Family Story Time, 6/21/19 (Houses & Homes Theme)

Remember me? The last time I did a story time before today was June 14, 2017! In that time, I've published a second book and added another daughter to my family. This summer, I've invited the families in my homeschool group and my Catholic women's small group to join me for story time in my living room. The seven-session series kicked off today, and three families besides mine participated. There were 8 kids: a little boy under one year, 3 girls who will turn two soon (including my toddler), two 3-year-olds (including mine), a five-year-old (also mine), and a 7-year-old. There were at least five other families interested who couldn't make it this week, but plan to come to future sessions, so this was really just the warm-up.

Opening Song (with ukulele): Story Time is Starting

Story time is starting - clap your hands [stomp your feet / shout hooray]!
Story time is starting - clap your hands [stomp your feet / shout hooray]!
Story time's begun; I hope that you have fun!

Story time is starting - clap your hands [stomp your feet / shout hooray]!

I started using this hello song when I was doing story time at a church 2 years ago. It works better than a hello song because we are all friends and have already greeted each other and chatted a bit when story time starts. 

Book: We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen, illustrated by Doris Burn

I am kicking myself for not remembering I had a song to go with this book! (See this post.) The kids seemed to like this one, and it is such a pleasure to read aloud.

Song: I Have a Little House

I found this on YouTube and decided to only sing the English for fear of really butchering the Spanish. I had my kids practice it ahead of time so I'd be guaranteed some audience participation, and they didn't let me down. My mom friends were also really awesome about doing the motions too. (The librarian on whose YouTube channel I found this song has a lot of good stuff in both English and Spanish.)

Book: The Giant Jumperee by Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury

I think this book was just right for this broad span of ages. I do wish it had some more interactive elements, but it does have repetition and a simple plot, making it ideal for those toddlers and young preschoolers. 

Song (with ukulele): Stop and Go

I had the big kids choose the motions we would do for this song, and they had a great time with it. My friend's 7-year-old picked jumping jacks, which was really fun. 

Rhyme: Elevator 

First floor (touch toes)

Second floor (touch knees)

Third floor (hands on hips)

Fourth floor (touch shoulders)

Fifth floor (hands on head)

Going down! 

Five (hands on head)

Four (touch shoulders)

Three (hands on hips)

Two (touch knees)

One (touch toes)

Basement! (sit down)

This was a bust. Even my own kids didn't seem to get it. 

Flannel Board Story: This is the House that Jack Built

I had the kids help me tell this rhyme by pointing to the image of each character on the flannel board and having them say its name. I used this booklet and just cut out the characters.

Book: I Can't Said the Ant by Polly Cameron

One of the other moms remembered this book from childhood too, which made me so happy. My five-year-old laughed through the whole thing, but it was harder to get a read on the other kids. 

Song: I'm a Little Teapot 

My kids somehow don't know this song, so they weren't as keen on demonstrating the motions. I also messed up the chords more times than is really forgivable. I suspect, though, that my audience is going to skew much older next week and this won't be an appropriate song anyway.

Song: Head and Shoulders 

I had intended to use Visor, T-shirt, Shorts, and Shoes, but there weren't enough big kids, so we just did the basic version. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

Book: The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes

I tossed this book in at the end, mostly because one family had come really late and I felt like they had missed out. My oldest daughter gasped and oohed and aahed through the whole book, but no one else seemed that impressed.

Song: Moon Moon Moon 

I had this in the back of my mind as a potential song for this session, and the kids seemed like the right ages. At least one mom knew the song from listening to Laurie Berkner. 

Closing Song (with ukulele): Story Time Is Over

Story time is over - clap your hands [stomp your feet / shout hooray]!
Story time is over - clap your hands [stomp your feet / shout hooray]!
Story time is done; I hope that you had fun!

Story time is over - clap your hands [stomp your feet / shout hooray]!

I ended story time with this song, and then my kids got out a few toy bins we had set aside. Everyone stayed for at least an hour to play.  It's nice to be back in the saddle. I can't wait for next week! 

Preschool Story Time, 11/9/16 (Houses Theme)

This week's story time (the second ever at this location) had triple the attendance of last week's session. (There were six families last week.) There were five moms (including me) from my own mom's group, two families who belong to the church who were repeat attendees from last week, and a bunch of other families who attended today for the first time. Since leaving the library, I haven't done a story time for an audience of this size, and it felt great to be back in my element.

When I was planning this story time, I initially borrowed a bunch of construction books from the library, but then realized that houses made a much more interesting theme, and wound up using books I owned to plan a story time around that topic instead.

Opening Song: Story Time is Starting

Book: Stanley the Builder by William Bee
I have always liked the Stanley books, but have had mixed results using them in story time. The bulldozer on the cover of this book won over most of the kids, however, and it was a nice way to introduce the theme.

Song: Builder Stanley Had a Shop
During the planning process, I considered using Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop, but then decided it would be easier to do an abbreviated version as a flannel board. Old MacDonald became "Builder Stanley" and we sang about his saw (which went "zzzt zzzt"), his screwdriver ("squeak squeak"), his hammer ("tap tap"), and his pliers ("pinch pinch.")

