Builders and Diggers Toddler Lap Time, 5/3/13

 

Builders and Diggers Toddler Lap Time, 5/3/13

Book: The Construction Crew by Lynn Meltzer
I was right - moving this to the earliest spot in the story time got a much better response. This was a wild group,  but they mostly sat for this book.

Flannel Board: Down Around the Corner at the Hardware Store
Counting works with toddlers. They don't typically know how to count, but they love to listen to adults do it.

Book: Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop by Lisa Shulman
I didn't remember this book in time for yesterday's story time, but when I found it when I was preparing for preschool story time last night, I knew it would work perfectly with this group. Since they were so restless, having a singable picture book on hand was a godsend!

Song: Construction Worker Song
This group was more interested in this song than yesterday's group, but they were a bit younger and not as able to do the motions. (I bet some of them will go home and do them tonight, though!)

Book: Truckery Rhymes by Jon Scieszka
We obviously didn't read the whole book; I just chose the rhymes that related to construction and shared a few of those. The response was lukewarm, except to "Swing Around Like Rose" which got smiles all around.

Song: ABCs

Song: Hands Up High

Songs with Foam Butterflies

• Fly Like a Butterfly
• Flutter, Flutter Butterfly
• There’s a Butterfly On My Head

A butterfly got ripped in half at this story time. This is the first time a child has ever destroyed one of my foam shapes - a pretty good track record!

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

This puppet is always popular, but two particular kids in this group literally could not get enough of him. I had to give multiple high fives with Mr. Sun at the end of story time as well to satisfy his admirers.

Song: Row Your Boat

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

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.

Read-Along Story Time for Beginning Readers, 5/2/13

 Read-Along Story Time for Beginning Readers, 5/2/13

Name That Job
I showed the kids a series of hats on the iPad and asked them to name who wears that hat, and what that person does. The kids knew instantly that a chef "cooks things" but they had trouble explaining the work of firefighters. I was told that police officers "put people in jail" and that astronauts "go up into space." They thought a jester hat would be perfect for a clown, and they had no idea what to make of a surgeon's cap. I love opening story time with this kind of exercise because it breaks the ice, it encourages the kids to tell stories and describe what they know, and because the kids always learn something new!

Read-Aloud 
We read LMNO Peas by Keith Baker. I didn't know if  this age group would think an alphabet book was too juvenile, but they really enjoyed it. Sometimes I just read a page straight through. Other times, I stopped to ask the kids what a miner does, or what an acrobat does. They were really  engaged and had lots of great responses to all the information in the text. I would definitely use another alphabet book with this group!

Making a List: What is Green?
We talked about the fact that peas are green, then made a great list of other green things. We were slow to get started, but the youngest boy in the group piped up with "alligator" and then they all got rolling, even the two quietest kids in the room, who were new to this story time.  At the end, our list looked like this:

Though I sometimes forget, I did remember to read the list back to them this time.

Bag of Verbs
I brought out the bag of words again, and the two boys who have been to this story time before got really excited. This segment of the story time can sometimes get a little wild, but they all love to take their turn reaching into the bag, so that usually gets them to focus between motions. I am going to take another look at the words in this bag and try to add some more after a couple more weeks.

Read-Along
We read a poem from Highlights High Five Magazine called Peas, Peas, Peas. I first played the audio version from the Highlights website, then we read the poem aloud together. This part of the story time is still a work in progress, as we used to attract readers and now we are attracting mostly pre-readers. I did notice the one little girl in the room trying to repeat each line after me. That might be how I handle this section next week.

Writing Activity: My Pea
In Publisher, I created this simple activity where the kids could design a pea and tell us something about it. One boy made a ghost doctor pea, another made an entire family of peas, with all kinds of little pea babies, and the two kids who were siblings (possibly twins?) both made theirs into rainbows. Another boy gave his long pink hair, and drew a table for it to sit at and eat corn.

Click the image to download your own copy of my pea printable!

Notes
This was a great story time - one of the best for this age group ever! I am really pleased with the structure of the program now, and I think it can easily be adapted to suit the level of  the kids in attendance. This was  a young group - one preschooler and four Pre-K kids, and they did fine with it, but I can imagine kids who could read would have gotten just as much out of it, just on a different level. I'm looking forward to doing more of this story times between now and the end of school, and hopefully continuing into the summer!

Builders and Diggers Baby Lap Time, 5/2/13

Builders and Diggers Baby Lap Time, 5/2/13

This is a hard theme to use with babies, if you want to do an entire story time centered on the theme. But it works fine if you interpret "construction" to include anything with buildings, and if you don't worry whether every activity suits the theme.  (The monkey in the picture is Girl Monkey, a present from my husband for Easter, which served as my "baby" for lap time this week.)

Book: I Love Tools by Philemon Sturges
I decided to use this book with the babies at the last minute. I don't think they understood much of it, but the bold illustrations got their attention, and we did introduce some new vocabulary. 

