Welcome to Winter! Preschool Story Time, 1/11/13

Today was one of our better-attended preschool story time sessions - 8 kids in all! Some things, I came up with at the very last minute, but they all worked really well. 

Welcome to Winter! Preschool Story Time, 1/11/13
 Click to download this week's handout. 

Book: Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
I think this is a much better read-aloud than I was expecting, because most of  the kids seemed mesmerized. Only one little girl didn't like it and kept saying so to her mom.

Book and Activity: The Mitten by Jan Brett
For this story, I created a mitten on the floor with blue masking tape, as shown above. (The idea came from Pinterest.) Each of the kids had one of these cards and when their animal was called, they stepped into the mitten. At the end, when the bear sneezes, we all sneezed and jumped out of the mitten.

Song: If You Have a...
We were going to do an actual sequencing activity with the  sequencing cards but I quickly realized these kids would not be up to it. Instead, I sang to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress: "If you have the badger... bring it up to me." That worked really well.

Rhyme: Hedgehog's Hungry
This was another spur of  the moment idea. I tried out my new puppet, and asked the kids what they would feed him. The most popular answer, overwhelmingly, was dirt. (Credit for this idea goes to Miss Tara, who suggested feeding the puppet.)

Song: Hat, Coat, Pants and Shoes 
Only one little girl found this funny, but it was worth it to hear her laugh. 

Book: Cold Snap by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
This is a long one to be the last story of a session like this, but they liked it. And I love the artwork. 


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.

Welcome to Winter! Toddler Lap Time, 1/10/13 & 1/11/13

When I first started doing this story time, it felt like an out of control mess almost all the time. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to approach it in 2013, and these two sessions are proof that I made good decisions. These were great story times, with great groups, and I can't wait to see where we go from here!

 Welcome to Winter! Toddler Lap Time, 1/10/13 & 1/11/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

Song: It's Wintertime, You Know 
I found this song at Mel's Desk and printed out clipart to go with it. (I initially wanted to use photos, but our color copier has been down all week and clipart is best when it has to be black and white.) instead of Melissa's "We will have some snow," I sang "We might have some snow" because that is more accurate for this region. 

Book: Red Sled by Lita Judge
I was very nervous about sharing a mostly wordless book, but this one worked its magic on kids and adults in both sessions. It went over slightly better today than yesterday, possibly because I felt more comfortable with it the second time around.

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down in My Little Red Sled

Song: I’m a Little Teapot

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Song: Sing a Happy Song 

Book: Oh! by Kevin Henkes
This is so awkward to read aloud, but it seemed to go over better today than yesterday. One little guy loved the page where the children "jump jump jump" - he didn't want me to keep going because he was so attached to that page!

Flannel Board Song: A Hat Goes on my Head 
Toddlers really like this one. The parents were great about helping them find the right place to wear a hat, boots, snowpants, gloves, and a scarf. 

Rhyme: Snowflakes Falling Down (Thursday only)
I misread my setlist and basically just forgot this rhyme altogether in today's session. It was a good one yesterday, though - simple enough for this age group for sure. 

Book: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

Song: Dance Like Snowflakes
For this one, I handed out snowflakes to every child - each child got one yesterday and two today. The parents loved that there was something for the kids to hold onto, and the kids loved crumpling them up and shaking them around. 

Song: There’s a Snowflake on My Head
This song is kind of chaotic, but enough of the kids seemed into it that I'd do something similar again. 

Song: If You Have a Snowflake... 
This is a simple song to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress that I used to help us clean up. (If you have a snowflake... bring it up to me.) Yesterday, I tried to have them bring the snowflakes up by color - today we just all brought them up at once.

Song: One Little Finger
This was an old favorite of mine from when I first started singing all my songs without recordings. It was a hit as always.

Song: If You’re Happy

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.

Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/11/13

Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/11/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara

Song: Ten Little Icicles

Book: A Den is a Bed for a Bear by Becky Baines
This was surprisingly the better received of the two books, possibly because of the rhyming  text and photos. I am definitely going to see about incorporating more simple non-fiction into this story time.

Song: Goodnight
Since we read about a hibernating bear, we sang goodnight to a bear, and two other hibernating animals - a frog and a mouse. 