Flannel Board: Little Mouse, Little Mouse
I had never done this activity in story time before, and I really didn't like it. There were too many kids for them to take individual guesses, so I had kids calling out random colors, and of course, the first time through, they guessed it on the second try, so I had to surreptitiously hide the mouse again with everyone watching me. I love doing this game one-on-one with my own kid, but in story time, it just seems like a group can't really get anything out of it. I will definitely do more flannel boards for this audience, but not this one.

Book: A House is a House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Betty Fraser
Because I have to take the bus to story time with two small children, my friend picks up my books the day before and drives them to the church for me. Unfortunately, this means I didn't get a chance to read through this book before my performance, which means I didn't remember until I was in the midst of sharing it at story time that it is super-long. To their credit, the group really stuck with it, and one member of the audience (a grandmother) actually came up to discuss that specific book with me afterwards. So, it wasn't a total failure, but that was a big rookie mistake I will not be making again.

Rhyme: I Want to Build a Little House
This is a rhyme I found the day before story time and spent some time memorizing. It was worth it. The kids did a beautiful job with it, and it's so ingrained in my memory now that I'll be able to pull it out any time I need an extra rhyme.

Book: We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen, illustrated by Doris Burn
I love reading this book aloud. The text is so pleasing to speak and to hear, and the plot is basic enough to be followed by toddlers, but not boring for adults. This book has been reillustrated but we own the original, with the black and white illustrations, and it was a big hit. I'm disappointed in myself for allowing it to be overshadowed by the length of the previous book; we may revisit this story in a few months to give it its proper due.

Song: We're Climbing Up Our Tree
Using the Farmer in the Dell as my model, I created a piggyback song specifically to accompany this book. I wrote a verse about each of the places the children in the story go to live before returning home.

We're climbing up our tree.
We're climbing up our tree.
Heigh-ho, the derry-oh! 
We're climbing up our tree.

We're splashing in our pond...
We're stomping our cave...
We're swimming in our sea...
We're sleeping in our house...

This was really well-received. I think everyone in the room participated!

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun
I had another book and activity planned here, but realized I was probably going to run overtime if  I didn't skip ahead, so I pulled out the sunshine and sang the song twice through.

Song: Moon Moon Moon
To gear up for the last book, which has a night-time focus, we sang this song. The "pizza pie" line at the end got a big laugh.

Book: The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes
This book was the perfect length for a final story, and also set the tone for winding down and saying goodbye.

Song with Ukulele: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep
The uke was really out of tune. If I'm saving this until the end, I need to retune live in front of the audience. Which I hate. But it must be done.

Goodbye Song: Chickadee
I decided to use this as my goodbye song instead of repeating the same song from the beginning. Story time ended on a weird note mostly because there was some confusion over whether I or a representative of the church was meant to make housekeeping announcements. But we'll get that right next week. I invited the kids up to hug Mr. Sun, but only a handful did so. I'm still not sure whether the group has fully warmed up to me, but it has only been two weeks.

Houses Preschool Story Time, 8/8/13

I think a lot of our story time families are away this month, so this story time was on the small and quiet side again this week. There were 7 kids in all, 5 of whom were over the age of four. Aside from the hello song, we didn't do any singing, but that was fine because they were not at all an active or distracted group.

Book: A House is a House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman
I read this book to three-year-olds at the rec. center once, with surprisingly great results. I tried to recreate that at this story time, but it didn't have quite  the same effect. One boy loved it, but the other kids seemed indifferent.

Book: This is Our House by Hyewon Yum
This is a new book, and I really like it. It's a simple and gentle story about two generations growing up in the same house. It wouldn't work for a huge group, but for this small, intimate setting it was perfect.

Flannel Board Story: The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood
I used this clipart from MakingLearningFun.com as my flannel board pieces, and told the story mostly from memory, with just a few quick hints on the backs of the pieces and on a little piece of paper. The kids were into it, and one kid found the whole story just hilarious. I wanted them to join in with me on some of the repeated bits, but they seemed too shy to be comfortable, so I didn't push it.

Book: Clancy & Millie and the Very Fine House by Libby Gleeson
This is another quiet book, but I was correct in thinking it would resonate with this age group. One boy even made a connection to Not a Box, which we read at this story time a few weeks ago.

Book: Moving House by Mark Siegel
This last book ended story time on a silly and surreal level. The oldest boy in the room was especially pleased that he figured out the joke - that "moving house" means moving, and that it refers to an actual "moving house." I would use this again in a rec. center or Pre-K setting.

Coloring Activity: Inside and Outside of a House
I used the outline of a house as my template, then drew lines through the center to separate the outline into the different rooms of a house. I flipped the template around and removed the lines on the  reverse side of the page, then cut the entire house out so the kids could design an interior and exterior. Many of them just did their own thing, which is fine with me, but I'm thinking of re-using this activity with my more advanced beginning readers group at the end of the month.


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.