Pink & Purple Preschool Story Time, 8/30/13
I planned a version of this story time back in May and it was a week where no one showed up, so I held onto the books and brought it back out again on Friday. There were only five kids, as this was the first Friday of the school year and the Friday before Labor Day, but it was still a success.
Book: The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan
This is such an interesting book about how a magic refrigerator helps Dodsworth discover all the things there are to explore in life. It's a long one, and I wasn't sure how they'd do, but the kids were completely hooked. This would make a great read-aloud for class visits, too - up to second grade or so.
Book: Milo Armadillo by Jan Fearnley
This was a shorter, sweeter story, and the kids were obviously emotionally invested in it, as their little faces changed considerably as the story grew happy, then sad, then happy again.
Activity: Acting Out Pink and Purple Things
My preschool audiences tend not to respond to music, so I like to have them act things out instead. I made little slips of paper with either a pink or purple squiggle on them, then pulled them out of a brown paper bag one at a time. I had the kids help me name the colors, then we acted out each motion together. I was surprised at how well it went over, as this was a quiet group. The actions I had in the bag are below:
- eat a purple grape popsicle
- climb a purple mountain
- act like a purple monster
- color with a purple crayon
- spread purple jam on bread
- stand like a pink flamingo
- chew pink bubble gum
- oink like a pink pig
- sip pink lemonade
- smell pink roses
I have never seen this book, but Katie's post at Recipes for Reading (linked above) gave me enough to go on to tell my own version of the story. The kids were pretty into it, and willing to name the animals and colors, even though they were otherwise shy.
Book: Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
This is a long book to read last, and I sort of lost some of the kids, but Henkes is so much fun to read aloud.
Craft: Pink & Purple Coloring Activity
I put out various writing implements in pink and purple and some pink dot stickers and the kids all made different designs with them on plain white paper. One little boy refused to color, possibly because of the color choices, and got into a fight with his nanny, but the other three girls and one boy had a great time.
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.