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down on my Little Blue Sled

Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on the Sled

Song: Head and Shoulders

Letter of the Day: T

• Song: Trees Are Growing High
• Song: I'm a Little Teapot
• Song: Drive, Drive, Drive Your Truck
• Song: Tommy Thumb

Songs with ukulele: ABCs/ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big
I realized by this point that we had been singing for almost 20 minutes straight, so I threw in some rhymes. It thrilled me to see some of our 18 month olds who have been coming to story time for about a year suddenly doing all the motions with me. 

Rhyme: Blue is the Lake
I was amazed at how well everyone remembered this one, as it's been a few months. I'll have to put it back into the regular rotation now that it's back on my radar.

Song: Sing a Happy Song
This woke up all the grown-ups - they were much more into this song than usual today!

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It


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.

Welcome to Winter! Baby Lap Time, 1/10/13

Baby Lap Time is back! Beginning with this week, this is now a weekly program. We still require people to register, but now it's week by week instead of in six week blocks. I can't say everyone is thrilled with the new system, but it is more fair, and it is also more manageable for the children's staff. This was a great session - not everyone came, but those who did were engaged and very willing to participate. 

 Welcome to Winter! Baby Lap Time, 1/10/13 

Click to download this week's handout. 

Rhyme: Cheek Chin
I used my new hedgehog puppet (see my Flannel Friday post tomorrow to meet him!) as my "baby" for this rhyme, and it went very well.

Book: Oh! by Kevin Henkes
People laughed at the way I read the word "oh!" but I think it was in a friendly way.

Song with Poster: I’m a Little Snowman
I created the snowman in the picture at the top of this post so we could have a visual to go with the song. The babies seemed to love it, especially one little boy who came crawling right up to touch it.

Song: A Hat Goes On My Head
We sang this song without the flannel board pieces because I don't think babies pay much attention to small images at a distance. All the parents sang with me, and I saw two babies imitating my motions!

Song: Dance Like Snowflakes
My husband and I cut out and covered in Contact paper 60 snowflakes last night so that I would be sure to have enough for every adult to hold two. We sang this song three times, and the parents were great about participating, except the one mom who said no thanks when I tried to hand her snowflakes.

Song: There's a Snowflake on My Head (based on Raffi's There's a Spider on the Floor)
This one was fun to do as well. Some people put snowflakes on their own heads, others put them on their babies' heads. Even the babies who didn't really participate loved holding onto a snowflake. 

Song: Tony Chestnut
There was a mom sitting right next to me who "got" this song before anyone else, and I loved seeing how much it tickled her.

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down in My Little Blue Sled

Book: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle
The parents got really into this, asking the animals what they hear right along with me and repeating the animal names for their babies.

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It

Song: Old MacDonald

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big


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.

Welcome to Winter! Pajama Story Time, 1/9/13

On yesterday's post, I typed the date as "1/8/12" -whoops! It's fixed now, and today's post has the correct date in the title. Pajama Story Time has been very small since we turned the clocks back this Fall. I'm hoping it will pick up again when we get to Spring - or even sooner! In the meantime, we keep on plugging along, even if it's just me and one family.

Welcome to Winter! Pajama Story Time, 1/9/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

 
Note: The picture shows the set-up for "Little Snowball, Little Snowball, Are You Under the ______ Mitten?" but since only one child was there at the start, and she was a bit young to be interested in a guessing game, I skipped it.

Book: The Mitten by Jan Brett
This is wordier than I remembered, and for most of the first part of the book, there was only a toddler in the room, so we skipped over some of  the words. She giggled through the whole story so she definitely enjoyed it whether she understood it or not.

Flannel Board Song: Sarah’s Scarves (based on Daddy's Ties)

Book: Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak
The parents liked this one, and the dad who came in with his two year old halfway through the first book made the connection for his son that this book was by the same author as "Mickey and the Night Kitchen."

Flannel Board Song: I Like Soup (based on Laurie Berkner's "I Feel Crazy so I Jump in My Soup" )
Both kids liked this one. The toddler girl swayed to the beat of my singing, and the little boy helped me name the veggies and stir my soup pot.

Book: Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner
The boy liked this one, the little girl was too restless to pay attention.

Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on the Sled 
I heard the little boy singing along to this one - I love it when they start to learn the songs! 

