Baa Buzz Moo Cluck Drop-In Story Time, 8/23/13
(There are no books in this picture because I forgot to photograph them before story time, and all of them were checked out instantly after story time was over!) For my last few story times, I am stepping things up a little bit. It seems that adults are more engaged and less likely to visit with each other when the actual presentation of story time is more elaborate. So, though I have been using mainly tried and true books and songs, and very few props, I have been taking extra time to turn the white board into a mini-display for each session. This week, I decided to focus on animals, and after finding the Have You Any? song mentioned below, I built the entire story time around the four animals named in that song. I put a picture of each animal on the board, along with its verse from the song and used the images as a guideline for moving through story time, pausing now and then to ask the kids to name the next animal or tell me what sound it makes. To my great surprise, at the end of story time, several adults came up to take a picture of the whiteboard, as though it were a museum exhibit! I have at least one more story time planned for this coming Friday that follows this same format - we'll see how long the novelty lasts.
Song: When Sheep Get Up in the Morning
Traditionally, I sing this with puppets, but we did it with the ukulele since that seems to get everybody excited about story time. This is actually not difficult to play on the ukulele, as I realized when I quickly learned the chords in five minutes, and I think I might prefer to do it this way from now on.
Book: No Sleep for the Sheep by Karen Beaumont
I had so much fun reading this rhythmic book aloud, but no one else was into it. My reading was fine, so I didn't think it was that. It might just be that they weren't in the mood for animal sounds.
Song with Stick Puppets: Mary Had a Little Lamb
I used my different-colored lamb flannel board pieces and held them up one at a time for the kids to call out their colors. Then we sang about Mary's lambs, who were white as snow, red as a rose, blue as the sky, and black as night.
Book: From Flower to Honey by Robin Nelson
I was surprised that the kids seemed into this, as it is non-fiction and the illustrations are photos. I read only the first bolded sentence on each page because the group was pretty young and fidgety, but they were with me the entire time.
Song with Puppet: Buzzing Buzzing Bumblebee
Book: Cows Going Past by Bruce Balan
This book seemed like a better story time book when I first discovered it. As I was reading it, I realized this might be more of an easy reader. The kids were not into it at all, which was a disappointment, but there might be ways to make it more interactive and therefore more interesting. I'll have to look at it more carefully - but it was checked out after story time, so it will be a while before I get to that!
Song: Have You Any?
This is the song that inspired the story time, and I played this on the ukulele as well. The adults happily sang along using the lyrics on the whiteboard.
Book: Hurry! Hurry! by Eve Bunting
We read this book as a call and response, and that worked very well. I'd do this again, especially as the last book in a session.
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.