Song: Dump Truck Song
This was a huge hit! 

Song: Tony Chestnut

Rhyme: One Two

Book: My City by Rebecca Emberley
This is a bilingual book, but I only read the English vocabulary. I modeled again how to read these simple board books aloud, and though the adults didn't seem to know what to make of it, everybody clapped at the end.

Song with Stick Puppet: I'm a Builder
I like to sing at least one new puppet song each session if I can - usually connected to the theme, because that is typically pretty easy to do. This was a great one, which I found at the last minute, and used with one of my construction worker flannel board pieces. The babies got a kick out of all the adults singing "Tap-a-tap-a-tap-tap."

Rhyme with Cow Puppet: Hey Diddle Diddle
This is another favorite. I tap my knees, then lift the cow into the air, while the babies get lifted up by their caregivers.

Bouncing Song: All the Little Babies

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Song with Sun Puppet: Mr. Sun

Song: Row Your Boat

Song: Where is Big Toe? 
I always throw this song in when I feel like story time is running short and I don't have a clock to look at. 

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.

Builders and Diggers Toddler Lap Time, 5/2/13

Builders and Diggers Toddler Lap Time, 5/2/13

 Book: I Love Tools by Philemon Sturges
I couldn't tell whether the group liked this one. One boy definitely talked to me through the entire thing, but possibly not in English, so I'm not sure what he was excited about!

Song: Construction Worker Song
This song has the same tune as the hello song I use with this group which made it seem kind of weird this early in story time, but probably only to my perfectionist librarian brain. There was one mom who kept looking at me expectantly through the whole song, but she was a newbie, so it could be that she was just trying to follow me. The kids did a great job making the motions - even better than  I expected with a brand-new song!

Book: The Construction Crew by Lynn Meltzer
This was a last-minute addition, and the rhyming was good, but the length of the book was a bit much. I might put this one first in the afternoon session.

Flannel Board: Down Around the Corner at the Hardware Store
I don't understand why the adults don't get more into this. It has rhythmic, repetitive text and the kids love counting the wrenches and people and they all come up to the front to get closer to the board. The adults, though, look at me blankly like they can't figure out what I'm trying to do!

Book: Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming
I like this book because it introduces a lot of good vocabulary, but I don't like it because some of the words have very little to do with construction. The kids were interested in the illustrations - I couldn't tell how much they actually got out of it.

Song: ABCs
We sang this twice - the first time, we tapped our knees, and the second time, we clapped our hands.

Song: Hands Up High
We have been doing this song every week, and the kids are getting really good at following me and making the motions.

Songs with Foam Butterflies:
I bought foam butterflies at Michael's over the weekend, and used them with some old familiar songs we have done before. Next time, I might switch out Fly Like a Butterfly for the Butterfly verse of I'm a Little Bumblebee.

• Fly Like a Butterfly
• Flutter, Flutter Butterfly
• There’s a Butterfly On My Head

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

Song: Row Your Boat

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider


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.

Flannel Friday: I Saw Five Little Unicorns

I have been doing a letter of the day at each of my large drop-in story times for about 8 months now, and I'm quickly approaching Z once again. I wasn't crazy about my options for Letter U last time around, so this time I vowed I would figure out how to use unicorns. I almost didn't get it done in time, since I only wrote the  rhyme the night before I intended to use it, but it turned out better than I expected, so I'm sharing it today in case anyone out there needs more useful alphabet activities! 

(Please excuse the glow on the photos. The lighting in my office is not conducive to great photos. But it does sort of make the unicorns look like they are emerging mysteriously from the mist!)

I saw five little unicorns - creatures from folklore.
I watched the blue one prance away and then there were four.

I saw four little unicorns resting by a tree
I watched the orange one prance away, and then there were three.

I saw three little unicorns, but as near to them I drew,
The green one pranced away, and then there were two.

I saw two little unicorns - I watched them run and run.
The red one pranced away, and then there was one.

 
I saw a lonely purple unicorn standing in the sun.
When I blinked my eyes, it pranced away, and then there were none.

What I was trying to capture in this rhyme is the elusive, magical nature of unicorns. I initially considered having the whole thing be a dream, but thought that was too much to take on in a rhyme for a mostly-toddler story time. I think I might consider writing another version for my older groups, though, because I think they are the ones most likely to be interested in and excited about unicorns. There is also potential for turning this rhyme into a simple easy reader for my beginning reader story time.

I made my unicorns using this clipart image from mycutegraphics.com. I printed five black and white copies, then colored them in with crayons. I made the entire flannel board set in less than 30 minutes, including printing, coloring, covering with Contact paper, and attaching Velcro.

For my other alphabet activities click here.

To visit the official Flannel Friday website, click here.

This week's round-up is hosted by Library Quine.