Circle Time, 8/14/12

The theme of my last Circle Time for  the summer was Nature Detectives.

Opening Song (with ukulele): Hello, how are you?

Book: How To Be a Nature Detective by Millicent Ellis Selsam (1996)
I wasn't sure how a non-fiction title like this would go over with the kids, but they were surprisingly mesmerized.  They loved learning the characteristics of  the different animals' footprints, and as the follow-up activity showed, they could even apply what they had learned!

Flannel Board: Guess Whose Tracks
I printed out some Microsoft Clip Art showing different animal tracks and asked the kids to name the animal. The last one was a human footprint, which got a laugh. 

Book: Around the Pond - Who's Been Here? by Lindsay Barrett George (1996)
More guessing in this book. They did well - when they didn't get the specific animal, they did know generally that it was a bird, or a frog, or whatever. 

Book: We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
This book we acted out. I used a music stand to hold the book so my arms could be free to move. We didn't really have a specific set of movements; we just did whatever seemed to fit the action in the story.

Song: Move Like the Animals
I started us off with one verse, to the tune of Skip To My Lou ("Chomp like an alligator just like so...") and let the  kids choose the rest. My favorite suggestion - "Jump! Like a chipmunk!"

Book: Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (2004)
This book was not the hit I expected. They were just not that impressed.

Song (with ukulele): Oh, Little Flower
I used the music stand and Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow to point out some different types of flowers. We sang about tulips, cornflowers, and other flowers - one for each color. 

Book: Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes
For this one, whenever we heard the word "spiral" we made a swirling motion in the air with one finger. They did a pretty good job, even if this book was the weakest of the entire session.

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

After the goodbye song, we turned on the bubble machine and popped bubbles for  the last time. Based on the success of this program, we'll be offering a preschool story time with a similar format starting in September.

Circle Time, 8/7/12

Of all the programs I have done this summer - which I know is a lot, even without counting - I really think Circle Time has been the most fulfilling. No other program has challenged me to really up the ante and take risks, and no other group of kids has been more attentive, engaged, and adorable (except maybe my baby lap time babies). There is only one session left, and I can already tell I'm going to miss  these guys.

Today, I did a fairy tale theme, and to give the program some structure, I created a chart for the kids to help me complete. The inspiration for the chart came from a blog called Chalk Talk, which is filled with ideas for early childhood educators. I took the ideas I found there and adapted them.

When we started out, the only things on the chart were the items we might find in the fairy tales I planned to read. The chart paper on the left side has a castle, a giant, and a wolf, and the chart on the right-hand side has a princess, a prince, magic, a forest, and a happy ending. We identified each one before we started, then got down to the business of reading. After each book, we stopped to go over the chart and see which elements were included in the story we read.  We assigned a symbol to each story and placed that symbol next to the elements that story had.

Our chart, when finished, looked like this:

As I go through the story time below, I will share the symbols associated with the books, as well as the elements they did/did not include.

Opening Song (with ukulele): Hello, how are you? 
I had the ukulele on hand, so I decided to sing the hello song with it. That was a good decision - discussing the ukulele broke the ice, and  the kids seemed to like the change of pace.

Book: Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox, illustrated by Lydia Monks (2003)
I think this is the most hilarious picture book ever, but not one of the kids laughed. I don't know if they just don't think it's funny, or if the original story wasn't familiar enough for them to understand. I think they liked it, it was just weird that they were dead silent through the entire story.

Our symbol for this book was Rapunzel's braid. The fairy tale elements we found were a castle, a princess, a prince, and a happy ending.

Song: There is Clapping in the Castle
I sang one verse then asked the kids what else we could do in the castle.

Their responses:

• Pat your knees (There is patting in the castle...)
• Drum (There is drumming...)
• Guitar (There is playing...) - Strumming would have been a better action word. I'll have to remember that. 
•  Stomp your feet (There is stomping...)
• Turn the lights on and off (I took this as a real suggestion because of the child it came from and said we couldn't really do that one.)
• Turning around (There is turning...)
  

Book: The Very Smart Pea and the Princess-to-Be by Mini Grey (2003)
Well, thanks to SuperWhy, some of the kids at least had heard of  this story. They were still kind of quiet, but seemed slightly more relaxed and interested in what was happening.

Our symbol for this book was a pea. The fairy tale elements we found were a castle, a princess, a prince, magic (because the pea could talk to us), and a happy ending.

Book: Jack and the Beanstalk by Nina Crews (2012)
I am not crazy about this story, but it was the traditional tale with modernized illustrations, which is why I included it. The kids didn't understand the ending, but they did like the golden eggs.

