My Community: Toddler Lap Time, 6/28/13

 My Community: Toddler Lap Time, 6/28/13

Book: This is the Firefighter by Laura Godwin
At the start of story time, only one little girl was in the room, and she was not at all interested in this book. We read it quickly and moved onto the flannel board.

Flannel Board: Five Little Firefighters Putting out the Fire
I wrote this flannel board story, and I'll be sharing it on a future Flannel Friday. The little girl really liked it, and she kept taking the pieces on and off the board.

Book: Police Officers on Patrol by Kersten Hamilton
In the middle of this book, a second little girl joined us. Both girls were very busy, and neither paid very much attention to the story.

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Book: Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman
Just before we started this book, a third toddler joined us - a boy this time. This is the only book they really listened to, and afterwards, they just went crazy.

Activities with Stars

• Rhyme: Stars Up, Stars Down
• Song: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• Song: There’s a Star Upon My Head

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

Song: Hands Up High 

The last few activities were a blur of foam stars flying through the air and little feet stomping on the steps at the front of  the room. We gave up and just played for a few minutes.

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.

My Community: Drop-In Story Time, 6/28/13

My Community: Drop-In Story Time, 6/28/13

Flannel Board Song: Who are the People in your Neighborhood?

Book: Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook
I think this book works whether kids can guess or not, and in a way, it seems to follow the same concept as the magic envelope - using clues to add up to a bigger picture. I like the way the illustrations tell a secondary story, where the mail carrier delivers an invitation to each community helper, and in the end, they have a party to celebrate the astronaut's launch into space.

Song: The Wheels on the Bus
When in doubt, sing The Wheels on the Bus and end with a verse that shushes grown-ups.

Book: Look What I See! Where Can I Be? In the Neighborhood by Dia L. Michels
I have always loved this book, and I think some of the kids enjoyed it, though the room was somewhat chaotic and it was hard to tell. 

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

Magic Envelope: Firetruck
I forgot to sing hello to the magic envelope, and I actually think that might have worked out for the better. I felt like  the adults paid better attention without the song, but that could have been for any number of reasons, I suppose. In any case, the kids seemed interested in what was happening, and they were pleased when the firetruck emerged. 

Song: Hurry Hurry Drive the Firetruck
I asked all the kids to help me drive the firetruck and they did a great job singing and moving along with me.

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

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

Song: Hands Up High

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.

My Community: Preschool Story Time, 6/27/13

My Community: Preschool Story Time, 6/27/13

This story time was unprecedented in the sense that there were three kids in the room and none of them spoke at all the entire time. I am just not used to that! And it wasn't just that they were quiet. They didn't answer direct questions, or even acknowledge that I was in the room. I really hope we can build up a larger audience for this  story time as the summer wears on, because doing this for a group of completely silent kids every week is going to be trying.


Book: Career Day by Anne Rockwell
I have no real commentary about this book, or anything else, because there were no reactions at all. I may as well have been practicing story time for a group of stuffed animals. It was almost creepy. 


Guessing Game: Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?
I created two-sided cards for this game using clipart and riddle clues from kizclub.com.

Book: Whose Shoes? by Stephen R. Swinburne
This would be great to read to a class. Too bad it doesn't fit the rainforest or camping theme or I'd take it with me to the daycare!



Book: Pig Pig Gets a Job by David McPhail 

Craft: Community Helpers Badges from Crayola

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 (Letter W): 6/26/13

Read-Along Story Time for Beginning Readers (Letter W): 6/26/13

Attendees  
I had no idea how many kids to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised when I started with five and wound up with 12! One little boy was an exceptional handful, but even with his wild behavior and several distractions, this was one of  the best read-along story times I have ever done. I can only hope that this will continue through the summer! 
 
Name That Object
On the iPad, I showed the kids images of different words starting with W, all of which were labeled, and asked them to name them and talk about them a little bit. This is usually a pretty good ice breaker, and it worked even  better than usual at this story time. The "W" words we used were: wagon, wand, wolf, Washington monument, whale, wheel, washing machine, wheelbarrow, well, worm, and watermelon. At the end of the presentation, I showed them the four images we would mostly be dealing with - wolf, worm, watermelon, and wheels -  and I used these as the structure for  the activities that followed.

Read-Aloud
I read B.G. Hennessey's version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf which is relatively short, and also very funny. The kids really liked it, and I even got them to talk about the story a little bit, both as I was reading and afterward. 

Bag of Verbs
This was the most hectic round of "Bag of Verbs" we have ever played because a couple of the boys decided to just run around instead of following the bag's directions. In the end, I picked a few words out a time and we did the motions really quickly, before finally just sitting down and asking the kids to do the same. 

Read-Along 
I found a poem called I Brought a Worm and told it to the kids as a rebus with puppets. This way, no one could read ahead of the group, and everyone could call out the words at the same time. I'd like to use this approach again a few times, perhaps not always with images, but sometimes with simpler words they might be able to recognize as well. This was the point in story time when the behavior was the worst, but some of the kids who were not misbehaving seemed to really enjoy it.

Literacy Game
I created a matching game shaped like a watermelon. The watermelon slice had white "seeds" on it, each printed with an easy-to-sound-out word, and then I had black "seeds" printed with the first letters of each of the words. I called out random words and asked kids to help me find them,  then gave a child the letter to place over the word. When it came time to clean up, I asked one child at a time to find me one letter and bring it to me. I also asked some bigger kids to help their younger siblings participate. This was probably my favorite part of the story time, and I hope to be able to create some more games like this to use with other letters.

Write and Draw Activity The Wheels on the ________Go 'Round and 'Round

I kept the write and draw activity simple because I didn't know how many kids to expect. This ended up being perfect for the broad age range, and I was pleased with the results. I probably could have made it a bit trickier, but I liked that it was so open-ended and let the kids be as creative as they wanted. I also introduced this last activity by reminding them of our list of four images from the beginning of the session and seeing if they could remember which one we hadn't used yet. (And they could!)

I'll be off next Wednesday, but I am already excited for my next read-along story time on July 10th!