Wild for Animals! Drop-In Story Time, 7/12/13

 Wild for Animals! Drop-In Story Time, 7/12/13

Book: Kitty's Cuddles by Jane Cabrera
This book has traditionally  been well-received, and it was fairly well-received today. A little girl in the front row was in one of my Pre-K classes this past school year, and she kept jumping up in front and calling things out, as we often had lots of discussion during read-alouds in her class. It's too bad there weren't a few more kids her age to keep that vibe going. As it was, most of the other kids seemed uncomfortable with her outbursts.

Rhyme with Puppets: Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Where Have You Been?
This was a last-minute addition, but it went over so well! This version of the nursery rhyme sends the cat to the zoo where she sees a monkey, so I kept a monkey puppet hidden behind my back as I interviewed my cat puppet. Then I took the puppets off and showed the kids how to do the entire thing with just their bare hands. Huge success! 

Book: I Love Animals by Flora McDonnell
This book is pretty basic, and I chose it for that reason, as my audiences haven't been the most attentive lately. They weren't that into it, but they were quiet.

Song: Old MacDonald

Book: Are You a Cow? by Sandra Boynton
I knew there was a chance I'd ask the kids questions from this book and they wouldn't answer, and that is exactly what happened. So I just kept saying "noooo" and shaking my head in the silliest way possible. 

Magic Envelope: Cowboy 
We put a hat, boots, spurs, lasso, and horse in the envelope and pulled out a cowboy.

Rhyme: Cowboys All Dressed
I had a small daycare or preschool class, and they liked this rhyme, so we did it twice so they could learn it a little better. 

Song: Hands Up High 

Ukulele Medley: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

Song: Mr. Sun

Song: Chickadee
We haven't done this song in so long, mostly because the last few times it didn't go over so well. This time, it was great, and a lot of the kids actually sang along!


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: Sailing Out to Sea

I have a lot of flannel board songs that focus on colors. I have a lot of flannel board rhymes that promote counting to five, or ten. But I realized recently that I didn't have a single flannel board that asks kids to identify numbers on sight. Thus, I wrote my own piggyback song to the tune of Bumpin' Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon which asks kids to name not the color of an object, but the number printed on it. This song is called Sailing Out to Sea.

I don't take my flannel board to outreach events, usually, so because I was planning to use this song at an offsite daycare visit, I just colored sailboats and mounted them on cardstock so I could hold them up and show the kids. I could also have made them into stick puppets, or created flannel board pieces, and given how successful it was, I might go back and do just that in the near future!

Here's what my set of cards looks like: 

 

And here's how I presented my song to the two- and three-year-old classes at the daycare.

We're going to sing about some sailboats. Each one has a number on it. Let's see if you know which number... this is!

I held up the first boat and all the kids called out, "One!"

Right! Number one. Let's show number one on our fingers. Good job! Now we'll sing!

Sailing out to sea on my number one sailboat
Sailing out to sea on my number one sailboat
Sailing out to sea on my number one sailboat
Sails blowing in the breeze! 

I held up my hand and waved it around like a sail billowing in the wind.

Does my hand look kind of like a sail to you? Can you do that, too? 

I had a set of five sailboats all together and because I wasn't sure how well they'd be able to identify the numbers, I just sang them in order from one to five. If time had allowed, I might have gone back and mixed them up to sing the song again.   I also made sure to make the ships different colors so they could also be used with groups that might not be ready to identify numbers yet.

Though I didn't take photos of them, I used this same approach earlier in the month with So Many Fish in the Deep Blue Sea and So Many Plants Growing in the Ground, both of which I adapted from Stars Shining Bright by Nancy Stewart.

Flannel Friday is hosted this week by Angie at Mrs. Andre's Library.