Book: Pip and Squeak by Ian Schoenherr
One of the few picture books with dialogue that seems to work with younger kids. I think it might help that the group was small and I had  time to go slow and look at the illustrations with them.

Song with Puppets: Goodnight by the Laurie Berkner Band
Tonight, we sang goodnight to a mouse, a lion, and a dog.

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.

Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/8/13

After our two-week story time break, story time is back in full swing as of this morning. I'm doing things a bit differently in 2013. To keep myself better organized and to prevent myself from maintaining an endlessly growing hoard of story time books in the closet, I've started planning story times by theme. This week, all of my story times - both drop-ins, all three lap times, pajama story time and preschool story time - will have a Winter theme. I'll make good use of all my Winter books and props and then put them away and move onto the next theme. I'm also providing families with a handout for each theme with suggested songs and rhymes for sharing with their kids. (There is just one handout for the week, not one per session per week because that seemed nuts.)

  Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/8/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

Book: Snow by Manya Stojic
Dialogue doesn't work with toddlers - at least not in this book. They were with me early on, but lost me as soon as the animals started speaking.

Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on the Sled 
The kids love this song and have started to make the connection that the motions are the same as for Monkeys on the Bed. 

Book: Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone
I expected the group to like this one more, but the room got really restless really quickly so I didn't linger over the story too much. 

Song: A Hat Goes on My Head
This song works best when the kids do a little motion to go along with each article of clothing. 

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down in My Little Blue Sled

Letter of the Day: S

• Flannel Board Song: Sarah’s Scarves (based on Daddy's Ties)
• Song with colored stars: Stars Shining Bright 
  This was once again a huge hit, even though they thought almost every color was yellow.
• Song: Shake My Sillies Out
• Flannel Board Story: Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
  This story often gets mixed results - today's reaction was applause!

Songs: ABCs /  Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: Rum Sum Sum
A couple of the nannies cheered when I said we'd sing this next. We'll be hanging onto this song for a while, I think!

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It


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.

Drop-In Story Time, 12/21/12 (Winter Theme)

Book: Under My Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin, illustrated by Fumi Kosaka

Song: A Hat Goes On My Head

Book: One Mitten by Kristine O'Connell George, illustrated by Maggie Smith

Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on a Sled 

Book: Snow Sounds by David A. Johnson
I think this would have worked better with a smaller group and some dedicated grown-ups. It's just too quiet a book for a large group.

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: Bumpin' Up and Down on My Little Blue Sled 

Letter of the Day: Letter R

• Hippety Hop Hippety Hay (Five Rabbits)
• Five Little Robots (This is based on "One Little Finger.")
• It's Raining at the Zoo 
• Ten Little Reindeer

Songs with ukulele: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep  

Song with ukulele:  Jingle Bells

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It
I looked at the clock after we started singing this, and realized story time should have been over already! I was glad to see that we had so much fun, time actually got away from me.

This is my last drop-in story time until January 8. One more to go this afternoon, then break  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.

WinterFest Story Time #3, 12/8/12

The third and final WinterFest story time took place in the afternoon, and it was a small preschool group. 

Book: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr 

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Book: The Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor
The kids loved this one in particular. They liked imagining what it would be like inside a snow globe.

Song: Skate on the Frozen Pond
This is a perfect song for getting the wiggles out of fidgety preschool boys.

Book: Jingle Bells by Maryann Kovalski 

Song: Hat, Coat, Pants and Shoes

Book: The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming

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.

WinterFest Story Time #2, 12/8/12

This second WinterFest story time took place at 11:30, and it was the most popularly attended session of the day, with about a dozen kids. The crowd ranged in age from babies to early elementary school, so it was a bit tricky to keep everyone's interest, but we did our best. One challenge that made it especially hard was that one little boy - probably a kindergartener - decided he would say no to every question I asked and immediately say the opposite of anything I had to say. By keeping the tone light, I managed to get him to stop being so silly, and that the end he came up and chatted with me about books, so it wound up being a nice experience.

Flannel Board: Little Snowball, Little Snowball Are You Under the ____ Mitten?
I have never done any variation of this flannel board before, but I know so many of my Flannel Friday colleagues love it. Now I see why. It took them four guesses to find the snowball - and the child who finally found it was so proud!

