Welcome to Winter! Preschool Story Time, 1/11/13

Today was one of our better-attended preschool story time sessions - 8 kids in all! Some things, I came up with at the very last minute, but they all worked really well. 

Welcome to Winter! Preschool Story Time, 1/11/13
 Click to download this week's handout. 

Book: Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
I think this is a much better read-aloud than I was expecting, because most of  the kids seemed mesmerized. Only one little girl didn't like it and kept saying so to her mom.

Book and Activity: The Mitten by Jan Brett
For this story, I created a mitten on the floor with blue masking tape, as shown above. (The idea came from Pinterest.) Each of the kids had one of these cards and when their animal was called, they stepped into the mitten. At the end, when the bear sneezes, we all sneezed and jumped out of the mitten.

Song: If You Have a...
We were going to do an actual sequencing activity with the  sequencing cards but I quickly realized these kids would not be up to it. Instead, I sang to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress: "If you have the badger... bring it up to me." That worked really well.

Rhyme: Hedgehog's Hungry
This was another spur of  the moment idea. I tried out my new puppet, and asked the kids what they would feed him. The most popular answer, overwhelmingly, was dirt. (Credit for this idea goes to Miss Tara, who suggested feeding the puppet.)

Song: Hat, Coat, Pants and Shoes 
Only one little girl found this funny, but it was worth it to hear her laugh. 

Book: Cold Snap by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
This is a long one to be the last story of a session like this, but they liked it. And I love the artwork. 


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.

Welcome to Winter! Toddler Lap Time, 1/10/13 & 1/11/13

When I first started doing this story time, it felt like an out of control mess almost all the time. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to approach it in 2013, and these two sessions are proof that I made good decisions. These were great story times, with great groups, and I can't wait to see where we go from here!

 Welcome to Winter! Toddler Lap Time, 1/10/13 & 1/11/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

Song: It's Wintertime, You Know 
I found this song at Mel's Desk and printed out clipart to go with it. (I initially wanted to use photos, but our color copier has been down all week and clipart is best when it has to be black and white.) instead of Melissa's "We will have some snow," I sang "We might have some snow" because that is more accurate for this region. 

Book: Red Sled by Lita Judge
I was very nervous about sharing a mostly wordless book, but this one worked its magic on kids and adults in both sessions. It went over slightly better today than yesterday, possibly because I felt more comfortable with it the second time around.

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down in My Little Red Sled

Song: I’m a Little Teapot

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Song: Sing a Happy Song 

Book: Oh! by Kevin Henkes
This is so awkward to read aloud, but it seemed to go over better today than yesterday. One little guy loved the page where the children "jump jump jump" - he didn't want me to keep going because he was so attached to that page!

Flannel Board Song: A Hat Goes on my Head 
Toddlers really like this one. The parents were great about helping them find the right place to wear a hat, boots, snowpants, gloves, and a scarf. 

Rhyme: Snowflakes Falling Down (Thursday only)
I misread my setlist and basically just forgot this rhyme altogether in today's session. It was a good one yesterday, though - simple enough for this age group for sure. 

Book: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

Song: Dance Like Snowflakes
For this one, I handed out snowflakes to every child - each child got one yesterday and two today. The parents loved that there was something for the kids to hold onto, and the kids loved crumpling them up and shaking them around. 

Song: There’s a Snowflake on My Head
This song is kind of chaotic, but enough of the kids seemed into it that I'd do something similar again. 

Song: If You Have a Snowflake... 
This is a simple song to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress that I used to help us clean up. (If you have a snowflake... bring it up to me.) Yesterday, I tried to have them bring the snowflakes up by color - today we just all brought them up at once.

Song: One Little Finger
This was an old favorite of mine from when I first started singing all my songs without recordings. It was a hit as always.

Song: If You’re Happy

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.

Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/11/13

Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/11/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara

Song: Ten Little Icicles

Book: A Den is a Bed for a Bear by Becky Baines
This was surprisingly the better received of the two books, possibly because of the rhyming  text and photos. I am definitely going to see about incorporating more simple non-fiction into this story time.

Song: Goodnight
Since we read about a hibernating bear, we sang goodnight to a bear, and two other hibernating animals - a frog and a mouse. 

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down on my Little Blue Sled

Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on the Sled

Song: Head and Shoulders

Letter of the Day: T

• Song: Trees Are Growing High
• Song: I'm a Little Teapot
• Song: Drive, Drive, Drive Your Truck
• Song: Tommy Thumb

Songs with ukulele: ABCs/ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big
I realized by this point that we had been singing for almost 20 minutes straight, so I threw in some rhymes. It thrilled me to see some of our 18 month olds who have been coming to story time for about a year suddenly doing all the motions with me. 

Rhyme: Blue is the Lake
I was amazed at how well everyone remembered this one, as it's been a few months. I'll have to put it back into the regular rotation now that it's back on my radar.

Song: Sing a Happy Song
This woke up all the grown-ups - they were much more into this song than usual today!

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It


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.

(Not a) Flannel Friday: New Puppets!

Several new puppets came into my possession as a result of generous Christmas presents from my husband and my mom. I'm not quite sure how I'll use them yet, but they're too cute not to share!

Hedgehog

My husband bought me this adorable hedgehog hand puppet, which is made by Folkmanis. It's neat because I can move its head, arms and legs each using a different finger. I am not a great puppeteer, but I am practicing at making meaningful movements with the puppet, and I'm brainstorming ways to involve him in my weekly routines for Baby Lap Time and Toddler Time. At the very least, I can probably use him as my baby prop while I work on ways to use him as a puppet.

Animal Finger Puppets 

This set of animal finger puppets came from my mom. I'm excited about this set because it has a duck, an animal missing from every set of puppets my library itself owns. Since they're tiny, I'll need to save these for smaller groups, but I think it will be fun to try some new songs with a variety of animals. (My mom bought these on Amazon.)

Family Finger Puppets

These family finger puppets (also from Mom) will make a nice alternative to the clipart people I have used in some of my flannel boards. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to use them, but the ones that have come to mind so far are pretty basic - Where is Thumbkin using family members and a non-flannel version of  Who is Knocking at My Door? These will be fun to take with me on my visits to the rec. center where I typically don't have the flannel board. (My mom bought these on Amazon as well.)

This week's round-up is over at Storytime ABCs. For all things Flannel Friday, visit the official website.