Family Story Time, 8/8

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Book: Little Green by Keith Baker (2001)
I love Keith Baker, and this is a great picture book featuring a hummingbird, his various movements, and one boy's attempt to capture them with paint.

Song: Did You Ever See?
I have a very small hummingbird finger puppet, and some other flying animal puppets - owl, bumblebee, and ladybug for today  - so we sang this song to go along with our book.

Book: Hello Twins! by Charlotte Voake (2006)
This is a sweet and straightforward book about the differences between a brother and sister who happen to be twins.


Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Song: Head and Shoulders

Book: My Elephant by Petr Horacek (2009)
A boy has an imaginary elephant friend who gets blamed for messes made throughout Grandma and Grandpa's house. This book has a really cute ending, and the kids seemed to like it, even if I'm not sure the whole imaginary friend concept was something they understood.

Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm
We did the recorded version today, since it ends with an elephant.

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: ABCD Medley

Song: Chickadee

Goodbye Song: Skinnamarink

Baby Lap Time, 8/5

Opening Song: Clap Along With Me

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big (twice)

Rhyme: Dance Your Fingers (twice)

Book: Five Little Ducks by Raffi, illustrated by Jose Aruego and Arlene Dewey (1988)

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider (a cappella)

Song: You Are My Sunshine (a cappella; with sunshine puppet; sung twice)

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Song: Head and Shoulders

Book: Red, Blue, Yellow Shoe by Tana Hoban

Flannel Board Song: Baa Baa Black Sheep

Song: Flutter, Flutter Butterfly

Song: ABCD Medley

Song: Wheels on the Bus  

Song: Chickadee

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Flannel Friday: We're Going to the Beach

I've been trying not to do songs with the flannel board, since I sing so much already. I've started using the flannel board as more of a storytelling device, where I do a quick rhyme or story in place of a third book. But this was a nice, simple beach-themed song, and I couldn't resist. I will probably use it next week for the babies, instead of the toddlers, because it was a little simplistic for the kids over age 2, but it worked well as a vocabulary builder.

We're Going to the Beach
Tune: Farmer in the Dell

 Original idea from Hummingbird Educational Resources.

We're going to the beach,

We're going to the beach.

I think we'll see some flip-flops there!

We're going to the beach.

We're going to the beach,

We're going to the beach.

I think we'll see a castle there!

 We're going to the beach.

We're going to the beach,

We're going to the beach.

I think we'll see a starfish there!

 We're going to the beach.

We're going to the beach,

We're going to the beach.

I think we'll see a beach ball there!

 We're going to the beach.

 We're going to the beach,

We're going to the beach.

I think we'll see a seashell there!

 We're going to the beach.

We all tapped our knees to the rhythm of the song and we reviewed the names for each of the objects before and after the song.

My clip art file for this song is here.

Pre-K Class Visit, 8/4

This was my last story time for this group, and today is essentially the last day of summer reading program related sessions. They're usually a really easy group, and today was no exception. There were 13 kids, and we had some great discussions about three picture books. This is what we did:

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Book: The Mitten by Jan Brett (1989)
I would never read this in the summer, because I save my winter books for winter, but the school requested it specifically. When the kids got here today, though, they told me their teacher had already read it to them recently. Oh well. They remembered a lot of it from their first reading, so that was a nice way to make it interactive.

Song: Rum Sum Sum

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Book: Blackout by John Rocco (2011)
This is a new favorite. A bit harder to read aloud than I expected, but there is so much going on in the illustrations I didn't want to leave anything out! It's a heartwarming story about how a city blackout brings one family closer together. I will review this one on my book blog soon!

Song: Boots
My fiance, who despises this song, will be glad to know these kids didn't like it at all. Some of them actually covered their ears! So I guess that one can go in retirement for a while.

Book: Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (2004)
This is going into my regular story time rotation for big kids. They love this book. Today's main attraction was teeth. We spent the longest time on any page featuring big teeth. 

Song: Chickadee

Song: Skinnamarink