Flannel Board Song: One Red Mitten
This was a dud with this group. The older kids lost interest quickly, and not even the adults were responsive.

Book: The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming
The older kids complained about the repetition in this book, but they helped me out anyway, repeating "a red cap with a gold snap" each time through. 

Rhyme: Frozen is the Lake
This is my winterized rewrite of Blue is the Lake.

Book: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr
This was a hit with the older boys. A lot of  the little kids left the  room at this point and came back later for the singing.

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Book: Jingle Bells by Maryann Kovalski
The kids loved singing this - it was very cute. 

Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara

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.

WinterFest Story Time #1, 12/8/12

On Saturday, December 8, my library branch participated in our neighborhood WinterFest. As part of  the festivities, I performed three story times at three different points throughout the day. Since all three were completely different, I'll make three separate posts.

This first session was at 10:00 a.m., and only three kids attended  - a little girl in Pre-K, her toddler sister, and another toddler boy.

Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara
The pre-K girl told me, "Jack Frost is real. I know because when we go in the car, the window has frost."

Book: White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin
This book is probably too long for a toddler audience, but since there were only three kids, I was able to keep them engaged pretty easily by moving to where they wanted  to be in the room and giving them lots of chances to talk to me about the pictures. The toddler boy came running up to the book at one point to tell me he saw a truck.

Flannel Board Song: One Red Mitten
Since the pre-K girl knew her colors, she was my unofficial helper for this song. The little ones just liked seeing the mittens.

Flannel Board Rhyme: Five Little Snowmen
For this I used a set of paper snowmen I made more than two years ago and have never used with kids. All three of the kids gathered closely around the flannel board and helped me take the snowmen off one by one as they each melted.

Book: Jingle Bells by Maryann Kovalski
We were too wiggly to make it to the end of  this book. They were so excited by the flannel board that we just did another colorful song with it.

Flannel Board Song: Mary Wore Her Red Scarf
The kids loved helping me put the pieces on the flannel board. This story time has inspired me to rethink some of my toddler lap time activities so that every child has a hands-on opportunity.

Song: These Are My Glasses

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.

Welcome, Winter After School Program, 1/5/12

This is the much-awaited replacement for my horribly cursed Monday afternoon story time. The idea was to reach families with kids in preschool and early elementary school, and to stop catering so much to the babies and toddlers. I chose Thursday because, during the Fall, that was our busiest day after school. Now, though, Wednesday is the busiest and today's story time was much like the Monday ones used to be. I really just can't win when it comes to afternoon programming.

But it wasn't a total disaster, and I remain hopeful that the coming weeks, where my themes are more sophisticated and even less baby-friendly, will bring in more of my school-age crowd and fewer of the two and unders.

Here is what I ended up presenting.

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?
This song turns off the older kids, and I saw kids actually choose not to come into the room based on the fact that we were singing. I know it's my security blanket, but next week, when my program focuses on Martin Luther King, Jr.,  I'll be leaving it out in the hopes that some fourth and fifth graders might join us.

Book: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr (1987)
I haven't read this book in a very long time, and was glad to revisit it. The kids also seemed really into it, which surprised me, given how quiet and introspective it is.

Rhyme: Frozen is the Lake
I wrote this rhyme, again based on Blue is the Lake. It went over pretty well, but could have used more practice.

Book: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)
The kids all knew this book, and seemed to enjoy it. And I can't imagine doing a Winter story time without it!

Song: Skate on the Frozen Pond
I wrote this song based on Curtsy Like a Princess from my Fantasy story time. It was a pretty big hit - definitely the most successful non-book activity of the program.

Book: The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel, illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker (1989)
I really wanted the kids to say the name of each article of clothing when I pointed to it, but even when told what to say, they sat mute. This is not a group for class participation!

Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on the Sled
This song is becoming a dud. I don't understand why.

Book: Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (2002)

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This
Again, the kids don't like this. No idea what to do instead.

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Other books I considered reading at this story time include:

• Footprints in the Snow by Mei Matsuoka
• Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner
• White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt

Find more Winter story times on these other blogs:

• Mel's Desk (Baby Story Time)
• Sturdy for Common Things
• Richmond Memorial Library Story Time
• Read it Again, Mom!