Our symbol for this book was a beanstalk. The fairy tale elements we found were a giant, magic, and a happy ending.

Song: One Seed by the Laurie Berkner Band

Book: Red Riding Hood by James Marshall (1987)
I forgot about the violence at the end of this book (the wolf is killed and cut open) and skipped quickly past it when we got there, so it wouldn't be too traumatic. The joke on the last page, where Red Riding Hood does not talk to the alligator in the woods, got a good laugh.

Our symbol for this book was a basket of goodies. The fairy tale elements we found were a wolf, a forest, and a happy ending. 

Song (with flannel board): The First Pig Built His House Out Of Straw
I saw the idea for this song at an early education discussion board. I happened to know "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock" from my own childhood copy of  Wee Sing Bible Songs, and immediately started practicing the tune. For the flannel board, I used the pieces (in color) from this set at preschoolprintables.com. I didn't know whether the kids would like it or not, but it turned out to be a big hit - lots of the kids sang along with me!

Our symbol for this story was a pig face. The fairy tale elements we found were a wolf and a happy ending.

Book: Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Caralyn and Mark Buehner (2007)
Wow, this book is long. But the kids really stuck with it, possibly because of the promise of bubble time ahead. The story is also in really fun, fresh rhyming text, which really grabbed the kids' attention.

Our symbol for this book was a family of bears. The fairy tale elements we found were a forest and a happy ending.

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

This entire program, with bubbles, took 50 minutes. I was amazed at how quickly that time went!

Circle Time, 7/10/12

Circle Time is a new program my branch library is offering this summer in an effort to attract more preschoolers. We have a preschool story time, but it is often overrun by babies, so the preschoolers either don't come, or get lost in the sea of infants. I decided the best way to guarantee us an audience of the right age was to ask folks to sign up ahead of time. So far, it looks like that was a good idea. 28 kids registered, and 16 showed up for the first session, which took place Tuesday afternoon. I took forever deciding what to actually do with this group, and as it turned out, what I thought I was planning to do was not what I wound up doing.  My original thought was to do themed story times each week, but when I started struggling to put together a books theme, I abandoned it all together and instead pulled together the most fun and interesting repertoire I could imagine. The result is below: 

Hello Song #1: Hello, [Name]

To the tune of Goodnight Ladies, I sang hello to each child by name, finishing each verse with "We're glad you're here today." All the kids were wearing name tags, so the hello song was super-quick, and they seemed to really like hearing their own names sung out loud in front of  everyone.

Hello Song #2: Hello, how are you?

Once we said hello to everyone individually, we then sang the usual story time hello song, mostly to give me a chance to ease into things. It also got the kids participating, rather than just listening to me sing.

Book: Shout! Shout it Out! by Denise Fleming

I haven't had great luck with this book in the past, but I wanted something interactive that would help us break the ice. It worked exactly as I hoped it would. Some kids were right with me from the start, but all of them were with me by the end! 

Book: The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, illustrated by Megan Lloyd (1986)

I loved the way this book went over at the story time I did for the camp last week, so I decided to try it again. I was happy to see the kids and their parents all joining me for the various motions, and I was even more thrilled by the laughter I heard when the pumpkin head went "Boo boo!" 

Books: Stars by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee (2011)

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Song: The Banana Dance (by Dr. Jean)
This song is the greatest thing ever! I learned it on Monday night in preparation for Tuesday and haven't stopped singing it since. The video below includes all the verses; we only did the ones for banana, corn, mango, and avocado this time.

Book: Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? (2011) by Susan Shea, illustrated by Tom Slaughter
This is another great book for promoting interaction.  The kids got a kick out of laughing and saying "Noooo!" at every silly suggestion. Some of them even remembered to say yes to the last one, about whether babies could grow up to be big kids like them.

Song: Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands
I did just the first verse on my own then asked the kids for other movements we could try. I got everything from jump and dance to "car" (we pretended to turning a steering wheel), "sing" (we did the ASL sign for singing, which I knew, thankfully, from Sesame Street), and "bus" (we turned our hands like we do for The Wheels on the Bus.) I was impressed by their creativity and my ability  to think on my feet. 

Book: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes (2010) by Eric Litwin and James Dean
Pete the Cat worked his magic for our final book - he's the best!

At the end of the actual story time part of the session, we put on the bubble machine and played some Laurie Berkner, while I set out the craft, which was paper wristbands based on the ones I posted about back in February.

All around, this was a hugely successful program that made me feel like a rock star. My only question now is how I will find more books and activities for next time that will keep the excitement and fun at this same level.