. The younger kids were a bit restless, but the older ones - mainly the five-year-olds - were really into the illustrations. I'm going to review this one in the near future because I feel like I have a lot to say about it.

Book: Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelley
I have always loved this book, and it was the perfect follow-up to the longer story preceding it. It was also the inspiration for our coloring page, and the only book to be checked out. 

Coloring Page: Color a Tree
I gave the kids a blank tree and some crayons and let them design their own silly leaves. Two girls copied from the book; everybody else went their own artistic way. 

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.