Read-Along Story Time, 2/14/13
Though attendance was down yesterday, owing to the fact that this is a holiday weekend and there is no school today, this was one of the best read-along story times I have done so far. There were eight kids, ranging in age from four to six. Four were in preschool or Pre-K and four were in kindergarten or first grade.
Welcome Message
Happy Valentine's Day!
Today we will read two stories about Valentine's Day. We will make a list of Valentine words. We will write messages on hearts. It is time to begin!
From,
Miss Katie
The kids who could read knew the phrase "Valentine's Day" so I paused and let them read it. This was not my best welcome message, but they didn't seem to notice.
Read-Along
Today's read-along was a free download from Teachers Pay Teachers, which has a lot of helpful printables, some of which cost money, but many of which are free. The book is called "Will You Be My Valentine?" and it shows pictures of different animals asking us to be their Valentines. We read it straight through, then we went back through it to decide whether we would or would not want to be valentines with that animal. (They said yes to monster and pig, but no to bee and turtle.)
Picture Book Read-Aloud
Our read-aloud was The Yuckiest, Stinkiest, Best Valentine Ever by Brenda A. Ferber, which is illustrated by Tedd Arnold. It was perfectly age appropriate and the kids really enjoyed it. I thought it was especially hilarious when one of the boys asked me what cooties were. Apparently, cooties are not a thing in kindergarten anymore.
Making a Word Cloud
Storytime Katie makes word clouds with the kids at her Growing Readers story times, and her blog inspired me to try it. I used the reverse side of my welcome message to write the words. To get things started, we passed around a heart labeled "My Turn" so there would be no problems, as there sometimes are, with certain kids fighting about who is next. As one of the girls was passing the heart to the next child, a boy, she said, "He's my husband!" When I said, "He is? Oh my goodness," the little boy in question said, "Oh, yes, we are falling in love." It was adorable, and so perfect for Valentine's Day. When we were finished, the word cloud looked like this:
This group was an especially good audience for this song. They laughed themselves absolutely silly.
Writing Conversation Hearts
Our final activity was a handout from a blog post at Kinder Alphabet. I put out colored pencils and let the kids decorate their hearts. The ones who know how to write wrote down things like, "Love" and "Mom" and "Happy" and the younger kids colored and drew designs. I talked with everyone as they worked and was surprised by how much they had to say about their work. I definitely want to do more activities like this one in future weeks.
I look forward to this program every week, and this particular session was so much fun. I'm really glad to see some of our early elementary schoolers coming in more regularly and enjoying themselves at a program suited to their abilities.
