We Love to Read! Preschool Story Time, 1/18/13
With probably 20 kids, this was the biggest preschool story time I have ever seen in this time slot. According to one grandmother, it was also the best ever!
Book: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
At the part in the story when Harold draws a series of buildings filled with windows, a little girl raised her hand and said, "I live right there!" When I said, "Where?" she pointed to one of the buildings. That was one of my all-time favorite story time moments. I also laughed to myself when another regular story time goer told me the story made her sleepy. She has said that on at least one other occasion.
Song: Shake My Sillies Out
Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert
A few of the older ones in the group, probably closer to five years old, got the biggest smiles on their faces when I read the title of this book.
Song with ukulele: ABCs
Song with ukulele: Aikendrum
I decided on the spur of the moment to play this song, and it was a great decision. The kids loved it!
Book: The Obstinate Pen by Frank W. Dormer
This book was a hit with most of the kids and surprisingly with parents too. I'm keeping it in mind for future class visits.
Activity in a Bag: What Can You Write With?
Since we read two books about writing implements (and I planned to read more, as the picture above shows), I wanted to do an activity that would promote the fun of writing a story. I gave each child a bag of things to write with - pencil, pen, marker, and crayon - and a sheet of 8 1/2 x 14 paper folded in half to look like a book. The kids got really into it - and much to my great surprise and happiness, cleaned up after themselves. I wanted to get them to talk to me more about their experience writing and drawing, but there were more kids than anticipated, and a lot of toddlers, so we'll save that for another time.
This was a tough story time week, but ending it with this near-perfect story time felt pretty good.
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.
