Music! Music! Music! Preschool Story Time

 Music! Music! Music! Preschool Story Time

This was a smaller story time, but a very nice one. Seven kids attended in all - one preschool boy with a toddler brother (and their mom), one preschool girl with a toddler sister (and their nanny), one of the girls from the Catholic school Pre-K and her first grader sister (and their nanny), and a little boy who always comes with his mom. Our theme was music, so we did some listening, singing, and dancing.

Book: This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt
As I have in the past, I had the kids say  the nicknames of the various jazz musicians. They did okay with the book, but they didn't like it as much as the groups of past years.

Song: Hands Are for Clapping
Since I already had this on hand from the morning story time, I used it again with these guys. They got surprisingly into it - especially when we started snapping our fingers.The first grade big sister also got really into whistling.

Audiobook: Zin! Zin! Zin!A Violin by Lloyd Moss
I downloaded the audio version of this book from Overdrive onto one of our branch iPads and used my old laptop speakers to make the sound loud enough. I held the book and turned the pages as the audio played so the kids would still have the benefit of  the picture book, but they would also get to hear the different musical instruments. The slow pace could have made this story a flop, but the kids loved it. By the end, they were conducting and applauding in accordance with the soundtrack, as though they were part of a real concert.

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Book: Violet’s Music by Angela Johnson
I'm not that fond of this book, but the kids were crazy about it.

Craft: Paper plate maracas
My coworker and I stapled shut paper plates and filled them with beads, then gave them to the kids to color with markers. This was a hugely successful craft, which inspired lots of loud shaking and dancing and lots of bewildered smiles from the poor grown-ups who had to take those noisemakers home.

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.