Kindergarten Class Visit, 9/12/12 and Pre-K Class Visit, 9/14/12

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. 

School is back in full swing, and my class visits to Pre-K and K classes have begun.

Wednesday morning's visit to the kindergarten class at our neighborhood Catholic school was my first class visit of the year, and it was so much fun! I repeated most of what I did for National Library Week last year, but I switched out D.W.'s Library Card for We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems. This resulted in the kids calling me "Banana" for the rest of the session, and again when they visited the library as a class on Friday.

I was thrilled to see that some of the Pre-K kids from last year were in this class and remembered all the songs I taught them. It also melted my heart when, during their class visit to the library, they asked when I would be back and came running to me with books they wanted me to read to them. I love kindergarteners!

My Pre-K visit on Friday was not quite as successful, mostly because I forgot how little they really are at the beginning of the year.  I decided to come up with a new repertoire for Pre-K classes since I'll have quite a few in the next month, and I was getting tired of my old stuff, but I might have overdone it slightly. Here's how it looked:

Book: The Wonderful Book by Leonid Gore

Poem: "Good Books, Good Times"
I turned this poem into a call and response chant, and tried to keep the rhythm on my knees as I chanted it, but I didn't have it quite as well memorized as I thought, and the kids' motor skills were not up to the task of keeping time. This is a really good idea, and I think it will definitely work if I use it with a K or First Grade class, but it's too hard for kids who are only just turning four.

Book: Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson
A huge hit, as always. They loved Otto and Ernest!

Book: Read It, Don't Eat It! by Ian Schoenherr

Song: These Are My Glasses 

When it came time to sing the goodbye song, all the kids knew it really well, and the teacher told me that she stole it from me after hearing it last year! I was thrilled and told them I hope they'll keep singing it all year long. I'll be visiting this class once a month all year long - I already can't wait to schedule October's date!